Source & Credit: Energy Publisher
By Martin Barillas | June 26, 2010
During the last few weeks, three more Christians and a Shia religious leader in Pakistan have faced charges under Pakistan’s discriminatory blasphemy laws, 295 B & C of Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly desecrating the Koran and defaming the founder of Islam - Muhammad.
On May 28, a judge directed police in Karachi to file charges against two Christians, Atiq Joseph and Qaiser William, after a mob of armed Islamists went through their home’s garbage looking for pages of the Islamic scripture there.
In another case, Pakistani Christian Rehmat Masih, 73, was charged with blasphemy “for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad and his wife Hazrat Khadija.” On June 19, 2010, a report was filed at the Jhumra police station on a by the Muslim man Sajid Hameed. Masih is a resident of the village of Jandwali Chak in Punjab province. With the passage of the Criminal Law Act of 1986, parliament added section 295-C to the Pakistan Penal Code, making the defamation of Muhammad punishable by death. .
Masih was arrested at his residence and taken to jail in Faisalabad. He will arraigned before Magistrate Muhammad Sajawal on July 4. According to Shahid Anwar, the Coordinator of the Pakistani National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), on June 10, Muslims spread rumors that Masih had committed blasphemy by making disparaging remarks about Muhammad.
According to the NCJP, the charge against Masih is clearly based on false allegations and linked to a land dispute between the accuser Hameed and the local Christian community, where about 25 impoverished Christians are a distinct in minority. Witnesses cited in the report filed by Hameed, Shahbaz Khalid and Afzaal Bashir, have had political differences with Masih, according to the NCJP.
Christian residents of the area are fearful over threatened future attacks by Muslim mobs – a commonplace following accusations of blasphemy under Muslim “shariah” law. Many Christian families of the Muslim-dominated village have now fled out of concern for their safety.
In another latest incident, on June 25, thousands of Muslim people of Yazman Tehsil, Southern Punjab, staged a demonstration against the police for not arresting an alleged Shia blasphemer who had allegedly committed blasphemy during his address in the village’s a congregation hall for Shia ritual ceremonies on May 27. Later on, Senior House Officer Irfan Khan promised to the protestors that the alleged culprit would be arrested shortly. Shia Muslims are in minority in Sunni-dominated Pakistan.
The Shia Muslim residents of the village are frightened due to threats from a banned terrorist organization in the area. Bashir Haider, a Shia resident, told a local newspaper that the people of both sects had been living peacefully in the area for the last 50 years, and has called for an independent investigation into threats received by the Shia community.
Martin Barillas is a former US diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America.
Read original post here: Pakistan: Christians fearful and fleeing Punjab
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