Topics / Religion and the public square
Should blasphemy, or insulting religion, ever be restricted by law?
Should the law ever restrict speech or acts that insult religion or what believers hold sacred, and if so, where should the line fall between criticism, offence and incitement against people? European countries have taken different approaches, and international human rights bodies, courts and national legislatures have not all drawn the line in the same place.
Positions
- No: No. Criticising, satirising and even mocking ideas, including religious ones, is essential to free speech. The law should protect people from threats and violence, not protect beliefs from offence.
- Restrict deliberate incitement, not offence: The law should protect believers as people from threats, harassment, discrimination and deliberate incitement to hatred or violence, but it should not protect religions themselves from criticism, satire or offence.
- Yes, some protection for the sacred: Yes. Deliberate, gratuitous insults to what people hold sacred, such as desecrating scripture or degrading revered figures, wound believers' dignity and threaten social peace, so the law may impose narrow limits on them while leaving serious criticism and debate free.