Blasphemy and Apostasy Punished; Winter Olympics — Thawing of China’s Treatment of Religious Minorities? China May Restrict Religious Expression Following Olympics; Streaming Online a Godsend for Churches and the Isolated; City Restricts Church Homeless Outreach Blasphemy and Apostasy Punished Ken Mayer is licensed under CC BY 2.0 In scores of countries around the world, laws against apostasy and blasphemy remain on the books – and many are enforced to various degrees. a new Pew Research Center analysis finds that 79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40 percent) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy, which is defined as “speech or actions considered to be contemptuous of God or of people or objects considered sacred.” Twenty-two countries (11 percent) had laws against apostasy, the act of abandoning one’s faith. The analysis draws on the Center’s wider body of research on government restrictions related to religion. Article 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifically protect the right to change religion, and to freedom of speech. Winter Olympics — Thawing of China’s Treatment of Religious Minorities? 2022 Winter Olympics By kremlin.ru, CC BY 3.0 The opening ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing […]
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