Political rhetoric, freedom of expression and hate speech against religious believers

Many politicians across Europe – for example, Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and the AfD party in Germany - have made derogatory remarks about Islam and its incompatibility with and threat to modern Western values. When these politicians are challenged, they often invoke their right to freedom of speech; they state that they are only saying what a lot of people are thinking and are worried about and thus that they are contributing to the political and public debate. They also sometimes point out that their criticism is aimed at Islam, not at Muslim believers. This chapter will examine whether, under the European Convention of Human Rights, the right to freedom of expression of a politician or of any other person contributing to the public debate can be curtailed to spare religious believers’ feelings, to protect religious people from offensive attacks on their beliefs or from expressions that stir up hatred or violence against them.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a chapter published by Brill | Nijhoff in European populism and human rights, available online:https://brill.com/view/title/56233

ISSN: 0924-4751