Sir,
While I fully support the call from the Scottish and English churches this week for asylum to be granted in the UK to Asia Bibi, it is worth remembering that Scotland (but not England/Wales) has an extant blasphemy law of its own.
The 80 page consultation document on hate crime in Scotland published on 14 November makes no mention whatsoever of repealing this outdated law in spite of its abolition being the subject of a resolution to the SNP’s national council, passed at a meeting in March, calling for there to be no possibility that anyone now, or in the future, could be prosecuted under it.
While the blasphemy law in England and Wales was repealed in 2008, helped over the line by the infamous ‘teddy bear called Mohammed’ episode in Sudan, it would surely be better if Asia Bibi had the choice to settle in Scotland without the worry that another blasphemy law could potentially be revisited upon her here, regardless of whether it would bring the same drastic result as in Pakistan.
Alistair McBay
National Secular Society
5 Atholl Crescent
Edinburgh
Letter: Blasphemy laws
16 November 2018