Extent of global ‘blasphemy’ laws revealed in report
Posted: Fri, 31st Jan 2025
'Dozens of countries' worldwide found to criminalise blasphemy and restrict speech around religion
The overwhelming majority of countries worldwide are failing to respect the rights of the nonreligious, a report has found.
The Freedom of Thought Report, published annually by Humanists International, examines rights of nonreligious people around the world.
The 'crime' of apostasy, or leaving a religion, and blasphemy are punishable by death in "at least 10 countries"*, the report found. Individuals can also be put to death for 'blasphemy', or expressing atheism, in Pakistan and Somalia.
Pakistan has prosecuted "over a thousand people" for 'blasphemy' since the introduction of current anti-blasphemy laws in 1988. Many of those accused of 'blasphemy' belong to religious minorities, and very often face extra-judicial violence. Last week Pakistan sentenced four people to death for allegedly posting 'sacrilegious' material on social media.
Repression of the nonreligious and religious minorities via accusations of 'blasphemy' is widespread. Earlier this month, Nigerian atheist Mubarak Bala was freed from prison after spending four years behind bars for supposedly insulting religious sentiments.
The National Secular Society, which is a member organisation of Humanists International, contributed to its campaign to release Bala, and in 2021 urged authorities in Nigeria to free him after he had spent a year in detention.
Although blasphemy laws no longer exist in Britain, Northern Ireland still criminalises "blasphemy" and "blasphemous libel". The NSS has urged the Northern Ireland Executive to abolish these offences, which it says lend legitimacy to repressive governments that also criminalise speech around religion.
The report found the "promotion of religious privilege by the state" to be one of the most common forms of discrimination against the nonreligious. This included privilege in many countries' public services and public education, with the most common being the religious control of state funded schools.
Other restrictions on the rights of the nonreligious identified around the world include denying the right to get married and blocking the nonreligious from public office.
The report found nonreligious people in the UK continue to face "systemic discrimination" – a finding which has not changed since the launch of the online report and rating system in 2016.The report highlighted the education system in Northern Ireland as an example of discrimination. Ninety-four per cent of state funded schools in NI are religious, which the report described as reinforcing sectarianism "beyond the school gate" and exclusionary to the nonreligious.
Around a third of publicly funded schools in England and Wales are faith schools, with many permitted to discriminate on the basis of faith in their admissions.
NSS: UK's ability to advocate for human rights "undermined" by religious privilege
National Secular Society spokesperson Jack Rivington said: "The Freedom of Thought Report is a sobering picture of the persecution and repression faced by nonreligious people around the world.
"Theocratic regimes which repress the rights of the nonreligious, and which criminalise free expression with 'blasphemy' laws, should face international pressure to abolish laws which oppress the nonreligious and religious minorities.
"But the UK's ability to advocate for universal human rights is undermined by its continued privileging of religion, as made clear in the report.
"Religious discrimination and segregation in UK education must be brought to an end, and the abolition of Northern Ireland's blasphemy laws pursued as a priority matter."
*Countries with death penalty for 'apostasy' and 'blasphemy'
- Afghanistan
- Brunei Darussalam
- Iran
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mauritania
- Nigeria
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Yemen
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