In Northern Ireland, blasphemy remains a crime.
In England and Wales, these laws were repealed in 2008, and in 2018, citizens in the Republic of Ireland voted in a landslide referendum to repeal the country’s blasphemy laws. Then in 2021, Scotland followed suit, making Northern Ireland as the last remaining part of these islands to criminalise ‘blasphemy’ .
It’s time that we followed suit, and repealed our blasphemy law in solidarity with the victims of anti-blasphemy legislation around the world. The time is now for Northern Ireland.
Please write to your MLAs today and advocate for repeal of Northern Ireland’s blasphemy laws.
More info below
What’s wrong with blasphemy laws?
‘Blasphemy’ and ‘insult’ to religion laws are wrong in several ways:
- They violate the human right to freedom of expression
- They protect religious beliefs, practices, institutions, and leaders, from legitimate and often necessary criticism
- They are intrinsically bad, subjective, inconsistent laws; there is no ‘right way’ to use them
- They legitimise vigilantism, mob violence, and persecution of minorities
- Retaining blasphemy laws, even if they are not often used, legitimises their use in countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia where people face the death penalty for expressing views deemed to be blasphemous
- Finally, supposedly ‘dead letter’ laws can be reactivated, as was seen in 2017 in Denmark, and that same year in the Republic of Ireland when our patron Stephen Fry was investigated for blasphemy.
There are still blasphemy laws in Northern Ireland?
You can bring this issue to your MLAs’ attention by writing to them or arrange to see them at their constituency surgeries. We’ve provided a facility through which you can email your MLAs, simply by putting in your postcode above.
To assist you in writing your letter/email, we have provided suggested text. You are strongly encouraged to edit this to make it more personal – we know that MLAs are more likely to take notice of personalised emails and queries.