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| India-Pakistan |
| Thousands rally against blasphemy law change |
| 2010-12-25 |
| [Geo News] Thousands of people rallied in major Pak cities on Friday threatening further protests and anarchy if the government moves to amend a controversial blasphemy law. A ruling Pakistain Peoples Party politician sparked outcry last month by seeking to end the death penalty for blasphemy, after a Christian mother of five was sentenced to hang for defaming the Prophet Mohammed (SAW). Demonstrators marched in the eastern city of Lahore, the port city of Bloody Karachi and the central city of Multan, after influential religious parties called for protests to defend the law. A crowd of nearly 1,500 people gathered in Lahore, calling for "Jihad" and pledging to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of Prophet Mohammad. They also warned that attempts to soften the law would trigger nationwide protests. "Pakistain was created in the name of Islam and we will not tolerate any attempt to amend the law," a leader of the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Maulana Ahmad Khan told the participants. Former information minister and politician from the ruling Pakistain Peoples Party government, Sherry Rehman in November submitted a draft bill in the lower house seeking an end to death penalty under the existing law. English-language newspaper Dawn had quoted Rehman as saying that the law victimised minorities in the country. Rights activists also say the law encourages extremism in a nation already beseiged by Taliban attacks. Addressing a separate rally of over 500 people in Lahore, a leader of the banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Husnain Siddiqui said, "We will launch a national movement against all those politicians, who support efforts to amend the law." Politicians and conservative holy mans have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who showed remarkably little curiosity about who actually done her in ... should pardon Asia Bibi, the Christian mother who was sentenced to death under the blasphemy law. Pakistain has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but Bibi's case has exposed the deep faultlines in the conservative country. In the port city of Bloody Karachi, more than 2,000 people rallied against Rehman's proposed draft bill and demanded the government had Bibi a severe punishment for insulting Prophet Mohammad (SAW). Bibi was jugged in June 2009 after Mohammedan women labourers refused to drink from a bowl of water she was asked to fetch while out working in the fields. Days later, the women complained that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. Bibi was set upon by a mob, jugged by police and sentenced on November 8. Leaders of JUI and radical Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party warned that the government would "face a strong reaction if Bibi was pardoned." "The government should forget about amending the blasphemy law as any attempt in this regard will prove fatal," a local religious leader Yahya Ludhianvi said. Most of those convicted of blasphemy in Pakistain have their sentences overturned or commuted on appeal through the courts. Rights activists and pressure groups say it is the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistain for blasphemy. Only around three percent of Pakistain's population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Mohammedan. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Perv managed to put these recalcitrants in their place by tricking them into supporting a viciously anti-female, and highly unpopular law, just before elections. Pity they can't pull the same hat trick again with this. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-12-25 12:47 |
| #1 'Death to blasphemers' is obviously one of the secret pillars of Islam. All the other secret pillars start with 'Death to -- '. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-12-25 00:58 |