Crime Against Religious Peace
Section 15. Crime Against Religious Peace
Anyone, within or outside the State, who intentionally, knowingly or recklessly insults followers of a State’s recognized religion in words, either spoken or written, by visible representation or by other means, resulting in damage to the religion’s reputation is guilty of committing a crime against religious peace and shall be punished by a fine not less than… and not exceeding … and/or imprisonment for a term not less than ….and not exceeding….
Section 15.1 Defense for Crime Against Religious Peace
The offender of Crime against religious peace shall be excused from the liability if he satisfies the court that his actions were intended to initiate or continue civil debates.
Explanatory Notes
Section 15 recognizes that the State’s citizens of various religions are required to refrain from disturbing social harmony by defaming others’ religions. Islamic law encourages civility in discussion, and endeavors to eliminate religious tension by prohibiting religious hate speech.
The mental element required for conviction can be either intentional, i.e. the actor desired to insult followers of a particular religion, knowingly, i.e. the actor was aware that his actions constituted an insult to a follower of a religion but may not have desired any negative effect or recklessly, i.e. the actor was not sure that his conduct constituted a crime but nevertheless proceeded and thereby took an unjustified risk.
Western opposition to the concept of defamation of religion and the UN Human Rights Committee claim that prohibition of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) are noted and ignored. Islamic law is independent of non-Muslim opinions. All western States have placed various limitations on freedom of speech that serve their political, religious and social ideologies but they refuse to place limitations on insulting other peoples’ religions. It seems that western countries’ refusal to place a limitation on freedom of speech in favor of civil social dialogue that show respect to all systems of belief is aimed to guarantee the west’s power to degrade the weak, different other whenever they like, disguising their hatred to the other by claiming the “freedom of speech” principle. To be sure, the freedom of speech principle was created to allow individuals to speak up against governmental tyranny. It was never intended to be used as a tool to degrade others. Many western countries have systemically imposed limitations on Muslims’ freedom of speech. For example, from 2020 to 2022, France closed at least 22 mosques alleging that the mosques were promoting “a radical practice of Islam” and “cultivating a feeling of hate towards France”.
