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November 27, 2006

Pakistan: Two Christians Jailed Under Islamist Blasphemy Laws

Late on Thursday (November 23), the Pakistan Senate voted to ratify the decision made by the lower house on November 15, to make the Women's Protection Bill become law. This bill effectively removes from the 1979 "Hudood ordinances" the necessity of a woman who has been raped to provide four (Muslim) witnesses. President Musharraf is expected to sign the bill into law today.

The 1979 Hudood Ordinances were introduced by the Islamist dictator Zia ul-Haq, who controlled Pakistan from 1977 to his death in a plane crash in 1988. Another set of laws he introduced was the blasphemy laws, which entered the penal code in 1986.

Today, the Hindustan Times relates that two Christians have been jailed for 15 years on Saturday, November 25.

The defendants were tried at an Anti-Terrorism Court in Faisalabad, Punjab province, for an alleged offense carried out two months ago. Jamil alias James Masih and Boota Masih, members of the same family, were allegedly caught burning the pages of holy Quran on September 8, 2006, in the Nishatabad area.

Additionally, the pair, who are members of the same family, were fined 25,000 rupees ($411) each.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws are draconian in the extreme, and they are discriminatory. Members of the Muslim sect known as the Ahmadiyyah, for example, are banned under Articles 298-B and 298-C from calling themselves Muslims, from preaching and proselytizing as Muslims, with the threat of three years' imprisonment, as well as a fine.

Under Article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), anyone who insults or sneers at the so-called "prophet" of Islam can be subjected to the death penalty. In the original wording of the law, Article 295-C gave judges the option of imposing the death penalty or a life sentence. In the early 1990s, Article 295-C was amended, making the death sentence the mandatory punishment.

One of these blasphemy laws, Article 295-B, has been frequently used to persecute Christians in Pakistan. This ruling states that "Defiling, etc, of copy of Holy Quran. Whoever will fully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable for imprisonment for life."

A large proportion of those who are arrested under this law are Christians. Under the terms of the blasphemy laws, when anyone makes an accusation against another individual, the accused is immediately placed under arrest, before any investigation is made.

Frequently, false accusations are made against Christians of burning the Koran. Last year on November 11 a Christian man in Sangla Hill, Punjab province, Yousaf Maseh, was falsely accused of burning pages from a Koran. He was placed in police custody and was not released until February 23.

On November 12, a Muslim mob of hundreds of individuals ransacked churches in the Christian community of Sangla Hill. Christians only comprise 10% of the local population there. A priest's house, primary school, the Nazooli-i-Rooh Catholic church, a convent boarding house and medical centre, and two protestant churches were burned. Statues of Christ had their feet snapped off, crucifixes were bent, and habits of nuns burned. Three other churches were also attacked.

Following a similar accusation made in Sukkur in south Pakistan, on February 19 this year, 400 Muslims attacked Christian interests - the the St Saviours Church and St Xavier's Church and St Mary's school, which had been built in 1889.

On August 6 last year, a 60-year old illiterate Christian, Yousaf Masih, was released from custody after his arrest on June 28. He had been asked by his employers to burn rubbish, and was unaware that some of the papers he was asked to incinerate contained verses from the Koran. Mr Masih, who had learning difficulties and was in frail health, was given death threats upon his release, and had to go into hiding.

According to the National Commission for Justice and Peace, at least 23 people who have been involved in blasphemy cases have subsequently been murdered by Muslim fanatics. Even though Pakistan's Christian population is less than 2% of the whole, a quarter of those killed were Christian.

A large proportion of Pakistan's Christian minority live in Punjab province, and it is here that most Christian cases of blasphemy are tried. Because of the technicalities of the Blasphemy rulings, people have to remain in custody until their trials are heard. This month at the High Court in Lahore, Punjab province, one Pakistani Christian, Ranjha Masih (pictured, above right), was finally acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight and a half years in jail.

The presiding judge, Asif Saeed Khan Khausa, said that there was no solid evidence against Masih, and gave him a complete acquittal. Mr Masih had been accused of knocking down a signboard, which bore verses from the Koran, at a funeral of a Catholic Bishop in April 2003, states Compass News.

In 2003, a district court had sentenced Ranjha Masih to life imprisonment. There were glaring inconsistencies in his trial. The broken signboard was not produced until 20 days after the arrest. And though he should have been tried under Article 295-B, for defiling the Koran, he was charged under Article 295-C, which outlaws insults against Mohammed. Though this law carries a mandatory death penalty, Masih was given a life sentence.

The Hudood Laws discriminated against women and non-Muslims, and yet President Musharraf was able to finally have these laws amended by the introduction of the Women's Protection Bill. He was met with stiff opposition from the coalition of Islamist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA, , the United Action Front. On Sunday in Karachi, 400 clerics issued a fatwa against the law. But when finally signed, it would be difficult to reintroduce such a bill which makes no differentiation between rape and adultery. Only a Muslim fanatic could consider such a law just.

It was revealed on July 31 by former chief justice of the Lahore High Court Dr Javaid Iqbal that when Zia ul-Haq introduced the Huddod Ordinances, legal procedure was never followed properly.

After Musharraf came to power, he tried to amend the Blasphemy Laws. He was threatened by Islamist groups with the prospect of widespread demonstrations and protests, so in May 2000, he announced that he would leave the blasphemy laws unchanged.

On May 6, 1998, John Joseph (pictured left), Catholic bishop of Faisalabad, Punjab, had shot himself dead in a protest against the blasphemy laws.

In June this year, Shahbaz Bhatti, the chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to amend the blasphemy laws. He said: "Blasphemy law is used as a weapon to settle personal scores. Many innocent people are killed and incarcerated due to its misuse of blasphemy laws. Similarly, in the cases of blasphemy the families of the accused are also threatened and they faced harassment and victimization."

Nothing has come of such appeals to rationality. Last November, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican church, was in Pakistan for an official visit. He claimed that he was assured by those he met that the blasphemy laws would be placed under review. This never happened.

Instead of moving to amend or ban the blasphemy legislation, Musharraf has moved in the opposite direction. Following the February protests against the Danish cartoons, in which at least five people, including an eight-year old child, were killed in Pakistan, Musharraf tried to impose an international law against Muslim blasphemy.

Musharraf may be an ally of the West in its "war on terror". He has proved that it is possible to stand up to the fiercest proponents of Islamism and Islamist laws by amending the unjust Hudood Ordinances. Unless he seriously reviews the discriminatory blasphemy laws, and repeals them from their current form, there is no way Pakistan could be called a just or fair society.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 27, 2006 8:16 AM

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