Edmund Stoiber needs to get out more. After seeking to ban Turkish film, Valley of the Wolves - Iraq and complaining about Popetown, the Bavarian Prime Minister has now gone ahead with his threat to try and widen Germany’s blasphemy laws.

Germany’s blasphemy law, which dates back to 1871, only considers blashphemy to be an offence if it disrupts public peace. Claiming that “not everything that’s holy should be allowed to be trampled on,” Stoiber is seeking to have this provision removed and extend the law to cover all religions.

He doesn’t appear to have much support though.

Though the German Catholic Bishops’ conference declined to comment on Stoiber’s idea, the Lutheran Church has reacted coolly.

Germany’s Lutheran Church said it’s doubtful whether changing the country’s penal code is the right thing to do.

“The question is whether meting out punishment really leads to a change of heart,” said Petra Bahr, the commissioner for culture at Germany’s Lutheran Church. “We believe that respect for religious symbols can be better achieved through religious instruction.”

Bahr added that the state wasn’t in a position to “decide what’s blasphemous and what isn’t.”

And Germany’s Muslim community doesn’t seem too keen on the idea either.

Despite voices earlier this year angrily demanding stronger provisions on blasphemy within Europe, some believe that Stoiber — who vehemently argued in favor of press freedom at the time — is merely motivated by political compulsions.

“When I, as a Muslim, see how Stoiber reacted to the Mohammed cartoons and see how he’s now changed his mind and is calling for the law to be tightened, it rings very hollow with me,” said Burhan Kesici, vice president of the conservative Islamic Federation in Berlin. “We think this is just a political move, calculated to keep certain circles in Bavaria happy and so we’re not supporting it.”

Legal and constitutional experts have pointed out that countless films, videos and songs would fall foul of Stoibers proposals, as well as “coarse pub talk.” The proposal would also effectively ban any critical reporting of religion and would therefore fall foul of the German constitution.

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