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This article investigates the phenomenon of blasphemy and its relationship to freedom of speech. It does so by focusing on "the state of Denmark"—in particular two significant events that have arisen in Denmark in the last eighteen years. These are the Jyllands-Posten publication of the Muhammad cartoons in 2005 and the division that emerged between Danish state authorities and the Danish Parliament arising from a Quran burning in Denmark in 2017. What possibly connects these events is the violence to which the 2005 publication of the cartoons gave rise. What definitely connects these events are the competing imperatives that the phenomenon of blasphemy elicits, involving two rival claims to "respect." The article explores these rival claims and shows that although mutual accommodation is often possible between them, the phenomenon of blasphemy is significant insofar as its circumstances can render these rival claims a mutually exclusive choice. The article explores the implications of this phenomenon in terms of the circumstances arising in Denmark. However Denmark's experience has significant implications for other liberal democracies in which freedom of speech is a fundamental value and where issues of blasphemy arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines criminal cases related to blasphemy under the absolute monarchy of Denmark-Norway, and presents the evaluation of mental states within a forensic context between 1713 and 1733. First, the article explains how the legal framework and normative guidelines for pastoral care envisaged the interplay between judges, priests and doctors in evaluating mental states. Then, an examination of selected cases is provided, showing the dynamics and the role assignment in the evaluation of mental states in practice. Covering a period characterized by a gradual differentiation of theology, law and medicine, this case study enhances understanding of what preceded the development of psychiatry as a medical speciality during the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how to perceive developments in the prosecution of written pacts with the Devil in Denmark-Norway between 1634 and 1754. While existing scholarship interprets the prosecution within the framework of an Enlightenment narrative by presenting the cases as evidence of an incomplete rejection of magical beliefs, such as the possibility of making a pact with the Devil, this article investigates the cases with regard to the early absolutist sovereigns' endeavours to deal with blasphemy offences. The medley of punishments imposed in the cases – including public confession, executions, and imprisonment with hard labour – calls for a more complex evaluation of both ruptures and continuity in the prosecution of this type of crime during the period. Through selected cases representing varying approaches of the respective sovereigns, this article analyses how the understanding and administration of the offence developed in the legal practice of the emerging absolutist state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison of two challenges to freedom of the press, in Indonesia and Denmark, reveals some of the linkages among semiotic ideologies, secularism, and a moral narrative of modernity. By analyzing conflicts between semiotic ideologies, the article shows how actual journalistic practices both presuppose and deviate from the assumptions of any given such ideology. The article also discusses claims about the role of the press in the history of the nation. The case comparison brings out some fundamental tensions between two grounds for this role, to speak as a voice of a people and to serve as a conduit for truth. Viewed in the context of the semiotic ideologies they presuppose, conflicts over the actions and authority of the press can reveal some of the difficulties posed by the moral narrative of modernity and the common sense of contemporary liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of twelve Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (JP) led to consumer boycotts, burning embassies and official demands for UN to intervene. The article analyses why the religious protests in Denmark generated the astonishing international reactions. It concludes that a very hostile rhetoric against Muslims in Denmark and mounting international tensions were important pre-disposing causes for the conflict. In an analysis of the strategy used by Imams from the Danish Muslim communities the article concludes that they chose a policy of conflict escalation and mobilisation through keeping focus on the religious dimension of the crisis. The article points to several options, which were not used by the Danish government to de-escalate the conflict and illustrates how the government contributed to conflict escalation by making the case solely a matter of defending freedom of expression. Finally the article suggests some lessons to be learned, if other cross-cultural crises should appear in European countries in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]