Free Speech Absolutism Does Not Exist: How Every Country Has Blasphemy Laws
Critics of Islam, and of theism in general, often enjoy attacking "Muslim countries" (I say this with quotation marks as I hold the position that unfortunately, no country fully implements Islamic law) for having "blasphemy laws." Blasphemy laws are statutes criminalising insults and contempt towards deities, sacred objects, and religious beliefs. Additionally, many antitheists and leftists like to taunt "insensitive" people for supposedly being "extremely sensitive" to blasphemy. However, I would like to point out that every society has blasphemy laws, and that free speech absolutism is impossible in practice. No Right Is Absolute Contrary to popular belief, constitutions (whether secular or otherwise) do not typically depict rights as unbounded, but rather, simply "protected," and even then, such rights (and therefore the degree of protecting them) are subject to interpretation. For example: Freedom of religion: One cannot forceful...