People attend a protest in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 6, 2022, in response to derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad by a spokesperson of India’s governing party.
(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Pakistan’s laws against blasphemy have been used to bring cases against numerous people over the years, and in particular, the country’s religious minorities.
Iraqis raise copies of the Quran during a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of the holy book in Copenhagen.
AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
Consigned to jobs in sanitation and other hazardous fields, Christians, the largest religious minority group in Pakistan, face a difficult time in the country.
People gather around the body of a man who was killed when an enraged mob stoned him to death for allegedly desecrating the Quran, in eastern Pakistan in February 2022.
AP Photo/Asim Tanveer
A political scientist explains the history of blasphemy laws in Muslim-majority nations and how they play a role in silencing dissent.
The depiction of Prophet Muhammad at Hamline University has opened up a debate about what sacred images can or cannot be shown in a classroom.
Friscocali via Flickr
Fierce debates about visual depictions of the sacred have existed for centuries. An art historian explains the controversies in the Byzantine Empire over images of Christ.
People gather at a vigil pray and observe a moment of silence after an attack on author Salman Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022, in Chautauqua, New York.
AP Photo/Joshua Goodman
The attack on Salman Rushdie promptly led to speculation on whether the attacker had been influenced by the 1989 fatwa against the author. A scholar explains what a fatwa is, and isn’t.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah addressing the assembly in Karachi on Aug. 15, 1947, after the creation of Pakistan.
AP Photo
Jinnah insisted on secular education, gender equality and equal rights for minorities – all of which remain unrealized dreams in Pakistan.
Supporters of a Pakistani religious group burn an effigy depicting the former spokeswoman of India’s ruling party, Nupur Sharma, during a demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan.
AP Photo/Fareed Khan
A scholar of Islam writes about how widespread authoritarianism in the Muslim world shapes governments’ foreign policy toward Muslim minorities abroad.
Amina Ahmed, wife of Mubarak Bala, recently convicted of blasphemy, displays her husband’s photo in Abuja, Nigeria.
Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images
Insults against religion are illegal in Nigeria’s multi-faceted legal codes.
Members of a civil society group participate in a candlelight vigil to pay tribute to the Sri Lankan citizen Priyantha Kumara, who was lynched by a Muslim mob in Pakistan.
AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary
A scholar of Islam explains how Muslim religious leaders, starting around the year 1050, worked with political rulers to challenge what they considered to be sacrilegious influence on society.
Using minced oaths became a habit in NBC’s The Good Place.
YouTube/NBC
From 16th-century playwrights to ‘The Good Place,’ wordplay has found clever ways to get around uttering profane and blasphemous language.
Pakistani Islamists march to protest the Supreme Court lenient treatment of Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman accused of blasphemy, in Karachi, Feb. 1, 2019.
ASIF HASSAN/AFP via Getty Images
Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia all punish blasphemy harshly – even with death. Such laws have political as well as religious motives, says a scholar on Islamism: They’re a tool for crushing dissent.
In this 2013 photo, Bangladeshi mourners carry the coffin containing the body of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider for funeral.
AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File
Anders C. Hardig, American University School of International Service
In recent years Bangladesh has seen an increase in attacks on religious minorities. A scholar explains how certain extreme views on how Islam is to be followed are taking center stage in the country.
Robert Tshabalala/Business Day/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Desmond Tutu is by far the most high-profile African, if not global, religious leader to support lesbian and gay rights, and he has done so since the 1970s.
Rohingya refugees in paddy field behind the border of Bangladesh in 2017.
EPA-EFE/ABIR ABDULLAH
As parody goes, this infamous Monty Python film is a pretty gentle, even, respectful sort. It is now more likely to be criticised for breaching the boundaries of ‘political correctness’.
Pakistani religious groups protest against a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy, in Islamabad, Pakistan.
AP Photo/B.K. Bangash
There has been outrage over the release of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. An expert explains how blasphemy laws are hardly obsolete throughout the West.
Pakistani Christians attend Easter service in Lahore in April 2018.
AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary
With Pope Francis recently elevating a Pakistani archbishop as cardinal, a scholar traces the history of persecution of the 2.5 million Christians of Pakistan.
Nigerians don’t trust the police and often resort to mob justice.
Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde