Attempts to identify and categorize a distinction between 'mere' religious offence and socially harmful assaults on a religious individual's dignity occupy a central focus of the theoretical literature today. Crucially within such debates, an ability to strike a balance between securing the religious freedom of individuals whilst also providing a space in which particular religious practices can be scrutinized remains a perpetual difficulty. Put simply, is it possible to critically assess the ethics and practices of a religious person without causing harm to their sense of self? In order to examine these concerns more closely, my paper aims to unpack the phenomenological nature of religious hate speech. Conducting my study through the analytical lens of recognition theory, I will unpack the intersubjective nature of both belief-centred harm and of offence. In doing so, this paper aims to grasp more fully the nature of the harm inflicted when an individual is at the receiving end of a belief-related speech-act.
