Austria
While the Constitution and other laws and policies generally protect freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as freedom of expression, there are nevertheless restrictions on speech that might offend religious feelings.
‘Blasphemy’ law
Section 188 of the Austrian Criminal Code, called ‘Vilification of Religious Teachings’, criminalizes:
“Anyone who publicly disparages a person or thing that is the object of worship of a domestic church or religious society, or a doctrine, [or other] behavior is likely to attract legitimate offense…”
This de facto ‘blasphemy’ law has been used in practice to prosecute and fine individuals.
Cases
On Jan. 15, 2011, Elizabeth Sabaditsch-Wolf was convicted of offending religion because she exclaimed, about the Prophet Mohammed’s nine-year-old wife, “If that is not paedophilia, what is it?” In October 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found that there had been no violation of her right to freedom of expression and upheld the Austrian ruling.”
On Dec. 11, 2010, 63-year-old Helmut G. was convicted for offending his Muslim neighbor by yodeling while lawn mowing. The neighbor claimed Helmet was trying to mock and imitate the Muezzin, the Muslim call to prayer.
On Dec. 11, 2009, Catholic clerics in Vienna sued the cartoonist Manfred Deix for two drawings on the website NEWS.at which depict God and the EU prohibition against crucifixes in schools, respectively.
On Jan. 22, 2009, the Austrian politician Susanne Winter was sentenced at a court in Graz to pay a $24,000 fine for “humiliating a religion” by saying, among other things, that Mohammed was a paedophile.