Dawkins trying to arrest Pope Benedict Xvi

As he has given the Vatican around half a years notice and spoken to the press about his intention, I can't help but come to the conclusion that his motivation is for publicity.

Dawkins motivation is of minor importance. What is of major ******* importance however, is that this is conducted in the public eye, not only to set a social and/or legal precedent regarding the christian rapists, but the way all so called 'religions' operate.

We need to bring society out of the dark ages, and this is a good step toward that.
 
Richard Dawkins said:
Needless to say, I did NOT say "I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI" or anything so personally grandiloquent. You have to remember that The Sunday Times is a Murdoch newspaper, and that all newspapers follow the odd custom of entrusting headlines to a sub-editor, not the author of the article itself.

What I DID say to Marc Horne when he telephoned me out of the blue, and I repeat it here, is that I am whole-heartedly behind the initiative by Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens to mount a legal challenge to the Pope's proposed visit to Britain. Beyond that, I declined to comment to Marc Horme, other than to refer him to my 'Ratzinger is the Perfect Pope' article here: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5341

Here is what really happened. Christopher Hitchens first proposed the legal challenge idea to me on March 14th. I responded enthusiastically, and suggested the name of a high profile human rights lawyer whom I know. I had lost her address, however, and set about tracking her down. Meanwhile, Christopher made the brilliant suggestion of Geoffrey Robertson. He approached him, and Mr Robertson's subsequent 'Put the Pope in the Dock' article in The Guardian shows him to be ideal:
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/5366
The case is obviously in good hands, with him and Mark Stephens. I am especially intrigued by the proposed challenge to the legality of the Vatican as a sovereign state whose head can claim diplomatic immunity.

Even if the Pope doesn't end up in the dock, and even if the Vatican doesn't cancel the visit, I am optimistic that we shall raise public consciousness to the point where the British government will find it very awkward indeed to go ahead with the Pope's visit, let alone pay for it.

Richard
 
This is such an unbelievably big step for justice its certainly not going to happen.

I'd love to see it, but the sad truth is, he's untouchable.
 
I like Dawkins - he's a great author and excellent speaker on a subject that he knows very well, but surely this kind of stunt is best left to the likes of Peter Tatchell?
 
bit of a cheap publicity stunt tbh...

though I've got no respect whatsoever for the pope of other Catholic leaders who have knowingly covered up the wide scale abuse of kids. The whole institution is screwed up - if you're going to have a job (priest) where one of the requirements is to be completely celibate and commit to deny yourself a very natural thing then I'd say its pretty likely that a large portion of people willing to accept such a job are not exactly balanced individuals.

Though the kiddy fiddling scandals are nothing compared to the interference of the church with regards to AIDS in Africa - in terms of deaths their actions and inaction on this subject indirectly kill a shed load of people.

OK he's not using gas chambers or firing squads and but in terms of deaths the pope might as well be up there with stalin & hitler. He's certainly leagues ahead of Osama Bin Laden etc...
 
There seems to be two types of people in this thread - those who understand why the pope deserves being arrested and those who think Dawkins is an idiot.
 
I am all for this. While I don't particularly respect Dawkins massively after reading and seeing some of his opinions I think that somebody has to try this. If the two of them want to then I say go for it with my full support.

I honestly couldn't care who brings the case to court, all I want is for these scum to face justice.

Imagine please if this had occurred say in a major global banking organisation or any other multinational. Imagine the CEO had sent a letter around saying that all investigations were to remain internal and not be revealed to the public. Imagine if they actively moved their employees around from town to town knowing that they were paedophiles, knowing that they could well just commit the act on some other innocent in the next town.

Can you honestly say that the CEO and all those involved would not be brought to justice? Honestly?

If you think that the CEO would be brought to justice then you must be in favour of bringing benedict to justice. Simply because he is the head of a religion does not mean he can do whatever the heck he wants. If this were the case then the likes of David Koresh (Waco) would not have been able to be brought to justice. Any random guy on the street could start his own religion and claim immunity.

I don't give a toss if he likes to claim that he is a head of state, no one should be above the law especially not when such despicable crimes have been committed.
 
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