January 2025 sees the tenth anniversary of the massacre at the Paris Headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The Islamist attackers wanted bloody revenge for alleged blasphemy against Islam. Twelve people died but the world rallied in support of freedom of expression around the hashtag #JesuisCharlie. Others said that Charlie Hebdo went too far, and they rallied around the hashtag #JenesuispasCharlie. Charlie Hebdo satirises Christianly as well as Islam and nothing is safe from their biting criticism and cartoons.

Blasphemy laws were abolished in the UK in 2008 and in Scotland in 2021. The UK government promised no return to a blasphemy law after a Labour MP called for the reintroduction such a law. Can we be sure that there will there be no return to blasphemy laws?

In our first East Midlands Salon of 2025, Dr Don Milligan will open a timely discussion of ‘blasphemy versus free speech’.

About Don

Dr Don Milligan has been a gay activist, trade unionist, and a member of the communist movement for many decades. He is the author of The Embrace of Capital (Zero Books, 2022), The Politics of Homosexuality (Pluto Press, 1973), Sex Life (Pluto Press, 1993), and co-author of The Truth About the Aids Panic (Junius, 1987).

He writes Off The Cuff columns at www.donmilligan.net

Date, Time and Venue: Thursday 30 January at 19.00 in the parlour of the Brunswick Inn, Derby.

Tickets (£3 plus Fee) on Eventbrite.

Photo Credit: Toulouse rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Pierre-Selim (2015) under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.