ABSTRACT
Both religion and freedom of expression are seen by different communities as the most fundamental of rights, and the sense that they are engaged in a clash of civilisations is magnified by the record of violence and inter-state tensions associated with religious-secular antagonism. The chapter suggests that history and the future of those conflicts that do pit the freedom of religion against the freedom of expression will be understood better in light of the contextual political and social realities. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is generally granted recognition as a cornerstone or foundation for the development of international legal conventions treating religious freedom and freedom of expression. The vagueness of the UDHR tends to be of more practical concern to campaigners for freedom of religion. The freedom of members of a religious community remained, in their understanding, the freedom of the individual, not a right belonging separately to a community.
