Finland
In Finland, section 10 of chapter 17 of the Criminal Code relate to blasphemy. Unsuccessful attempts were made to rescind the section in 1914, 1917, 1965, 1970, and 1998.
In 1969, Harro Koskinen was prosecuted for publishing a picture of his painting called Pig Messiah, which featured a crucified pig. For violating the sensibilities of a religion, Koskinen had to pay a fine.
In 2008, the issue of religious sensibilities arose again. On 30 May 2008, Tampere District Court sentenced Seppo Lehto to two years and four months in prison for offences which involve hate speech and blasphemy. The court found Lehto guilty of: defamation, incitement of an ethnic group, and violating the sensibilities of a religion. The judgment said that Lehto had violated the sensibilities of Islam because he had disseminated, with insulting intentions, material which openly blasphemes and desecrates that which Muslims deem holy. Outraged by the punishment of Lehto, Jussi Halla-aho, a Helsinki councilman, posted to the Internet in 2008 some controversial remarks about Islam and about Somalis. Those remarks induced Helsinki District Court to order Halla-aho to trial.
Read more about this topic: Manfred Van H.