Pakistan's blasphemy laws have left even judges in fear of their lives

[niaz]

A simple question to begin with,did you ,hear,read,find any muslim Involved in such things? Ever so how come one could stand up and speaks and hit our religion or prophet? The simple thing to shut them up and make them never do this thing again is sentence to death! if France can put a ban on women veil,(burqa) Switzerland can put a ban making minarets,neatherland can put a ban on slaughter of meat, if Pamela Gellar could start a movement called (rafuegefromislam.com)in America ,If terry Jones can start a movement (Burn Quran),so why d hell we cant make a low where at least we can stop propaganda against our religion in our own country guess some of you are completely lost your mind or just being hypocrite ,
Or ya’ll have become so much familiar with western label (Extremism) or extremist that you don’t even care about anything, I could carry on for hours and I guess this page would be running out of blank space but I guess it’s enough to open our eyes !

Firstly ‘Blasphemy law have only been in existence in Pakistan since 1984. Do you mean to imply that from 1947 until 1984, our holy Prophet (PBUH) was blasphemed with impunity? Initially penalty for blasphemy was jail only. It was not until 1991 that maximum penalty was increased to death.

Secondly where is it written that a man should be shot without any trial? Salman Taseer never committed blasphemy, his only crime was that he said that blasphemy laws were abused and used as a tool to target Christians. Why was he shot?

A statement from Jamaat-e-Ahle-e Sunnat said that “No Muslim should attend or even offer prayers for Salman Taseer or even express any kind of regret over the incident”.

All of this without any trial in Sharia Court or any Court of Law! What kind of twisted logic is this?
If someone in the US says burn Quran, he is committing a heinous crime. This does not give you justification for committing murder of any one who questions the Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan. If France bans Burqa, the parliament is usurping fundamental human rights, but does it mean that bigots in Pakistan can also do what they want.

As a Muslim from countless generations, I am not against Blasphemy Laws per se. Such Laws exist in many countries. I am against its misuse and because it has been exploited by the bigots to penalize the minorities. Pakistan may be an Islamic country but one of the fundamental principles (Justice) is least practiced. Don’t tell me that you don’t know of people who have lied despite taking an oath on Quran.

On each Eid hundreds of Muslims swear that they have sighted the moon when it was not possible for any else to sight the moon in Pakistan. All of these live in a particular area around a mosque in Peshawar and are pious Muslims! They do it each year; aren’t these people lying under oath?

How can any sane person insist on a Law which is open to abuse in a country where lying under oath is done as a matter of course? How it is possible under such circumstances to ensure that a person is actually guilty of blasphemy?

Regret to say that Pakistani bigots are responsible for giving a bad name to Islam. What was a very peaceful and liberal religion has been turned into a vindictive and intolerable religion in practice. Thanks to likes of Zia ul Haq (may he burn in Hell) and naïve Muslims who follow is his footsteps.

 

[Solomon2]

How can any sane person insist on a Law which is open to abuse in a country where lying under oath is done as a matter of course? How it is possible under such circumstances to ensure that a person is actually guilty of blasphemy?

Think of just which politicians pushed the blasphemy laws and what kind of people they were and are. Have you considered that their goal in blessing their wide application and abuse may be to destroy Pakistan as a law-based society entirely? Z.A. Bhutto who declared the Ahamadis non-Muslim thought of himself as Napoleon and General Zia who stuck religion into everyone's lives and struck at the secular schools killed him after a show trial. Law was the obstacle to both these men.

“Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalized medium of reason, that's all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling” - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter

If Pakistan is going to improve I think it will have to find a way to get Law back. Can you really rely on the existing authorities for this? If not, don't you have to take it back yourselves?