The Importance Of Blasphemy Laws

In the light of the above facts, the following arguments can be drawn. First of all, blasphemy laws or hate speech laws violate the basic fundamental right of every individual that is the right to freedom of expression along with right to equality which is another fundamental right of the people. These fundamental rights are protected by International Human rights instruments. A blasphemy law in practise prohibits the freedom of expression when it comes to the offering of criticism, asking of questions, making an expression of mockery or contempt or ridicule or sarcasm, in any way relating to any religion. A person was found guilty because his newspaper published James Kirkup’s poem “The Love that Dares to Speak its Name”, which supposedly

Both the religions have their own kind of imagination therefore neither of them can be said to be guilty of blasphemy until and unless they are proved wrong. But according to the current blasphemy law or hate speech laws, both religions have committed blasphemy and therefore such laws are not justifiable. Moreover if a person believes in a religion eternally and truthfully, then he/she need not prove it to someone else in the society just for the sake of making them believe in his or her religion. As an example, a women was forced to hide after an angry mob rushed into Farooqi Girls’ High School in the city of Lahore just because she wrote something derogatory references to the Muslim Prophet Mohammad in a piece of homework . Criticism of a religion means insult of the religion but in prohibiting the insult of a religion means prohibiting all types of enquiry and evaluation in relating to religion. But if we prohibit criticism we extremely violate the freedom of speech of the

Right to equality refers to equality in the eyes of law, discarding any unfairness on grounds of caste, race, religion, place of birth, and sex. Equality before law means that state cannot refuse to provide equality before the law and equal defence of the law to any person within the territories of India. So when we charge a person for blasphemy then we violate his right to equality because we don’t give him equality in law as these laws are subjective and inconsistent laws. When a person is charged for an offence of blasphemy then his right to equality gets violated because like the other people of the society the person accused of blasphemy is not allowed to express his views in the society. Right to equality is a right guaranteed under article 1 of Universal Declaration of Human Right which states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” and in article 3 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states that “The State Parties to the present Covenant so when undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all and political rights set forth in the present Covenant”. So we can say that, a person violating right to