Shutter down strike over blasphemy issue

[DesiGuy]

KARACHI: A shutter down strike was being observed in several parts of Pakistan on Friday on the call of religious parties to protest against what they believe are plans by the government to change the country’s blasphemy law.

All major markets and business centres were closed in big cities and towns.

In Karachi, no public transport was available and commuters were facing difficulties.

The strike was also being observed in Lahore, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Quetta, Kashmore, Hazara division and Kandhkot.

Protest rallies and demonstrations were being carried out against any proposed amendments to the blasphemy law. In Karachi, protestors demonstrating on the Mauripur road blocked the intersection and suspended traffic.

Moreover, a report said, protestors, carrying sticks and chanting anti-government slogans, blocked traffic by setting tyres on fire in Karachi’s Shirin Jinnah Colony. A police team reached the scene and persuaded the demonstrators to end the blockade, it said.

In the southwestern town of Chaman, thousands of protestors chanting anti-American slogans rallied and warned the government against any move to change the blasphemy law.

The law came under the spotlight after a Christian woman was sentenced to death in November by a court on charges of insulting Islam. Critics say the law is used to persecute religious minorities, fan religious extremism and settle personal scores.

“This government is planning to change the blasphemy law under foreign pressure but Muslims of this country will never allow it to do so,” Abdul Raheem Mazhari, a cleric and a local leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party, told protestors.

Earlier, on Thursday, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah appealed to religio-political parties to call off Friday`s strike and categorically declared that the government was not bringing any bill to amend the blasphemy law.

Shah said that after his categorical statement on the floor of the National Assembly on Wednesday an attempt to bring people on the street by exploiting religion was detrimental to the country’s interest.

He alleged that those agitating on the issue were exploiting religion for ulterior motives.

The strike call was given by the “Namoos-i-Risalat” conference held recently under the auspices of Majlis-i-Tahafuz-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat.

Shutter down strike over blasphemy issue | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Bigots at work, people off it.

 

[Ababeel]

Business centres shut down all over Pakistan: thousands rally over blasphemy laws

ISLAMABAD (January 01, 2011) : Business centres shut down in Pakistan on Friday in a strike called by religious parties to pressure the ruling party which is scrambling to stop its main coalition partner from pulling out of the governing coalition. Religious parties called the action to protest against what it believes are plans by the government to change the country's controversial blasphemy law.

Thousands of supporters of religious parties rallied in towns and cities across the country to support the law. "We will not allow the government to bring about any change in the blasphemy law. If it tried to do so, we would send it packing," Hafiz Hamdullah, local leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party, told supporters in Quetta.

A loose alliance of over a dozen religious parties, many of them pro-Taliban, announced the general strike on December 15, a day after the JUI pulled out of the coalition after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked one of its ministers. All major markets and business centres were closed in the capital Islamabad as well as in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta. Public transport was not running in Karachi. Police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters in Karachi but no one was injured.

Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), which broke with the coalition, and other religious parties don't have much electoral clout. But they have enough influence to fire up emotions in Pakistan, where frustrations are growing over poverty, poor government services, rampant corruption and many other issues.

Pakistani leaders can't afford to ignore them. Demonstrators said their goal was to defend the honour of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). "We will start a civil disobedience movement if the government makes any amendment to the law," the chairman of Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahabzada Fazal Karim, told AFP. Samsam Bokhari disassociated the government from the bill to amend the law, saying it was not policy.

"As far as the party is concerned, the law is not being amended, nor does the government intend to bring any change in it," he said. Protest rallies were held across Pakistan, and in Karachi police fired around a dozen teargas shells to disperse about 100 demonstrators who wanted to walk past Zardari's house.

Police official Naseer Tanoli told AFP the protesters were going to join the main rally in the town but had tried to pass the President's home en route. "We asked them to use a different route we had assigned for it. But they refused and pelted stones on the police, which forced us to use teargas," Tanoli said, adding that the demonstrators had dispersed.

Around 5,000 people rallied in the city, carrying placards and banners inscribed with anti-government and anti-US slogans with some chanting "Death to America". Shopping centres, colleges and universities were closed, and examinations scheduled for Friday in Karachi were postponed. The president of Karachi's local transport association, Irshad Bokhari, told AFP that public transport would remain off the road as part of the strike.

Chairman of the All Karachi Traders Unity Atiq Mir said: "All markets and business centres are closed because the protection of Prophet Mohammed's honour is supreme to us." Shops and business centres were also shut in Islamabad and Peshawar. More than 2,500 activists from different religious parties held three protest rallies in Multan, where a shutter-down strike was observed and markets and bazaars were closed, an AFP reporter said. Hundreds of protesters rallied in other main cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Balochistan. In Lahore, some 1,500 people participated in four separate protest demonstrations, an AFP reporter said.

Top Stories - Business centres shut down all over Pakistan: thousands rally over blasphemy laws

 

[Tin Man]

Ah.......the hypocrisy of it all.


"marge my dear.......i never learned a thing" (homer)~ the simpsons


Do you want to know the secret behind the indian success? Here you go....they never stop accomodating ;despite the religous goons. The moment they stop accomodating they will meet the same fate.


Congratulations to the religous bigots.

 

[FreekiN]

with some chanting "Death to America".

lol America could care less if the blasphemy law stayed.

A loose alliance of over a dozen religious parties, many of them pro-Taliban, announced the general strike on December 15

This is blasphemy.

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

"Thousands rally"

"Total Shut Down"

Looks like the blasphemy laws have real support among the masses. Quite contrary to what our Pakistani friends would have us believe.

 

[greatsequence]

^^^ You will only find very few people in pakistan who are in favour of removing these laws. Just few NGOS ranting nothing more. A clear message what the people of pakistan think and want.

 

[FreekiN]

"Thousands rally"

"Total Shut Down"

Looks like the blasphemy laws have real support among the masses. Quite contrary to what our Pakistani friends would have us believe.

No it doesnt. Stores and offices are only shutting down because they dont want to risk any damage to their property.

 

[greatsequence]

No it doesnt. Stores and offices are only shutting down because they dont want to risk any damage to their property.

Maybe but you cant deny that people in pakistan dont want this law to be changed as there is nothing wrong with it.

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

No it doesnt. Stores and offices are only shutting down because they dont want to risk any damage to their property.

No. Impossible. Even in India loonies like Shiv Sena protest Valentines day and beat a few couples/ damage a few shops but it never results in 'total shut down'. A few shops might shut down as a result of fear of violence but 'Total Shutdown'? That's impossible unless people also support it.

 

[TruthSeeker]

^^^ You will only find very few people in pakistan who are in favour of removing these laws. Just few NGOS ranting nothing more. A clear message what the people of pakistan think and want.

Has there been scientific polling done on the question of the blasphemy laws? Is there a link to such a poll you know of?

 

[GentlemanObserver]

"Thousands rally"

"Total Shut Down"

Looks like the blasphemy laws have real support among the masses. Quite contrary to what our Pakistani friends would have us believe.

A drop in the ocean. And yet you are ready to believe that we are all a bunch of bearded bigots bent to drinking the blood of non believes.

Sigh...

 

[Tin Man]

Ofcourse......changing the law would mean progress and tolerance......now why would we ever want that?

 

[niaz]

I am becoming more and more anti Religious parties every day. IMO main reason for Pakistan is in a mess is because of the exploitation of Islam by the religious parties and their bigoted supporters. I can only repeat what Hafiz Shirazi said nearly 700 years ago about the bigotry of the Mullahs.

Sharaab haraam shumarand wa khoon hkalq halaal
Zihey tareeeqat wa millat zihaey shariat wa deen

Meaning that they forbid the drinking of wine but approve shedding of the blood of humanity. Praise to the religious path and nationhood, praise to the sharia and religion.

Despite GOP backtracking on amendment to the Blasphemy law, there was this strike! Why don’t these bigots call for a shutter down against SUICIDE Bombings?

 

[blain2]

Maybe but you cant deny that people in pakistan dont want this law to be changed as there is nothing wrong with it.

Its not an issue of whether something is wrong with it or not, it has to do with our failure to implement it properly and fairly. When you do not have the mechanisms to impose a law, you need to have some room and leeway in its implementation and even interpretation (E.g. Umar RA temporarily abrogating punishment for theft due to famine). This is something that our people would understand and it is the obligation of real religious scholars (and not sellouts such as Fazlur Rehman) to point out and educate the masses on. Either we do this and/or pursue the easier task of funding and kicking the law enforcement agencies in the butt so they do a better job of investigating such issues and where excesses are found, prosecute the accusers in a manner that it becomes a lesson for all.

I doubt the Prophet of God (Pbuh) would like this tamasha to be made in his name where every Tom, Dick and Harry or village imams and their cohorts are calling out their adversaries for denigrating the Prophet for material gains and power and innocent people are being affected. No other Muslim country has such an issue.