Category: Blasphemy and Defamation of Religion

Asia News –  Punjab: young Christian man accused of blasphemy killed in prison
— Asia News reports: “Fanish, 20, was arrested last Saturday. His death was ‘judicial murder’ according to human rights activist. The day before a Muslim mob attacked members of the dead man’s Christian community, setting fire to their church. Pakistani extremists are funded by Saudi ‘charities.'”
— “The young Christian man who was arrested on 12 September in a village in Punjab accused of blasphemy was killed last night in prison. Police had Fanish, 20, remanded into their custody in order to continue their investigation. This morning prison guards in Sialkot district prison found the lifeless body of the young man with visible signs of injuries.”
— “Fanish (pictured in prison) was arrested last Saturday after accusations of blasphemy were made against him. A day earlier a Muslim mob had gathered in front of the church in the village of Jaithikey, not far from the town of Samberial, in the district of Sialkot (Punjab), to teach the local Christian community a ‘lesson'”
— “Extremists damaged the building before setting it on fire. They also pillaged two homes near the church.”
— “A relationship between the 20-year-old Christian man and a young Muslim woman appears to be the cause of the turn of events.”
— “In another incident, also last Saturday but reported only today, a Christian settlement in Ghaziabad, a neighbourhood in Orangi Town, near Karachi (Sindh), was attacked by a mob of Muslims, enraged by blasphemy charges against a 40-year-old Christian man called Lawrence.”

— Pakistan: Christian Church torched in Sialkot over ‘desecration'”

— Pakistan: Additional Report on Church Burning in Sialkot

—- September 12, 2009 – Asia News reports: “According to preliminary reports, the real cause of tension is a relationship between a twenty year old Christian, whose name is Fanish, and a Muslim girl.”
—- “‘Muslims can not tolerate a Muslim girl falling in love with a Christian,’ says father Mani, confirming the news of the young man’s arrest this morning by police officers”

Pakistani Christian shall launch movement if Blasphemy Law not repealed. Nazir Bhatti

Persecution of Pakistani Christians must end, interfaith network says
— “Petition calls for repeal of blasphemy law”

— R.E.A.L’s online petition also calling for repeal of blasphemy laws in Pakistan
— related August 10 press conference and videos

— Dawn reports:
— “Hardly a week had passed after the shameful attacks on the lives and livelihood of the besieged Christian community of Gojra, that a well-known Islamic televangelist appeared on his show on a local TV channel and freely exhibited the audacity to explain this attack by vicious Islamic sectarian organisations as a conspiracy by the West to make Pakistanis question the contentious Blasphemy Laws.”
— “First of all, as usual, before spouting this claptrap, such TV hosts have absolutely no substantive proofs ever to back their demagogic finger-pointing rituals.”
— “But utmost is the fact that the tongue-wagging gentleman had himself been embroiled last year in a stunning controversy where he was directly accused by his former party, the MQM, and some bold journalists, for initiating and encouraging attacks against Punjab’s Ahmadiyya community through his show.”
— “Thus, what moral right does this highly animated fellow has to even address the issue of the attacks in Gojra, let alone offer bizarre and thoroughly unreasonable theories, pointing fingers at the usually elusive and unsubstantiated conglomerate of conspirators?”
— “His self-righteous and delusional take on the said issue must have come as a hurtful bolt of insensitivity to those who lost their loved ones in the insane fires of fanaticism that almost completely burned down the Christian community in Gojra.”

Pakistan: Terrorism, extremism biggest national worries: PM Gilani
— Country facing terrorism due to wrong decisions of dictator: PM Gilani
— April 16, 2008 – Pakistan National Assembly passes resolution calling for U.N. to impose death penalty internationally for blasphemy
— “Information Minister Sherry Rehman and Sahibzada Fazle Karim moved the two resolutions.”
— “Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani… arrived moments after the passage of the resolutions”

Pakistan: New Poll Shows 78 Percent of Pakistanis Support Death Penalty for Leaving Islam

Pakistan Army Chief Kayani : We are against terrorism, not religion
— Kayani: “Islam is the soul and spirit of Pakistan. It is our strength and we will always be an Islamic republic.”

Pakistan: August 14 — a day to thank God for blessing us with freedom: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer
— Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer: “Pakistan had come into existence to establish a society based on justice, tolerance and equality”
— July 4, 2009 – Muslims attack Christian homes in Punjab
— “A mob of some 600 people attacked about a hundred Christian homes in Bahmani, a village in Kasur district in Punjab”
— “A cleric in a local mosque accused the Christians of blasphemy inciting his fellow Muslims to attack the Christians.”
— March 13, 2009: Punjab’s Rawalpindi: Christian Faces ‘Blasphemy’ Abetting Charge, Dangers
— March 7, 2009: Punjab: One killed in attack on church in Pakistan

—- related report
Pakistan Human Rights Commission after Gojra attacks
— Asma Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission: “For too long the Pakistani state has protected people with extremist views… It is not just political parties. There are radicalised individuals, and supporters of militant groups within the judiciary, the education system, the bureaucracy and police as well.”

More attacks on Christians feared
UCAN reports:
— “Peace activists predict that extremists may target more Christian communities unless the government changes its policies and laws.”
— “‘I am afraid to say it, but we may expect more attacks in areas where Christians are a sizeable number,’ said Father Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, national director of the Catholic Bishop’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP).”
— “According to advocate Mehboob Ahmed Khan of the HRCP, extremism is one of the major challenges facing the Muslim-dominated country. ‘More Christian settlements will be attacked, more blood will be spilled in coming months. The perpetrators will use the same old blasphemy laws as an excuse,’ he told the seminar participants.”
— “A press statement was also issued at the event in which the NCJP demanded the abolition of laws that provoke hatred, the amendment of discriminatory articles in the constitution, and the arrest of those who kill in the name of religion, among other matters.”

— Tejinder Singh’s report in the Examiner on “Black Day observation: Christians call upon the US & the EU to act against Pakistan Blasphemy Law” – on the August 10, 2009 Press Conference regarding Pakistan’s blasphemy law and religious discrimination and oppression of Christians
— Tejinder Singh: “August 11 was observed around the world as a ‘black day,’ a day of protest for some 20 million Christians in Pakistan and around the world who want the country’s blasphemy laws repealed for being a virtual ‘constitutional genocide'”

(Pakistan) Lahore: August 11, 2009. (PCP report) Christians took out protests and hoisted black flags to observe “Black Day”

— Petition Calling for End of “Blasphemy Laws” in Pakistan

— Amnesty International “urges govt to amend or abolish blasphemy laws”

— Govt may re-visit blasphemy law to prevent misuse
— State Minister for Interior Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi to call for “inquiry”
— April 21, 2009 – “Federal Shariat Court (FSC) ruling that the death penalty is the only punishment that Islamic law provides for blasphemy”
— April 16, 2008 – Pakistan National Assembly passes resolution calling for U.N. to impose death penalty internationally for blasphemy