Blasphemy

Blasphemy charges target works deemed offensive to religion. The most widely known modern case is the 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie for The Satanic Verses, which forced Rushdie underground for nearly a decade. But blasphemy prosecutions predate Islam: the Catholic Inquisition burned Giordano Bruno at the stake in 1600 for heretical cosmological views. Today blasphemy remains a criminal offense in over 70 countries.