This will not sit well with Norway's growing Muslim population.

Norway ends blasphemy law after Hebdo attack

Norway has scrapped its longstanding blasphemy law, meaning it is now legal to mock the beliefs of others, in a direct response to January’s brutal attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The proposal to rush through the change was made in February by Conservative MP Anders B. Werp and Progress Party MP Jan Arild Ellingsen, who argued that the law “underpins a perception that religious expressions and symbols are entitled to a special protection”. 

 

“This is very unfortunate signal to send, and it is time that society clearly stands up for freedom of speech,” the two wrote in their proposal. 

 

Norway’s parliament first voted to scrap the blasphemy law back in 2009, against strong opposition from the Christian Democrat party. But the move has yet to come into force because the country’s new penal code remains delayed by problems updating the computer systems used by police and prosecutors. 

 

The decision to push through the change was attacked as “cultural suicide” by Finn Jarle Sæle, editor of the Norwegian Christian weekly, Norge IDAG.

 

But the change will be largely symbolic.

 

The last time anyone was tried for  blasphemy in Norway was back in 1933, when the writer Arnulf Overland was prosecuted for giving a lecture titled  "Christianity, the tenth plague" to the Norwegian Students' Society. He was acquitted. 

 

The last time anyone was actually convicted was in 1912, when the journalist Arnfred Olsen was taken to court for an article criticising Christianity in the radical magazine Freethinkers. 

 

 

National 

Djibril Abdi Bashir, Chilean-Norwgian Bastian Vasquez, and a third Norwegian killed in Syria. Photo: Police Security Service (PST) 

First three jailed under Norway's new Isis law 

Published: 08 May 2015 17:14 GMT+02:00

A court in Norway has sentenced three men to prison for joining the extremist group Islamic State in Syria, in the first convictions made under its new anti-terror laws. 

Albanian Norwegian Valon Avdyli (28) was sentenced to four years and nine months for fighting for IS, while his brother Visar (25) was sentenced to prison for just seven months, for aiding the organisation and violating weapons laws. 

 

Djibril Abdi Bashir, a 30-year-old Somali Norwegian was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for travelling to Syria to work with IS. 

 

In its judgement, the court ruled that Bashir and Valon Avdyli had sworn allegiance to IS in May 2013, after which they travelled to Syria, stayed there until January last year.

 

On their return, they began buying equipment to send to Valon Avdyli’s elder brother Egzon, who remained in Syria but who was then killed last April.  

 

“After returning to Norway, they gave the impression that they would return to Syria again to continue to serve actively for ISIL," the ruling said. 

 

The three were charged under Penal Code section 147d, which came into the statute books in June 2013, almost six months after the two men returned to Norway. 

 

Under the law, anyone who participates in, recruits members for, or provides financial or other support to a terrorist organization faces up to six years in prison. 

 

Valon Avdyli’s lawyer Svein Holden said he aimed to contest the judgement at the court of appeal. 

 

“It's disappointing to be sentenced to prison for nearly five years when he has constantly said that he was not part of IS,” he said. “In our view, it’s definitely possible to succeed at the Court of Appeal”. 

 

During the court hearing, Valon Avdyli and Djibril Abdi Bashir both confessed to having travelled to Syria, but said they had gone because they wished to help oust the government of President Bashar al-Assad.