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New Report Issued On Impact of Blasphemy Laws

By Howard M. Friedman

Freedom House last week issued a 138-page report titled Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights. Examining blasphemy and religious insult laws in seven countries, the report concludes that:

blasphemy laws are often vaguely worded and ill-defined, making them prone to arbitrary or overly broad application, particularly in settings where there are no checks and balances in place to prevent such abuses. In countries with weak democracies, authoritarian systems, or compromised judiciaries, these laws have a particularly pernicious effect:

• Governments have abused blasphemy laws to silence the political opposition, government critics, and other dissidents.
• Individuals have fabricated charges of blasphemy against others in their communities to settle petty disputes.
• Religious extremists have exploited blasphemy laws to justify attacks on religious minorities, thereby fostering an environment of intolerance where discrimination is effectively condoned by the state.
• Religious institutions, often with official or unofficial government backing, have used blasphemy laws to impose the state-sanctioned interpretations of religious doctrine on members of minority sects that are deemed deviant or heretical.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on October 27, 2010 (boomark / email).