As such, laws and policies regarding defamation of religion, religious people or groups are captured under these measures but generally are not considered anti-blasphemy laws for the purposes of this study, although in some cases there may be overlap. In addition to measuring blasphemy and apostasy, Pew Research Center measures other laws and policies that penalize hate speech related to religion, as well as speech that is critical of religion. Apostasy laws were counted when there were restrictions placed on religious conversions or if there were penalties for leaving one’s faith. In some cases, if laws were characterized as “blasphemy” laws in the sources used for the study, they were counted in this analysis even if they didn’t align with the study’s specific criteria for measuring blasphemy. The study captures whether laws or policies criminalizing blasphemy and apostasy exist (even if they were not enforced during the year). Pew Research Center measures government regulations on speech or actions deemed to be blasphemy or apostasy as part of our research on global restrictions on religion.
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