The annual International Blasphemy Day will be marked on Sunday as multiple countries continue to treat this as a criminal offense and dole out convictions.
The date marks a controversial anniversary, stemming from the publication of the 12 cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, which sparked riots in Muslim communities around the world. The incident sparked a wider debate about censorship, criticism of Islam--a religion which strictly prohibits depictions of its most sacred religious figures, let alone ridicule--and about criticism of religion generally.
Now, 13 years later, the offence of blasphemy continues to be criminal not only in some Muslim-majority countries but many others, as it remains an “astonishingly widespread” practice, according to a report published last year by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The report lists 71 countries that punish acts of blasphemy, with the sentences ranging from a mere fine to corporal and even capital punishment.
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