Insulting Islam

"They hatched a conspiracy to push out the residents of the colony. They contrived a case and got it filed by a person who was close to me."
"I am innocent."
Sawan Masih, Pakistani Christian

"In Pakistan, even being accused of blasphemy is equivalent to being sentenced."
"The blasphemy laws in Pakistan are used to settle personal vendettas."
Xavier Williams, president, Christian group, Life for All Pakistan

Associated Press

The death penalty for insulting the Prophet Mohammed. A more grave, grievous crime cannot be imagined by the faithful of Islam. It is an unforgivable crime, one so dreadful in its resonating violence against the faith that it must be punished by death. Never again would someone who assaulted the sanctity of the Prophet's name be able to repeat his intolerable offence. And his/her death would serve as a caution to all others who dare to insult Islam.

It cannot be known how many people languish in jail in Muslim countries which enforce capital punishment for any who are accused of blasphemy. In some Muslim countries, antipathies between Muslims and Christians are so great that false testimony is often given intending the accused to come to harm through false witness. Although the penalty of death is seen as required to ensure that respect and honour for Islam and its Prophet be ensured, it is possible that intervention can commute the sentence.

It is also possible, in a country like Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iran, for example, that those who come to the defense of the accused, even faithful Muslims, court death themselves through assassination by incensed Muslim fanatics. It has occurred often enough, even for Muslims of the rank of a governor, who in attempting to defend a Christian woman accused of slandering Mohammed, was killed by his own bodyguard in revenge for a perceived slight of Islam.

Now another case in Pakistan, a country where a young girl can be accused by an imam of desecrating the Koran by tearing pages and placing them in a bag she carried. Causing panic and terror in her Christian community, and pleas for mercy, that the child not be arrested, jailed and sentenced to death on the word of a malevolent Muslim cleric. In the more recent instance, a Christian has been accused by a Muslim friend of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Muslim mobs attack a Christian area of Lahore after blasphemy allegation. (M. Ali photo)

Sawan Masih was convicted during a hearing held in the jail where he has been incarcerated; held there in hopes of avoiding violent protests. Accused during a conversation with his friend of speaking ill of the Prophet, word quickly spread in the eastern city of Lahore. Swiftly, thousands of Muslim protesters began marauding in a Christian neighbourhood known as Joseph Colony. They torched Christian homes and churches and pandemonium and terror ensued.

Police only looked on as homes, shops and churches were destroyed in Lahore. (M. Ali photo)

Mr. Masih and his supporters insist that the incident was a fabricated one, meant to lead to success of an underhanded plot to seize land. Even if the government of Pakistan withholds committing an accused to the death penalty, the very issue is sufficient to arouse passions to the extent that rampaging mobs will carry out the death sentence on behalf of the state, with the assurance that in so doing they are committing to god's will as pious Muslims.

More than 180 homes and shops were reduced to rubble in Islamic rampage in Lahore. (M. Ali photo)

Following the rampage through the Christian colony, police arrested 83 suspects, including the man who lodged the complaint of blasphemy. So far, though a year has passed, no one has been convicted. A call has come from Amnesty International for Mr. Masih's release, and for those guilty of attacking Christian homes to face justice.

"Failure to do so will effectively send the message that anyone can commit outrageous abuses and excuse them as defence of religious sentiments", commented David Griffiths, Amnesty's deputy Asia Pacific director.

What a curious case of naivete.

Pakistani men, part of an angry mob, react after burning belongings of Christian families, in Lahore …