Greek Man Arrested for Blasphemy on Facebook Via the Christian Science Monitor: A man was arrested last week in Evia, Greece, on charges of posting “malicious blasphemy and religious insult on the known social networking site, Facebook” according to a press release by the Greek police. The accused, whose identity has not been made public, had created and managed the Facebook page Elder Pastitsios the Pastafarian, a name that plays on a combination of Elder Paisios, a famous, late Greek-Orthodox monk, and the Greek food pastitsio, a baked pasta dish made of ground beef and béchamel sauce. The term “pastafarian” is a reference to the satirical pseudo-religion “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” which has been used to lampoon creationism. The picture of Elder Pastitsios has a pastitsio where the monk’s face should be. The accused man says he was satirizing the commercialization of Paisios. If you’re unfamiliar with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the best place to start is probably here for background and then here with the letter that started it all. UPDATE: There’s actually a Change.org petition to abolish Greek blasphemy laws going on. It currently has over 10 thousand signatories.   Image: Cached version of the Elder Pastitsios the Pastafarian Facebook page via Google.

Greek Man Arrested for Blasphemy on Facebook

Via the Christian Science Monitor:

A man was arrested last week in Evia, Greece, on charges of posting “malicious blasphemy and religious insult on the known social networking site, Facebook” according to a press release by the Greek police.

The accused, whose identity has not been made public, had created and managed the Facebook page Elder Pastitsios the Pastafarian, a name that plays on a combination of Elder Paisios, a famous, late Greek-Orthodox monk, and the Greek food pastitsio, a baked pasta dish made of ground beef and béchamel sauce. The term “pastafarian” is a reference to the satirical pseudo-religion “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” which has been used to lampoon creationism. The picture of Elder Pastitsios has a pastitsio where the monk’s face should be.

The accused man says he was satirizing the commercialization of Paisios.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the best place to start is probably here for background and then here with the letter that started it all.

UPDATE: There’s actually a Change.org petition to abolish Greek blasphemy laws going on. It currently has over 10 thousand signatories.  

Image: Cached version of the Elder Pastitsios the Pastafarian Facebook page via Google.

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