Author: Mirjam van Schaik
Mirjam van Schaik is lecturer and researcher at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She has degrees in law and philosophy, and her main research interests lie in the fields of legal and political philosophy—more specifically, the freedom of religion, blasphemy laws, and the separation of church and state. This article is condensed and adapted from a much lengthier and fully annotated essay in The Fall and Rise of Blasphemy Law, edited by Paul Cliteur and Tom Herrenberg (Leiden University Press, 2016).
Religious Freedom and Blasphemy Law in a Global Context: The Concept of Religious Defamation
“In one severe abuse of freedom of religion, religious freedom has been amalgamated with political strategies or policies of protecting the reputation of religions against defamation.”