Richard Bartholomew has just posted a useful summary and update of the effect Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are having on Christians (and others). He tells of suspected ‘blasphemers’ who are endangered both by mob violence and by Pakistan’s prison regime. The blasphemy laws can be used to get rid of business rivals or punish personal enemies. Christians are not the only victims. Ahmadis are also targeted, and so are (mainstream) Muslims. Richard Bartholomew links to one story in which the ‘blasphemer’ had lent money to his accusers – they had hoped to manipulate the legislation to avoid having to pay up. Of course these examples of clear misuse of the laws shouldn’t distract from their inherently objectionable nature.
Many Pakistanis are critical of the laws, including Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani Ambassador to the UK, speaking here in a CNN interview:
So I think we need to be conscious that if we, as Pakistanis like me, living abroad in the West, in the United States or Pakistanis in the U.K., want and constantly complain about their treatment by Christians or majority populations and to say that we treat our minorities very well, they need to be conscious that in Pakistan, the Christian minority has many, many reasons to complain.
…FOSTER: And for Pakistan’s legal system to restore credibility, is it your view that they have to take blasphemy out of the legal system, effectively, in order to allow freedom of speech?
AHMED: Exactly
However fear of persecution, even assassination, makes it difficult for more secular, moderate voices to gain traction.