Almost three weeks after the controversy began, Mila's remarks insulting Islam continue to stir the political arena.
Overflowing with thousands of messages of insults and threats from Internet users, the teenager had to be out of school and put her life "clearly on hold" as she explained on Monday on the set of Daily on TMC. According to statements by Christophe Castaner, the Minister of the Interior, on Tuesday, the teenager and her family are "protected by the police".
The case had taken on a new dimension on Wednesday, after the words of the Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, arguing at the microphone of Europe 1 that "the insult to religion was obviously an attack on freedom of conscience". An expression that the Keeper of Sceaux herself tried to correct, calling it "awkward", after a deluge of convictions.
"The insult to religion does not exist"
If politicians are still divided on the Mila case, the words of the 16-year-old girl are however the subject of "no ambiguity" in the eyes of the law, ensures Gwénaële Calvès, professor of public law at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, contacted by phone.
"The minister made a total confusion: in French law, the insult to the religion does not exist", summarizes the lawyer. “Clearly, it is possible to criticize and insult a religion, as Michel Houellebecq did in 2001 by asserting that Islam was the most stupid religion in the world . But it is still forbidden to insult the followers of a religion ”, she nuances.
Freedom of expression has a framework
Article 24 of the Pleven law (1974) which amends the law of July 29, 1881 on freedom of the press - valid for freedom of expression - places limits on freedom of expression. It provides that "those who have caused discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or a group of people on the grounds of their origin or their membership or their non-membership in a specific ethnic group, nation, race or religion will be punished with one year imprisonment and a fine of € 45,000 or one of these two penalties only ”.
Any criticism, however, is not an incitement to hatred. It is in this sense that the Vienna public prosecutor's office classified without investigation the investigation targeting the adolescent for "provoking racial hatred".
In its press release, the public prosecutor's office recalled on Thursday that "the remarks disseminated, whatever their outrageous tone, were only intended to express a personal opinion towards a religion, without the desire to exhort to hatred or violence against individuals […] ”.
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But what about those who saw through Mila's words a crime of blasphemy? To take up the definition of Larousse, blasphemy corresponds to a "word or an act which insults the divinity, the religion or what is considered as respectable or sacred".
"Blasphemy only exists for religious"
"Like profanation, blasphemy only exists for religious," recalls Gwénaële Calvès. French law being "areligious", this expression is not a right, but freedom of expression. "To give you an example, if I cook hosts, a Catholic will see it as a desecration, but I would only see it as a freedom of expression."
In France, the offense of blasphemy no longer constitutes an offense since its repeal in the law of July 29, 1881. “Until that date, there was an offense of offense to religious morality. Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil had also been the subject of a trial, ”specifies Gwénaële Calvès.
If the offense of blasphemy no longer exists in France, it remains present in some countries. In Austria, article 188 of the Criminal Code condemns “anyone who openly humiliates or ridicules a person, an object of worship of a Church existing in the country, a religious dogma, a custom authorized by law or the use of such a Church or religious society […] ”.
Likewise, Poland penally penalizes the "recourse to public slander of an object of belief".
Freedom of conscience
Another error made by the minister, her reference to freedom of conscience which "has nothing to do with freedom of expression", analyzes Anastasia Colosimo, specialist in constitutional law contacted by Le Parisien. “Freedom of conscience is the freedom to believe or not to believe. It therefore has nothing to do with the expression of hatred ”.
For the lawyer, this "very serious confusion" is indicative of a "form of uneasiness extremely present" around secularism in our society. “Religion has become extremely taboo in France. Just like secularism which is a subject of recurring tensions. These tensions explain the ignorance surrounding these questions ... But from there that even a Keeper of the Seals gets tangled up, it is not reassuring, "concludes Anastasia Colosimo.
