Blasphemy

A criminal offense, codified in the law of a substantial number of countries, consisting of speech, writing, or an act that insults, defames, or shows contempt for a deity, a religion, a religious figure, or a sacred object or belief, distinguished as a matter of secular criminal law from the theological concept of blasphemy as understood within a religious tradition itself. Blasphemy laws remain actively enforced in a number of countries, including Pakistan, where a blasphemy conviction can carry the death penalty and where an accusation has also been documented as sparking mob violence against the accused independent of any court verdict, while a substantial number of other countries, including several in Europe, have repealed their blasphemy statutes in recent decades on free-expression grounds; human rights organizations including Amnesty International and United Nations bodies have documented and criticized blasphemy prosecutions as frequently used to target a religious minority or to settle a personal or political dispute.