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Laws Against Blasphemy, Apostasy and Defamation of Religion Are Widespread

Nearly half (47%) of the countries and territories in the world have laws or policies that penalize blasphemy, apostasy (abandoning one’s faith) or defamation.

Of 198 countries studied by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, 104 have no such laws while 94 have at least some of them. Anti-blasphemy laws exist in 32 countries (16% of those studied), laws penalizing apostasy are found in 20 (10%), and 87 (44%) have laws against the defamation of religion, including hate speech against members of religious groups.

Measures against apostasy were in effect in more than half the countries in the Middle East-North Africa region (11 of 20, or 55%) as well as in five of the 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (10%) and four of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (8%).

Source: pewresearch.org

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Humble Pie on January 13, 2013 at 10:38

The worst thing about apostasy laws is that almost no one leaves "their" religion. They leave the religion foisted onto them by their parents when they were too young to know any better. Not that it would be okay to tell someone "You were a consenting adult when you joined our group, so now you can never leave!" But to say "You were born into this group and so you can never leave" is a hundred times worse. It's almost like a caste system. In fact, it is.

Permalink Reply by Sayed Iman on January 14, 2013 at 14:29