An atheist group celebrating the upcoming International Blasphemy Rights Day on Friday, has said that laws around the world that restrict or punish those who criticize religion take away the rights of atheists, Christians, and other people. “In too many countries around the world, criticizing religion is illegal. We’ve seen the consequences of these laws too many times — when a tweet or a post on Facebook declaring one’s atheism or questioning a tenet of religion leads to arrests,
beatings, prison, and sometimes death sentences,” the Center for Inquiry, which set up the first event in 2009, said in a statement on Monday. “Sometimes religious militants make their own laws, deciding for themselves that expressions of dissent justify brutal killings, like the grisly murders of secularists in Bangladesh, or attacks on religious minorities in Pakistan,” the group added. READ MORE
