Towards the Abolition of Hate Speech Bans: A ‘Viewpoint Absolutist’ Perspective
Eric Heinze · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2006
By the mid-20th century crimes of blasphemy had been either formally abolished in Western democracies or had become dead-letter. In recent decades, however, blasphemy laws have re-emerged as hate speech bans. To be sure, seemingly anti-religious motives sometimes only thinly veil unmistakably racist or other discriminatory sentiments. However, offenses against religious doctrine, irrespective of their motives, remain fundamentally incompatible with basic principles of democratic citizenship.