European Court of Human Rights Blasphemy Laws: Where a Word out of Place Can Cost Your Life

12/12/2018

The chief threat to free speech today comes from a combination of radical Islamic censorship and Western political correctness... [W]e are free to call to account any religion from Christianity to Scientology, Judaism to any cult we choose....

It used to be possible to do this with Islam as well.... But many Muslim bodies -- notably the 57-member-state Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) -- have been working hard for years to render Islam the only religion, political system and ideology in the world that may not be questioned with impunity. They have tried -- and are in many respects succeeding -- to ring-fence Islam as a creed beyond criticism, while reserving for themselves the right to condemn Christians, Jews, Hindus, democrats, liberals, women, gays, or anyone else in often vile, even violent language. Should anyone say anything that seems to them disrespectful of their faith, he or she will at once be declared an "Islamophobe".