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Denouncing Divinity: Blasphemy, Human Rights, and the Struggle of Political Leaders to defend Freedom of Speech in the Case of Innocence of Muslims
This article is about freedom of speech and the political responses to the blasphemous Innocence of
Muslims video, which sparked international controversy in the fall of 2012. Politicians from multiple
corners of the world spoke out on freedom of speech and its relation to blasphemy. Whereas one might
expect that those politicians would abide by international human rights law, many of them issued Statements that unequivocally undermined the principle of free speech enshrined in those human rights instruments. This article discusses a number of these political statements against the background of human rights standards.