Tag: Blasphemy

A renewed debate over blasphemy laws

October 2, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Imran Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Ulema Council, Peshawar, PTI, Quetta, Shahbaz Bhatti, Taliban

Memorials for the victims of the bomb attacks at All Saints Church in Peshawar.Kamran Chaudhry for World Watch Monitor The Sept. 22 suicide bombings of a church in Pakistan have re-ignited political debate on the country’s controversial blasphemy laws. Only three days before the incident, the Council for Islamic . . . Read More

Arrests made in Bhatti murder

September 18, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Pakistan, Shahbaz Bhatti

Pakistan police have arrested eight men in connection with the March 2011 assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, a cabinet minister who had spoken out against the country’s blasphemy laws, according to Pakistan news reports. Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, urged reform of laws that make it a crime to insult . . . Read More

Christians flee Pakistani village after pastor accused of blasphemy

September 12, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Lahore

Dozens of Christian families have fled from their homes in a village near Lahore after a pastor was accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. In a discussion with a Muslim man on August 24, Pastor Sattar Masih, 37, was accused of saying that Muhammad was a brutal man who . . . Read More

40 Pakistani Christian families face hunger after Gojra elopement dispute

September 2, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gojra

Last month was the fourth anniversary of one of the worst outbreaks of violence against Pakistan’s minority Christian community in the country’s recent past. In August 2009, seven Christians were burned to death in Gojra, while more than 100 houses were looted, ransacked and then set on fire. Four years . . . Read More

Rimsha accused goes free

August 21, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Islamabad, Pakistan Ulema Council, Rimsha Masih

The Muslim cleric suspected of framing Pakistani Christian girl Rimsha Masih has been acquitted. The district court found there was insufficient evidence to convict Imam Khalid Jadoon Chishti, who was suspected of planting the burnt pages of some Islamic texts into the teenager’s bag. Rights activist Basharat Khokhar, left; Mizrak . . . Read More

Christian jailed for text messages in Gojra, Pakistan

July 26, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gojra, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba

Tensions are high in the Punjabi city of Gojra after a court sentenced a Christian man, Sajjad Masih, to life imprisonment for blasphemy, only weeks before the fourth anniversary of an outbreak of extreme violence against Christians in the same city. In August 2009, seven Christians from the same family . . . Read More

Rimsha, family, living in Canada

June 29, 2013 Pakistan Asylum seekers, Blasphemy, Paul Bhatti, Rimsha Masih

Rimsha Masih, the teenage Pakistani girl who once faced the possibility of the death penalty because she was accused of insulting Islam, is living in Canada with her family, a Canadian religious-rights organization says. Peter Bhatti, executive director of International Christian Voice, told World Watch Monitor on Saturday that Rimsha . . . Read More

Pakistan court throws out blasphemy charge against pastor

June 27, 2013 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Rimsha Masih, Sheikhupura

Aasiya Noreen, more widely known as Aasiya Bibi, with two of her daughters in a 2010 photo. As a Pakistan court threw out blasphemy charges against pastor Karma Patras, Noreen remained in prison, awaiting appeal of her conviction on blasphemy charges. She faces the death penalty.Photo courtesy Open Doors International . . . Read More

Egyptian blasphemy case ‘bodes ill’

June 12, 2013 Egypt Blasphemy, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Luxor, Prophet Muhammad

Christian teacher Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour has been fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,000) for defaming Islam and insulting Prophet Mohammed, which is prohibited in Article 44 of the Egyptian constitution. The 24-year-old will now face compensation claims at a civil court following the conclusion of the criminal trial in Luxor . . . Read More

Egyptian ‘defamation’ verdict due

June 10, 2013 Egypt Blasphemy, Egypt, Luxor, Prophet Muhammad

The trial of an Egyptian Christian teacher accused of defaming Islam and insulting Prophet Mohammed is expected to conclude at a third hearing scheduled for June 11, reports Middle East Concern. Twenty-four-year-old Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour was arrested on May 8 after accusations by the parents of three students at Sheikh . . . Read More

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