Blasphemy laws were once almost universal, and are still common in states with strong religious traditions, but such restrictions have been extinguished in most secular jurisdictions that incorporate the principles of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 of the UDHR allows "the right to "freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance"; and Article 19 allows "the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers". With these two articles, Article 18 of the UDHR allows people to hold and express religious ideas and other beliefs (or a lack of religious belief) that may be offensive to others or to the majority of citizens, and Article 19 explicitly mandates
freedom of speech, per which citizens are to be permitted to criticize leaders, even if some religious people may find such criticism seriously offensive. Some extreme religious leaders in such secular societies campaign for the offence of blasphemy to be reinstated in order to enforce respect for their various religious beliefs above any scientific or moral challenge. In some jurisdictions, any challenge to
divine authority may be deemed homologous to
treason and subject to serious forms of
punishment, typically the
death penalty. There is a fine line between the ideas of
fair comment and religious offences caused by questioning the veracity of
divine revelation. More recently, the term
religious hatred is used in modern laws such as the British
Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, which aim to promote religious tolerance by forbidding
hate crimes. ==See also==