BLASPHEMY LAW TO BE REPEALED

Opposition MPs of the Netherlands submitted draft legislation to the Council of State advisory body to repeal the ban on blasphemy. The ruling Labour party has already said it supports the change in the law, giving the proposal majority support in parliament. Earlier this year justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin agreed to suspend the blasphemy laws and amend the discrimination legislation (Article 137c) to make it a criminal offence to insult groups of people instead. That plan followed a high court ruling earlier this year, in which a man was found not guilty of insulting an entire group of people on the grounds of their religion. He had hung up a poster with the text ‘stop the tumour that is Islam.’ As the opposition MPs were not satisfied with the minister’s proposals, they have now drawn up their own legislation.