71 countries criminalise views deemed to be blasphemous

LAHORE: In an era where religious freedom and freedom of speech often find themselves coming into a rather scary conflict, a 2017 report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom had identified 71 countries that still criminalize views deemed to be blasphemous, exclusive research conducted by the "Jang Group and Geo Television Network" shows.

The punishments for these transgressions vary from fines to the death penalty, but the vast majority of countries (86 per cent) that enforce blasphemy laws prescribe imprisonment for convicted offenders.

In Middle East and North Africa, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, blasphemy bans are the norm rather than the exception, with 18 of the region’s 20 nations treating insults to Islam as a criminal offence.

Some 14 countries in the afore-mentioned region also criminalize apostasy, the act of formally renouncing a religion.

Iran and Pakistan are the only two countries in the region that explicitly enshrine the death penalty in law, although it is also carried out in Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to a 2016 study by the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Saudi Arabia, where floggings and amputations have been reported for alleged blasphemy, does not define punishment for the crime in law itself.

In 2013, a Saudi human rights activist, Raif Badawi, was found guilty of insulting Islam in blog posts that criticized the country's religious police and hard-line Wahhabi ideology. He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes.

The first 50 lashes were administered in 2015, amid international outcry. Badawi's poor health has delayed any further beatings, but he still faces more sessions of public flogging and remains in jail.

Citing Pakistan and Egypt, renowned British newspaper "The Independent" said blasphemy laws could also be “misused by authorities to repress minorities, and could serve as a pretext for religious extremists to foment hate."

In Americas and Asia Pacific, according to American think-tank "Pew Research centre,” one-third of the Americas still have anti-blasphemy laws, as do almost a quarter of countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the United States, the concept of punishing people for blasphemy or irreverence of religious beliefs is deemed against the First Amendment of the Constitution which bars Congress from abridging the freedom of speech.

The US Supreme Court in its decision in the famous “Joseph Burstyn Incorporated versus Wilson” Case of 1952, which also marked the decline of motion picture censorship in the country, had observed that the then American government’s decision to block the screening of a movie ‘The Miracle” was actually a restraint on freedom of speech and thereby a violation of the First Constitutional Amendment.

This Supreme Court verdict has actually gone a long way in burying the concept of blasphemy in US under heaps of mud for good.

The movie (The Miracle) had actually ignited widespread moral outrage in various European capitals like Paris, where protestors had found it blasphemous.

After its American release, protests had again sparked up and the film’s license was eventually cancelled in 1951 by the authorities.

The case was invoked to the Supreme Court by the film’s distributor Joseph Burstyn, after he was declined the license to screen the movie in American cinema.

However, history shows that the US once had many penal statutes against blasphemy, which were not considered subversive of the liberty of the press. Profanity against Jesus was punishable under the Common Law and the defendants found culpable by the court were sentenced to imprisonment for three months and even had to pay a fine of $ 500 for profane cursing.

Although "hate speech" is not a crime in the US, cases can be registered if the intent of religious intolerance is proved in court on racial or religious grounds.

According to the 2009 United States Sentencing Guidelines, it is a distinct felony to victimize people on such grounds.

In the South American nation of Brazil, blasphemy is a crime punishable with one-month to one year of incarceration or fine.

In Canada, the Criminal Code does recognize blasphemous libel as a crime, but since 1935, nobody has ever been prosecuted on charges of religious insult. Like any other country of the world, the Criminal Code of Canada prohibits hate speech that targets any religious group with a motive to ridicule its beliefs.

Research shows that among the Muslim nations with Islam as their state religion, the punishment for this crime in Jordan is relatively lenient as compared to other countries as blasphemers are liable for imprisonment of up to three years and a fine only.

The United Arab Emirates discourage blasphemy by using Sharia punishments against Muslims and by using judge-made penalties against the people found guilty under this crime.

In Malaysia, under Articles 295-298A of the country’s Penal Code, penalties for those who commit offenses against religion may range from up to three years in prison or a fine of up to US $1,000.

In May 2016, the Christian Governor of the Indonesian state of Jakarta was sentenced to two years in prison after allegedly insulting Islam during a campaign speech.

In Indonesia, where contempt against religion is covered by Article 156(a) of the Indonesia's Criminal Code, the maximum penalty for this offence is a five-year imprisonment.

In Africa, the Sub-Saharan region has the fewest restrictions on sacrilege. Only four of the region's 48 nations – Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Senegal – outlaw blasphemy, although this does not account for informal Sharia law operating at a local level in many Muslim regions.

However, blasphemy can still technically carry the death penalty in Nigeria and Somalia.

In Sudan, for example, under Section 125 of the Sudanese Criminal Act, a punishment of a maximum of 40 lashes can be awarded for insulting religion and inciting hatred. Blasphemers can also be imprisoned for at least six months and subjected to heavy fines.

In Europe, several countries still have laws on their books dealing with blasphemy.

Blasphemy was abolished as an offence in England and Wales in 2008, but it remains in Scotland and Northern Ireland, says The Independent.

In Ireland, Poland, Greece, Italy and Russia, it is still possible to face criminal charges for blasphemy, although in practice such prosecutions are rare and in most cases impossible due to constitutional guarantees on freedom of expression.

The blasphemous libel in England and Wales was eliminated in July 2008 during former Premier Gordon Brown’s regime after the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 had abolished the common law offences related to religious irreverence.

According to the BBC Online Edition of October 18, 2004, the last imprisonment that was awarded in UK under blasphemy was recorded in 1921, when a man called John William Gott was sentenced for nine months for publishing brochures which had mocked a Biblical story concerning Jesus Christ. British legal history, however, tells that the last known execution for this crime was recorded in 1697 when a teen-ager Thomas Aikenhead was hanged on orders of a Scottish court.

However, on July 8, 2008, the British Government consulted the Church of England and abandoned the Blasphemy Law.

But even before the Blasphemy Law was abolished in the UK, the House of Lords had refused to charge author Salman Rushdie for writing a blasphemous novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, despite intense from the Muslims all over the world to prosecute the man.

Interestingly, the House of Lords had asserted that the law only protected the Christian beliefs as held by the Church of England. We all remember that Iranian clerical leader Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a decree in 1989, calling for Rushdie's death.

Similarly, when the BBC had decided to broadcast a stage show “Jerry Springer: The Opera” in January 2005, thousands of Christians had felt offended by Jesus being portrayed wrongly in it.