Tag Archives: Pope

Life in Jail for Two Pakistani Muslim Blasphemers

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from BBC News

A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Muslim prayer leader and his son to life in jail for blasphemy.

The pair were found guilty in Punjab province of tearing down a poster of a gathering to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. They deny blasphemy.

A Christian leader said this was the first time a jail term had been handed down under the blasphemy law, which carries a mandatory death sentence.

Christian woman Asia Bibi is on death row for allegedly insulting Islam.

The conviction of the Muslim father and son was Pakistan’s first under its blasphemy law since last week’s assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had backed proposed reforms to the legislation.

‘Poster trampled’

The sentence was handed down by an anti-terrorism court in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan in eastern Punjab province on Tuesday.

It followed an incident in the small town of Noor Shah Talai, in southern Punjab’s Muzaffargarh district, in April 2010, defence lawyer Arif Gurmani told the BBC.

He said the convicted pair, Mohammad Shafi, 45, and his 20-year-old son, Mohammad Aslam, had been running a grocery shop in a small market. Mr Shafi is also a prayer leader at a nearby mosque.

The complainant, Phool Khan, alleged that the pair had ripped down and trampled a poster of a gathering to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. It had been posted on a pillar outside the grocery shop.

The lawyer said they would launch an appeal against the sentence on Thursday Lahore High Court, as he claimed the allegations had been motivated by sectarian differences.

He said his clients followed the Deobandi school, while the complainant was from the Barelvi sect – both are Sunni Muslim branches of Islam.

Experts say the Barelvi school, although considered moderate, promotes a cult following of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Deobandi school – better known because of its Taliban supporters – is viewed as emphasising the ritual and temporal aspects of religion.

Barelvis have been in the forefront of a recent campaign against reforms to the blasphemy law.

Critics say the blasphemy law has been used to persecute minority faiths in Pakistan and is exploited by people with personal grudges.

The law has been in the spotlight since the 4 January assassination of Governor Taseer by one of his own bodyguards.

Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, who has confessed to the killing, said he was angered by Mr Taseer’s backing for proposed reforms to the blasphemy law, and by his support for the condemned Christian woman Asia Bibi.

She was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with other farmhands in a Punjab village in June 2009. She says she is innocent.

Pope Benedict XVI, who has led calls for her release, said this week the blasphemy law should be scrapped, provoking a backlash from protesters in the Punjab capital of Lahore on Wednesday.

Original Article can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12169123

Pope Decries Attacks Against Religious Minorities

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from CNN; by Hada Messia

Vatican City (CNN) — In his annual “State of the World” address to the Vatican diplomatic corps, Pope Benedict XVI spoke Monday about religious intolerance and discrimination toward Christian minorities around the world.

The pope voiced concern about the recent attacks against Christians in the Middle East and urged the region’s leaders to take stronger safeguard measures.

”Looking to the east, the attacks which brought death, grief and dismay among the Christians of Iraq, even to the point of inducing them to leave the land where their families have lived for centuries, has troubled us deeply. To the authorities of that country and to the Muslim religious leaders, I renew my heartfelt appeal that their Christian fellow-citizens be able to live in security, continuing to contribute to the society in which they are fully members.”

The pope repeated his call for religious tolerance in Egypt. He said an attack on Christians as they prayed in church was another example of the need for governments to protect their religious minorities.

The pope also condemned the recent assassination of the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province and asked Pakistan to repeal its blasphemy laws, saying that they are often used as an excuse for religious attacks on Christians. The Pakistani governor, Salman Taseer, had spoken in opposition to the blasphemy laws.

“I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law, all the more so because it is clear that it serves as a pretext for acts of injustice and violence against religious minorities,” the pope said.

While he praised the European Union’s efforts to protect Christian minorities in the Middle East, the pope also criticized its position toward Christian symbols in Europe and the lack of religious teachings in its schools as a form of religious intolerance.

“Another sign of the marginalization of religion, and of Christianity in particular, is the banning of religious feasts and symbols from civic life under the guise of respect for the members of other religions or those who are not believers,” the pope said, referring to the European Union Court decision in 2009 to ban the display of crucifixes in public schools in Italy. The Vatican strongly opposed the court’s decision and Italy is appealing it.

The Vatican has diplomatic relationship with 176 countries around the world.

The original article can be found here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/01/10/vatican.pope.speech/index.html