U.S. State Department cites blasphemy, apostasy laws as threat to religious rights

The U.S. State Department’s annual report on religious freedom around the world raises concerns over laws passed by countries that restrict religious freedoms, particularly highlighting measures against blasphemy and apostasy.

In some nations with Muslim majorities, “societal passions associated with blasphemy—deadly enough in and of themselves—are abetted by a legal code that harshly penalizes blasphemy and apostasy,” the report states.

The State Department pointed in particular to the 2015 death of Farkhunda Malikzada, an Afghani woman falsely accused of burning a Qur’an by the caretaker of a shrine outside of her mosque after the two argued over charms sold outside, which she believed were un-Islamic. Incited by the accusation, a mob beat Malikzada to death.