Blasphemy in Poland

Adam Nergal Darski, frontman for Poland's heavy metal band Behemoth, has been formally charged for destroying a copy of the Bible over two years ago.

While it is a crime in Poland to destroy any religious iconography, there must be at least two formal complaints before a charge is laid. The first charge was made in 2008 – and recently an undisclosed number of additional complaints were lodged against Darski.

At the first hearing Darski said what he does on stage is part of artistic license and it wasn't intended to offend religious feelings. This was countered by an expert on religious history and studies from Jagellonian University in Krakow, who stated that every copy of a Bible could be considered a religious icon.

The case will now go to court, and if found guilty, Darski could face two years in prison.

Last month it was reported that the national conservative Polish political party Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc (PiS), was orchestrating efforts to prosecute Darski for offending people's religious beliefs.

The nutters of the All-Polish Committee for the Defence Against Sects is going singer Dorota Rabczewska.

Better known as Doda, she gave a TV interview last year in which she said of the Bible:

it is hard to believe in something written by people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes.

This was too much for APCDAS. The chairman Ryszard Nowak said:

It is clear that Doda thinks that the Bible was written by drunkards and junkies. [...] I believe that she committed a crime and offended the religious feelings of both Christians and Jews.

If convicted, Doda faces up to two years in prison.

One of Poland's leading pop stars faces trial for suggesting that the Bible was written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks. Dorota Rabczewska, aka Doda, could face two years in jail over her youthful remarks.

A Warsaw court has cleared the way for criminal proceedings after it rejected an appeal by Doda against attempts to prosecute her for insulting religious feeling.

Doda's troubles relates to comments she made during a television interview in 2009 when she said that she had little faith in the Bible because it is hard to believe in something written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks.

Rabczewska has argued that her remarks were youthful and off-the-cuff, and that she had never intended to insult religious feelings. She also attempted to argue that she meant medicinal cigarettes.

But the comments riled conservative Catholics in Poland already angered by the singer's willingness to bare all in Playboy, and her raunchy videos.

One of her critics, Stanislaw Kogut, a senator in the Poland's upper house of parliament, called Doda's comments an insult to Christians and Jews, while Ryszard Nowak, the chairman of the Committee for the Defence Against Sects, an ultra-conservative organisation dedicated to upholding Catholic values, appealed against an initial decision by prosecutors to drop the case. His argument that Doda had broken Polish law protecting religious sensibilities and, therefore, her actions merited official investigation triggered legal proceedings against her.

A judge in Poland has ruled a death metal singer who tore up a Bible during a show was entitled to do so as an artist acting in a way consistent with the genre. Adam Darski, who goes by the stage name Nergal and is the frontman for the death metal band Behemoth, was charged with offending religion after he ripped up the Bible during a 2007 concert in the Polish town of Gdynia.

He was found innocent by a court last year but prosecutors appealed, and again the court cleared him.

Concert video footage shows Darski throwing the torn pages to the audience and asking fans to burn them. According to Polish news agency PAP, he also called the Bible a deceitful book and the church a criminal sect.

In his ruling Judge Krzysztof Wieckowski said he considered Darski's actions a form of art consistent with the style of his band. He added that the court had no intention of limiting freedom of expression or the right to criticise religion.

The musician said on his band's website: I'm so glad to see that intelligence won over religious fanatics in my home country.

Politicians and bishops across Poland are 'shocked' by the presence of a Satanic rock star on a popular television talent show.

National television station TVP has appointed Adam Nergal Darski, the lead singer and guitarist of death metal group Behemoth, as judge for a talent show for singers. From October onward, Nergal will work as a coach supporting the 12 singers now competing in The Voice of Poland.

Nergal became a hate figure for many Polish nutters after tearing up a Bible during a concert in September 2007. He was just recently acquitted of violating blasphemy laws in connection with the Bible tearing performance.

Nutter clergy are collecting signatures after Sunday masses for a petition against Nergal being on the program.

Bishop Wieslaw Mering wrote to TVP, complaining that:

the engagement of a self-confessed Satanist ... on public television surpasses all limits of decency.

In September, a parliamentary commission dealing with culture and the media adopted a resolution by the nationalist-conservative Law and Justice party condemning the board of TVP for hiring a Satanist who publicly offends Christian values. The resolution was passed by a comfortable majority as members of the governing liberal-conservative Civic Platform party failed to show up at the commission meeting.

Parliamentarian Jan Dziedziczak from the Law and Justice party said:

It is unacceptable that Christians can be insulted in this Catholic country. We demand that this is forbidden in Poland, and definitely not allowed with our money and our licence fees.

In a TVP interview, Nergal said:

I don't think of myself as the messiah of death metal who only stands for the extreme, he said. I simply love music.

As for his critics, he said:

I forgive them for they know not what they do.