Where Artists Fall Afoul of Blasphemy Laws

PAKISTAN

Actor Veena Malik was sentenced to 26 years in prison for blasphemy in 2014 after she re-created a scene from her Muslim wedding on TV. However, the Kashmiri court ruling was only enforceable in the local region, and Malik never spent time behind bars.

EGYPT

Adel Imam, the country’s most famous comic actor, was handed a three-month jail sentence in 2012 and fined about $170 for playing characters deemed offensive to Islam, including a bumbling terrorist. He was acquitted on appeal the same year.

GREECE

Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer was given a six-month suspended sentence for blasphemy by an Athens court in 2005 over his depiction of Jesus as a nude, pot-smoking surfer in a satirical picture book. He too was later acquitted on appeal.