Recent Blasphemy Stories

A few stories involving blasphemy have caught my eye over the past month.

*  Religion Clause Blog has a story about a British citizen of Pakistani origin named Muhammad Asghar who has been convicted and sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy.  The man wrote letters to several people, including police, claiming to be a prophet.  The man has a history of mental illness.  According to the report, Pakistan has a de facto moratorium on the death penalty and so an actual execution is unlikely (his conviction is also the subject of an appeal).

* Volokh Conspiracy discusses a story from The Guardian about a Greek man who has been convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to 10 months in prison for comparing a revered priest to a pasta dish on a Facebook page.  The conviction is also under appeal.

*  A very interesting article in The New York Times about Penguin Books India pulping its entire run of a scholarly book about Hinduism in response to a lawsuit claiming the book was "malicious", "dirty", and "perverse."  The decision is seen as a sign of concession to growing right-wing radicalism in the country.