New Academic Publication Demands Global Legal Ban on Disrespectful Acts Against Prophet Muhammad and the Quran
We are honored to announce the publication of a powerful two-part scholarly article by Eckhart Christopher Hopkinson, now featured in International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding (IJMMU), Vol. 12, No. 3, 2025. This critical work makes a compelling legal and moral case for the global criminalization of any insult, mockery, or disrespect toward Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Quran.
The article titled “Why Disrespectful Acts against Prophet Muhammad and the Quran Must Be Outlawed Worldwide: An Analysis of Legislation and Case Law” comes at a time when legal systems across the world continue to show a striking inconsistency in dealing with cases involving religious sanctities. The author exposes this imbalance and challenges both international and domestic courts to correct this selective approach by formally outlawing any such offensive actions.
In Part One, the author examines the 2020 republication of insulting cartoons of Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Through detailed legal analysis, the article proves that these acts do not fall within the legitimate bounds of free speech and should not be protected under that banner. It argues that if such cases were allowed to proceed through legal channels, the courts—particularly those in Europe—would be obliged by their own criminal laws and human rights frameworks to rule these acts as unlawful.
Part Two takes the argument further, building a thorough legal framework to support the global prohibition of such offenses. The author examines relevant legal precedents from courts around the world and demonstrates that, based on their own rulings, defamation or mockery of Prophet Muhammad and the Quran clearly constitutes hate speech. Through comparative legal analysis, the author shows that while acts offensive to Muslims are often defended as free speech, similar expressions targeting symbols sacred to Western societies—such as Holocaust denial—are legally restricted. The article further categorizes case law from around the world, identifying inconsistencies in enforcement and arguing that defamation against Prophet Muhammad and the Quran clearly constitutes hate speech under prevailing legal frameworks.
A key strength of Part Two lies in its Supplementary File, where the author has meticulously categorized dozens of legal cases according to the three-condition test established by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). This classification decisively proves that any disrespectful acts against Prophet Muhammad or the Quran would fail this test, thus making them incompatible with the protections of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. These findings expose a double standard in current legal applications, especially when compared to Western responses to sensitive subjects such as the Holocaust.
Importantly, while the article also references cases involving Jesus (peace be upon him) and Saint Mary, it emphasizes that the most frequent legal inconsistencies and selective enforcement have occurred in cases involving Prophet Muhammad. The author calls on all international and domestic judicial systems to close this legal gap and to criminalize such offensive acts—consistently and unequivocally.
The author invites scholars, legal professionals, and the general public to engage with this critical work and reflect on the urgent need for consistency, respect, and justice in global legal standards regarding freedom of expression and religious dignity. This work is a bold and necessary contribution to international legal discourse, urging courts and lawmakers to uphold justice, equality, and the sanctity of religious belief for all.
📖 Read the full article here:
📂 Download the Supplementary Case Law File: https://ijmmu.com/index.php/ijmmu/article/view/6706/5390
📩 For academic inquiries, legal commentary, or public engagement, please contact: eckhart.christopher.hopkinson@outlook.com
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