I don't mean to ignore the context, but there's more than one context here. For instance , the context of worldwide killing of people who offend Islam by pictures, by writing, by spoken word etc. Someone in Denmark publishes a cartoon and suddenly people die in Pakistan. Nowt to do with the French state. Salman Rushdie writes a book to which the Ayatollah takes offence and suddenly zillions of the faithful are seemingly uptight about a publication they will never read. Nowt to do with the French state.
French anarchists used to have the slogan ' ni dieu, ni maitre', neither God nor masters. I have no quarrel with that approach at all. Others may do. But I don't think we should reinstate the crime of blasphemy by the back door.