[caption id="attachment_3881" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights"][/caption]Freedom House recently published a report on blasphemy laws around the world, titled Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights. Much of the report centres on the relationship between the blasphemy laws of various countries and international laws on human rights and free expression, but a lot of effort is spent pointing out that in practice, blasphemy laws are often applied in arbitrary and discriminatory ways, usually in favour of extremist positions, and usually in order to intimidate and harass minority groups:[ref]Page 6[/ref]

The official and unofficial discrimination associated with the application of blasphemy laws has been seen to foster a general climate of intolerance for religious diversity. Contrary to the arguments of many governments and judicial authorities, these laws damage rather than preserve communal harmony.

But what is most interesting about the report, and the reason I would recommend taking the time to read through its 128 pages, are the examples of blasphemy law put into practice. For instance:[ref]Page 51[/ref]

In October 1990, Arswendo Atmowiloto, then editor of the Monitor newspaper, was arrested under Article 156(A) of the Penal Code. He was reportedly responsible for publishing the results of a readers’ poll on the most admired person in Indonesia, which showed that the prophet Muhammad came in 11th. The feature was met with outrage from Muslim organizations, and protesters stormed the newspaper’s offices, breaking windows and destroying equipment. The newspaper was shut down later the same month after its publication license was revoked by the government, allegedly in response to mounting pressure from extremist groups. In April 1991, Arswendo was sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum penalty possible under Article 156(A), and he went on to serve all but six months of the term.

That particular case comes from Indonesia, often presented as a model of a pluralist, democratic, moderate Islamic state.