Austrian Fined for Yodeling - Muslims Offended Yet Again

[Bella Fortuna]

I hope they choke on their Ricolas.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rayer.html

Austrian, 63, fined £700 after Muslim neighbours claimed his yodelling mocked call to prayer

By Allan Hall
Last updated at 3:37 PM on 16th December 2010


A judge decided Helmut Griese, 63, was 'ridiculing' the Muslim family's beliefs and fined him nearly £700. Yodelling is as much a part of Austrian culture as lederhosen (file picture)

An Austrian has been fined for yodelling while mowing his lawn because it offended his Muslim neighbours next door.

A judge decided Helmut Griese, 63, was 'ridiculing' their beliefs and fined him nearly £700.

Rather than face a protracted court case with all its attendant legal costs, Griese agreed to pay.

The court heard how the Muslim family regarded Griese as a 'grumpy old man' and came to view his open-air versions of the Alpine chanting as racist asides aimed at them.

Austrian media reported how the pensioner was accused in the court in Graz of trying to 'mock and imitate' the call of the Muezzin.

They alleged that he always began his yodelling just as they knelt down to pray to Mecca.

'It was not my intention to imitate or insult them. I simply started to yodel a few tunes because I was in such a good mood' he told Austria‘s Kronen newspaper.

The yodel is a song sung with an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch and makes a high-low-high-low sound.

Developed in the Central Alps as a method of communication between mountaineers or between villages, the yodel later became part of the region's traditional lore and musical expression.

Most westerners of a certain age know it purely through a version of a song warbled by Julie Andrews in the classic Austrian-set musical ‘The Sound of Music.´

The court heard how things came to a head late in the summer when Griese was both mowing his lawn and yodelling as the family were praying.

Police were called and it was him who was issued with a summons as tempers got heated.

He was charged with the arcane offences of 'disparagement of religious symbols' - usually reserved for neo-Nazis who desecrate Jewish graves - and ‘hindering religious practice.‘

[Ian]

That's one helluva fine! What is that, like $1200 or so? FFS.

[Mishakal]

I'd file for an appeal or something because this is pure Grade A FDA Approved Bullshit! If his Muslim neighbors don't like his choice of music, they can bugger off!

[Bella Fortuna]

It's YODELLING in AUSTRIA, for pity's sake!! It's not as if no one there knows what it is!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It that place near Sydney or Perth?

[rachelbean]

It's YODELLING in AUSTRIA

This is all I could think the whole time I was reading it

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Reading between the lines, I am inclined to think that it may well be the case that he was deliberately timing his singing to coincide with their prayers - a lot of muslims I know play recordings of wailing muezzin at home while 'showing Allan the arse' (as it is known) - the neighbour probably was taking the piss - especially if there was previous between them.

Still... yodelling! In Austria!!1!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not very well thought-out counter attack, I suspect.

[GreyICE]

And people wonder why I defend the first amendment applying to everyone equally. It kind of sucks to not have it, every now and then.

P.S. Why would you need a crime specifically for Nazis desecrating Jewish graves? Isn't desecrating a grave a crime already?

[Bella Fortuna]

P.S. Why would you need a crime specifically for Nazis desecrating Jewish graves? Isn't desecrating a grave a crime already?

Maybe not in Austria? Who knows.

I wonder if you can yodel at graves.

[Ronja]

It's YODELLING in AUSTRIA

This is all I could think the whole time I was reading it

Me, too. Unreal...

[Rum]

The Daily Mail? I would take this with a pinch of salt. The paper is several miles to the right of Fox News.

[Clinton Huxley]

I want to hear sarcastic yodelling.

[Millefleur]

Reading between the lines, I am inclined to think that it may well be the case that he was deliberately timing his singing to coincide with their prayers - a lot of muslims I know play recordings of wailing muezzin at home while 'showing Allan the arse' (as it is known) - the neighbour probably was taking the piss - especially if there was previous between them.

Still... yodelling! In Austria!!1!

In which case I assume he can hear the wailing from his home.. 5 times a day.. doesn't that make them a nuisance, religious bollocks or not?

[Pappa]

The Daily Mail? I would take this with a pinch of salt. The paper is several miles to the right of Fox News.

That was my first thought too.