This House would criminalise blasphemy

Blasphemy is the act of showing contempt or speaking offensively about a deity or of persons and symbols regarded as sacred by the followers of a specific religion. The concept of blasphemy is mostly associated with the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) and many nation states which affiliate with one of these religions would most likely at some point, or still do have, laws against committing such acts against the dominant home religion. As the world in general becomes more liberal and secular however the need for such laws has come into question. In many European nations blasphemy laws are still in existence but lay dormant and unused whereby in contrast many middle-eastern Muslim nations actively enforce their blasphemy laws via a system of Sharia law. There have been numerous debates on the issue of blasphemy at the UN, with one of the most in-depth taking place in 2009 whereby Pakistan on the 26th March proposed a resolution which condemned “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation which passed by 23 to 11 but with a high 13 abstentions. (UN, 2009) Later in 2010 on the same issue the European Union ambassador Jean-Baptiste Mattei argued that the “concept of defamation should not fall under the remit of human rights because it conflicted with the right to freedom of expression” (Swiss Info, 2010) The main contention then between whether or not such laws should still exist lies between the value of freedom of speech against protecting the right of religious freedom. Should then Blasphemy illegal or should such laws against it laws be lifted?