PENAL CODE
CHAPTER XV
OFFENCES RELATING TO RELIGION
Injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the
religion of any class.
295. Whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship, or
any object held sacred by any class of persons, with the intention
of thereby insulting the religion of any class of persons, or with
the knowledge that any class of persons is likely to consider such
destruction, damage or defilement as an insult to their religion,
shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
2 years, or with fine, or with both.
Disturbing a religious assembly.
296. Whoever voluntarily causes disturbance to any assembly
lawfully engaged in the performance of religious worship or
religious ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with
both.
Trespassing on burial places, etc.
297. Whoever, with the intention of wounding the feelings of any
person, or of insulting the religion of any person, or with the
knowledge that the feelings of any person are likely to be wounded,
or that the religion of any person is likely to be insulted
thereby, commits any trespass in any place of worship or on any
place of sepulture or any place set apart for the performance of
funeral rites, or as a depository for the remains of the dead, or
offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to
any persons assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies,
shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
one year, or with fine, or with both.
Uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious
feelings of any person.
298. Whoever, with deliberate intention of wounding the religious
feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the
hearing of that person, or makes any gesture in the sight of that
person, or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be
punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year,
or with fine, or with both.
http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/html/homepage.html
and search under the Penal Code.
This is in the statute all along but like the Seditiou Act, it
seems like it is seldom used. I did hear on some "interesting"
treatment from people who were once in missionary schools. If I
remember correctly, there were letters posted to ST Forum regarding
these issue as well.
But law and enforceability are seperate issues already.
Just take buddhists as example, like AEN had mentioned in another
thread, the right way to dispose buddhist material, for this
example we shall use a Buddha statue, is to burn it. But for the
general joss-sticks buddhists, they might be offended. This would
have come to under caption 295 and 298.
So the definition is not easy to draw.
Or a more extreme illustration, someone from a particular religion
go and tell a buddhist that Buddha is the Devil instead. To him, he
would have genuinely believe in it but to the buddhist, he might
feel insulted. The definition becomes subjective and difficult to
draw because the bottomline of the various religion are
fundamentally different to begin with.
