elsewhere

This page considers blasphemy regimes outside Australia and New Zealand.

It covers -

• India, Pakistan and Afghanistan
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• South Africa
• Middle East

     India, Pakistan and Afghanistan

Section 298 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 prohibits intentional wounding of religious feelings by word or gesture, supplementing Section 295A regarding "intentional and malicious" outraging of religious feelings of any class of citizens by the spoken or written word. Those offences are wider than the common law in that they protect the religious feelings of any person or class of citizens in India.

Pakistan has attracted international attention for prosecutions and the strengthening of blasphemy law during the past decade, with indications that there have been over 2,000 arrests and that trials (sometimes resulting in the death sentence) have taken place in secret.

1982 legislation made desecrating the Qur'an or derogatory remarks about it punishable by life imprisonment. In 1984 that was amended, with

derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet ... either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly ... shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

The Federal Sharia Court ruled in 1990 that the "penalty for contempt of the Holy Prophet ... is death and nothing else", a ruling apparently respected by military and non-sharia courts. The blasphemy legislation is complemented by provisions in the Anti-Terrorist Act against inciting religious hatred.

A view of the regime is provided in the US State Department's 2003 International Religious Freedom report and Osama Siddique & Zahra Hayat's 2007 paper 'Unholy Speech And Holy Laws: Blasphemy Laws In Pakistan - Controversial Origins, Design Defects And Free Speech Implications'.

Afghanistan attracted attention in 2006 over trial of citizen Abdul Rahman for converting from Islam to Christianity. Under post-Taliban law he faces the death sentence for apostasy. In 2007 journalism student Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was sentenced to death for downloading a report from a Farsi website that stated Muslim fundamentalists who claim the Koran justify oppression of women misrepresent the views of the prophet Mohamed. He distributed the tract to fellow students and academics at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate.

     Indonesia

Section 156(a) of the Indonesian Criminal Code prohibits conduct that affronts a "recognised religion" (identified as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Roman Catholicism or Protestantism).

Section 19 of the Main Press Ordinance 1982 prohibits publication of blasphemous material, permitting prosecution of authors and publishers and withdrawal of the publishing license.

Recent cases have been restricted to Islam. They include prosecution of Monitor editor Arswendo Atmowiloto (fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years imprisonment) for a 1990 opinion poll perceived as derogatory of the Prophet Mohammed and the trial in 1995 of dissident intellectual Permadi Satrio Wiwoho. Lia Aminuddin was imprisoned for two years in 2005-6 for claiming that she was the Arcangel Gabriel, supposedly proven by possession of Gabriel's white robe. Critics of the regime noted that Abu Bakir Bashir received a 25 month sentence for the 2002 Bali Bombing conspiracy that resulted in the death of over 100 people.

     Malaysia  

Sections 295-298A of the Malaysian federal Penal Code punish offences against all religions with up to three years in prison or a fine of around US$1,000. In practice, Islam enjoys a special status. Blasphemy prosecutions have been restricted to denigration of Muhammad or the Qur'an and, more broadly, to apostasy.

Article 3(1) of the Constitution identifies Islam as the religion of the federation. Although Islamic law is not the general law of the nation (and under the Constitution syariah courts have jurisdiction only over adherents to Islam), the states are empowered to codify law regarding Islamic practice and belief. That is significant because Malaysia's Syariah courts have articulated "criminal offense statutes" prohibiting apostasy, blasphemy and heresy and have sentenced offenders under those statutes.

Most litigation is tied to the vexed question of ethnicity. The High Court noted in 2001 that an ethnic Malay is defined by the Constitution as "a person who professes the religion of Islam", endorsing rulings in a succession of cases that demonstrate the difficulties of changing religious affiliation and associated exposure to punishment as a blasphemer.

The Federal Court for notably ruled that Malays who had tried to renounce their affiliation in 1998 could be brought before the Kelantan Syariah High Court in 2000. The Kelantan court imposed a three year prison sentence for disregarding an order to publicly recant alleged heretical beliefs, attend religious classes and "return to the true teachings of Islam". The Federal Court and Syariah court rejected arguments that there was no jurisdiction because the defendants had ceased to be Muslims. That rejection was confirmed in 2002 when the Court of Appeals ruled - in Kamariah bte Ali lwn Kerajaan Kelantan - that only the religious court is qualified to determine whether a Muslim has become an apostate.

The major study is Perry Smith's 2004 paper 'Speak No Evil: Apostasy, Blasphemy and Heresy in Malaysian Syariah Law' in the University of California Davis Journal of International Law & Policy. It can be supplemented by the discussion in Andrew Harding's Law, Government and the Constitution in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: MLJ 1996) and Davidson, Friesen & Jackson's 2001 'Lawyers and the Rule of Law on Trial: Sedition Prosecutions in Malaysia' in Criminal Law Forum 2001.

In 2006 the Malaysian government issued a blanket ban on the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, prohibiting anyone in the country to publish, import, produce, manufacture, circulate, distribute or possess the caricatures which might "jeopardise public harmony and safety, which may cause chaos, or endanger public peace or national interest".

     South Africa

The South African Constitution establishes freedom of speech but blasphemy remains a common law crime in South Africa.

That reflects the republic's UK heritage, with restrictions in the Publications Act 1974 (prohibiting publication and distribution of "blasphemous material") and other information law.

The last reported prosecution for blasphemy as such was in 1934. However impiety appears to have featured in assessments of "moral harm" in the censorship of local and imported print publications, film and other works and in restriction of theatrical performances.

     Middle East

Issues with international publishing and cultural differences were highlighted by furore in 2006 after publication in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten of 12 satirical depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, including one in which he wears a bomb-shaped turban about to explode. There is no explicit ban in the Qur'an against depiction but representing him is characterised as an attempt to annexe God's creative power and to depict the sublime.

The Jyllands-Posten initially defended the publication as free speech and a manifestation of Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights but apologised after boycotts in Denmark's middle eastern markets, death threats and the withdrawal of the Libyan embassy. Such responses might have been expected, given attacks on Salman Rushdie and his associates (including assassination of a Rushdie translator).

Some publishers and web site operators reacted by propagating the cartoons. Germany's Die Welt for example reproduced one cartoon on its front page, commenting

Democracy is the institutionalised form of freedom of expression. There is no right to protection from satire in the west; there is a right to blasphemy.

Ailing Paris daily France-Soir pictured Buddha, Yahweh, the Christian God and Muhammad sitting on a cloud, with God saying to Muhammad: "Don't be angry, we're have all been caricatured". The newspaper's owner Raymond Lakah then fired the editor "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual".

In Jordan Jihad Momani published three of the cartoons in the Shihan weekly, along with an editorial calling on Muslims to be reasonable.

What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?

Momani was fired and a week later was arrested under Jordan's press & publications law.

Yaqoob Qureshi, minister of minority welfare in Uttar Pradesh, offered £6m in gold to anyone who beheaded one of the cartoonists. Pakistani cleric Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi reportedly offered a mere US$1m, plus a car, as the "prize" for assassination of a cartoonist.

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