Voters in Ireland last week removed the crime of blasphemy from that country’s constitution, a change that the minister of justice hailed as “another reflection of the strong public support for a modern, liberal constitution.”
Yet despite Ireland’s example, insulting God or religious figures is still a crime in more than 70 countries, in some places punishable by death. (On Wednesday Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the release of a Christian woman who had spent eight years on death row after being convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.)
