Can free speech and blasphemy live together?

Recent killings in Copenhagen and Paris have renewed an age-old debate: Should societies with vigorous traditions in free speech either adopt or strengthen laws against blasphemy?

At least a fifth of all the countries in the world maintain anti-blasphemy laws, according to the Pew Research Centerwhich include several Western European countries such as Denmark, Germany and Italy.

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Yet laws against offending the pious have been accompanied by increasing criticism about whether liberal democracies should even entertain them. Although some argue that blasphemy laws actually encourage zealotry, and feed the cycle of religious-inspired violence, international organizations like the United Nations have pushed to criminalize religious defamation.

Secular governments are attempting to grapple with "problems associated with terrorism and fundamentalism," Tomas Byrne, an author and attorney based in Stockholm told CNBC. "The question becomes, if states are trying to respondis there a way to keep the peace?"

Byrne, a native Canadian who was educated at the University of Oxford, worked as a lawyer and banker for 20 years in London. As it happens, the U.K. has become one of Europe's hottest crucibles in the debate betweencultural assimilation and strict interpretations of Islam.

"I don't think the context we have in western society are neutral concepts," said Byrne, who cited the "direct clash" that ensues when religious groups are confronted with speech they deem offensive.

"There's no way to dance around that. In places like Denmark and Germany they have tried to show tolerance by putting in place [blasphemy] lawsand if we live in a society where we want to choose between visions, we have to be able to risk causing offense," Byrne said, asking, "How effectively can you enforce tolerance?"

Freedom House, an independent freedom watchdog organization, wrote in a 2010 report that blasphemy laws "inevitably fail to address the issue of what exactly constitutes blasphemy, leaving enormous discretion in the hands of prosecutors, judges, and accusers who may be influenced by political or personal priorities."

In other words, regardless of how strict laws are preventing blasphemy, their application and interpretation can vary widely from country to country, and lead to dramatically different results. Pakistan, for instance, is notorious for tough enforcement against apostacyyet blasphemy accusations and retributions have surged there in recent years.

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Can free speech and blasphemy live together?