Three European parliamentarians are visiting Pakistan in relation to Asia Bibi’s blasphemy case The delegation from the Group of European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR) are in the country this week to discuss its human rights situation. Peter van Dalen, Delegation Leader and European Parliamentarian for Christian Unity...
The family of a Pakistani Christian man who died before being able to prove himself innocent of blasphemy allegations are calling for his name to be cleared. Mukhtar Masih, who was arrested on suspicion of committing blasphemy died on 3rd November. He was arrested on 28th January...
“The influence of a given religion in a nation ought never to mean that citizens of another religion can be subject to discrimination in social life or, even worse, that violence against them can be tolerated.”...
Two Pakistani non-Muslim boys have been arrested under the blasphemy law for allegedly burning swept papers containing Quranic verses. A case was registered on September 28 at Bunga Dhongha, police starting in Bahawalnagar under blasphemy law section 295 B for desecrating the Holy Quran or its...
Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, has been nominated for the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. She was sentenced to death seven years ago under the country’s blasphemy law. She was accused of blasphemy after arguing with a Muslim woman who told her she could not...
Daily Times 01-Oct-17 by Kaleem Dean During his recent stint at the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi gave an unwitting insight into the plight of Pakistan’s minorities. The venue was the Council on Foreign Relations. And it was Kenneth Roth, the Human Rights Watch...
Nasir Saeed Daily Times, 06 September 2017 Recently, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published its report on blasphemy laws in 71 countries and punishments ranging from imprisonment, lashings or a death sentence. The commission has called for the repeal of the blasphemy law, stating...
October 14, 2016 The Nations, Web Desk 10. The law has its roots in the Indian Penal Code of 1860 Pakistan’s version of the blasphemy law is an extension of offences relating to religion that were first codified by British rulers of the Subcontinent in 1860. Pakistan inherited...
Most significantly, there is no punishment for blasphemy if the accused is a non-Muslim. The consensus in the Hanafi school of Islamic Jurisprudence has always been that blasphemy against the Holy Prophet (pbuh) is akin to disbelief, which is axiomatic in 23-Oct-16 by Yasser Latif Hamdani Extremists...
“There is a very clear sense that people are nervous about the misuse of the blasphemy law, as a tool of politics or “…a mob thing […] ” he added, flanked by two Pakistani bishops. He earlier told reporters: “Equality under the law is important…”...