Blasphemy is a crime not only in Pakistan, but Europe too

Blasphemy is broadly defined as the act of speaking in a way that shows irreverence for God or something sacred. Some religions consider blasphemy to be a religious crime. Blasphemy laws are most common in majority Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as some parts of Southeast Asia.

Blasphemy legislation tends to escape the spotlight in many Western countries until specific, high-profile cases spark news headlines or international rights campaigns. It still carries the death penalty in countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. However, blasphemy does exist as a punishable crime in many other countries around the world, including a dozen countries in Europe. Punishment ranges from fines to prison sentences.



France outlawed blasphemy at the time of the French revolution in the late 18th century, according to articles 10 and 11 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Following the 1814 Bourbon Restoration, notions of “religious insult” were reintroduced until it was definitely removed in the 1881 Press Freedom Law. Blasphemy has never been reinstated since. However blasphemy remained a statute law in the eastern region of Alsace-Moselle. The little-used provision made the news in 2014, when a French Islamist group attempted to use it to sue the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. This legal loophole was only repealed by the French Senate in October 2016.

In Greece, a blogger who created a Facebook page poking fun at a revered Greek Orthodox monk was sentenced to 10 months in prison in 2012 after being found guilty of blasphemy. Thousands of Greeks took to social media sites to protest the arrest of Filippos Loizos, 28, who used a play on words to portray Father Paisios as a traditional pasta-based dish. Loizos’s sentence was later overthrown on appeal.