Court convicts imam and son for blasphemy

[Ignited Mind]

Court convicts imam and son for blasphemy​

MULTAN: A Pakistan court has jailed a Muslim prayer leader and his 20-year-old son for life on controversial blasphemy charges in the rural centre of the country, court officials said Tuesday.

The case follows the killing of Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer by his bodyguard last Tuesday, after the outspoken politician called for reform of the law that was recently used to sentence a Christian woman to death.

Mohammad Shafi, 45, and his son Mohammad Aslam, 20, were arrested in April last year for removing a poster outside their grocery shop advertising an Islamic event in a nearby village which allegedly contained Quranic verses.

Judge Mohammad Ayub, heading an anti-terrorism court in the central Pakistani town of Muzaffargarh, handed down a life sentence to the pair on Monday, his assistant Faisal Karim told AFP by telephone.

The prosecution alleged organisers of the event, which commemorated the anniversary of the Prophet Mohammad’s birth, said the pair had “pulled the poster down, tore it and trampled it under their feet,” Karim said.

“The judge sentenced them to life imprisonment on charges of blasphemy and ordered them to pay a fine of 200,000 rupees ($2,350) each,” he said.

Liberal politicians and human rights activists in Pakistan say the blasphemy law, which carries the death penalty for the worst offences, is sometimes used to settle personal scores and encourages extremism.

Defence counsel Arif Gurmani vowed to challenge the verdict in the high court because “it has been given in haste” and was the result of inter-faith rivalries, he said.

“Both are Muslims. The case is the result of differences between Deobandi and Barelvi sects of Sunni Muslims,” he said.

“Shafi is a practising Muslim, he is the imam of a mosque and he had recently returned from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia…. I am defending them because I am convinced they are not guilty of blasphemy,” he said.

Nobody has been executed in Pakistan for blasphemy and those given the death penalty have so far had their sentences overturned or commuted on appeal.

Since Taseer’s assassination, right-wing religious clerics have heaped praise on his killer and stoked controversy over reform of the law. The government has said it has no plan to reform the law.

The controversy was sparked when former information minister Sherry Rehman tabled a private member’s bill in November, seeking to abolish the death penalty for blasphemy.

Court convicts imam and son for blasphemy | Provinces | DAWN.COM

 

[Nagraj]

why not hang till death!!!!
these guys insulted quranic verses!!!

 

[Ignited Mind]

why not hang till death!!!!
these guys insulted quranic verses!!!

I don't think it's the fault of the court. The court did only what it was told to do by the law books.

 

[divya]

Give me a break.... Taking down a poster ends up in life imprisonment....


And then people call that Taliban are bad because they follow extremist ideology. Tearing down the life of a 20 year for just putting down a poster does not look any better.

 

[NALANDA]

@ Divya..I just noticed that :-

1) You only joined this forum in Oct10.
2) You are nearing 1000 posts already.
3) Thanked 1,140 Times in 542 Posts............WOW...u are sure breaking records as an Indian on a Pakistani Defence forum
4) You are a Lt Colonel......wow again.


On topic
Thank God nobody has been hanged yet....this is a silly law...Human Being life is more precious than any faith and believes...

These are making world news nowadays......compare to teh soft power of India which results in positive image abroad.

This law has done immense damage to Pakistan's image as a country to rest of the world....

 

[SpArK]

[/COLOR]

@ Divya..I just noticed that :-

1) You only joined this forum in Oct10.
2) You are nearing 1000 posts already.
3) Thanked 1,140 Times in 542 Posts............WOW...u are sure breaking records as an Indian on a Pakistani Defence forum
4) You are a Lt Colonel......wow again.


...

Is that a record?

 

[Nagraj]

..................................

 

[Nagraj]

Give me a break.... Taking down a poster ends up in life imprisonment....


And then people call that Taliban are bad because they follow extremist ideology. Tearing down the life of a 20 year for just putting down a poster does not look any better.

ha !!!
take a break !!!!
come back and realize that we are talking about pakistan.
if you speak against islam is punishable by death.it's only logical that tearing down a poster should be punishable by death.
these gys have been let off lightly.

 

[nescafe]

hey guys,

pakistan is full of law lessness , false witnesses and victimization... . altogather is support the law, but this law is purely abused in our country. i know its bad. and it hurts. there is nothing good about it, and sadly this tells the state of our nation

 

[HAIDER]

“Both are Muslims. The case is the result of differences between Deobandi and Barelvi sects of Sunni Muslims,” he said.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Well love for prophet lives greatly in every muslims heart ...





Make sure you don't say nothing bad about our prophet while you are inside Pakistan


Just like there are laws about Holucaust denial there are laws against
insensitivity to Islamic heritage


I do think courts should use common sense - and fully inspect the sitiuation. And perhaps it needs a review but ... I don't see a major problem with the law itself.

But perhaps a review is inorder once if there is proof of abuse

I do feel there there should be logical element in this ...considering prophet himself was very forgiving but in any case.... its beyond my control its under our law and even our judges are ... well even they get kicked out of the courts and they have to do long march to get back in power lol I don't know about any minority

Thank you

 

[divya]

Well love for prophet lives greatly in every muslims heart ...





Make sure you don't say nothing bad about our prophet while you are inside Pakistan


Just like there are laws about Holucaust denial there are laws against
insensitivity to Islamic heritage


I do think courts should use common sense - and fully inspect the sitiuation. And perhaps it needs a review but ... I don't see a major problem with the law itself.

But perhaps a review is inorder once if there is proof of abuse

I do feel there there should be logical element in this ...considering prophet himself was very forgiving but in any case.... its beyond my control its under our law and even our judges are ... well even they get kicked out of the courts and they have to do long march to get back in power lol I don't know about any minority

Thank you

For the love of Prophet you dont have to put down a boy of just 20 all through his entire life in jail for tearing down a poster just to show how much you love Prophet.

It looks like you hate others more than you actually love him.

 

[ajtr]

Real blasphemer is the person who wrote Quranic verse on poster and pasted it there in open.which any way would 've gone into trash or eaten away by cows.

 

[Developereo]

@ Divya..I just noticed that :-

1) You only joined this forum in Oct10.
2) You are nearing 1000 posts already.
3) Thanked 1,140 Times in 542 Posts............WOW...u are sure breaking records as an Indian on a Pakistani Defence forum
4) You are a Lt Colonel......wow again.

It's his, erm, her (cough cough) full time paid job to promote Indian propaganda on PDF.

Just kidding divya.
You know we luvya.

I don't see a major problem with the law itself.

The law needs to be made much much much tighter so idiotic cases like this don't make it past the police FIR.

One guy throws a business card in the trash, someone takes down a poster, this is getting ridiculous. The morons are making a mockery of the intent of the law and burdening the justice system with frivolous lawsuits.

 

[divya]

It's his, erm, her (cough cough) full time paid job to promote Indian propaganda on PDF.

Yups i have 1 horns on head

and i do it for charity ....