No to the crime of offending religious feelings

The Barcelona Court has reopened a case that the Mataró court had closed, following a magazine cover Mongolia from 2020, which showed a nativity scene in which there was not a baby Jesus in the cradle, but a cagallonet with friendly eyes and outstretched arms. "The son of God is born! He looks just like his father!" reads the headline. Indeed, it has the subtlety of an orangutan playing the violin, but the issue here is whether we recognize the right to offend, regardless of the sophistication or appropriateness of the commentary. Freedom of expression should protect it, if there is no denigrating message against a vulnerable minority or an appeal that threatens its integrity. In other words, people must be protected from hate speech, but symbols in particular should be—and are—valid targets for humor and a way to express established differences without the need to settle them with fistfights. Hazte Oír thus manages to get those responsible for the cover charged, relying on a crime, that of offending religious feelings, which is an anachronism and the gateway for the carcúndia to exert a repression that is frankly more dangerous than a poop joke. The list of precedents is long: from the brilliant gag of Judit Martín being interviewed as the Virgin of Rocío to the holy cow picture of the Grand Prix shouted by Lalachus during the last chimes of La 1. Iconography must be able to be criticized, manipulated, subverted or, simply, reinterpreted.

If there are religious sentiments to protect, we must also demand that there be secular sentiments to preserve: above all, the belief that freedom of expression is fundamental, and that this includes the easy ones, which, moreover, end up feeding into controversies that, at their core, lack much depth.