Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws led to the murder of two men and a death penalty sentence for a mother of five in 2010.

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On July 19, 2010 in Faisalabad, Pakistan, a suspected Islamic extremist shot dead two Christians accused of blasphemy after handwriting experts on July 14 notified police that signatures on papers denigrating Muhammad did not match those of the accused.

Expected to be exonerated, the two leaders of United Ministries Pakistan were being led in handcuffs back to jail when they were shot. Advocacy group representatives said the two bodies bore cuts and other signs of having been tortured while the brothers were in police custody.

Muslims had staged large demonstrations calling for the death penalty for the brothers, who were arrested when Rashid Emmanuel agreed to meet a mysterious caller at a train station but was instead surrounded by police carrying papers denigrating Muhammad – supposedly signed by the pastor and his brother and bearing their telephone numbers.

The Muslim who allegedly placed the anonymous call to the pastor, Muhammad Khurram Shehzad, also filed blasphemy charges against the brothers, said Atif Jamil Pagaan, coordinator of the Harmony Foundation advocacy group. Khurram Shehzad had filed the blasphemy case on July 1 under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are commonly abused to settle personal scores. Section 295-C states that “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punishable with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall be liable to fine.”

The shooter (or shooters) escaped.

Secondly, the first woman to be sentenced to die in Pakistan for allegedly blaspheming Islam’s prophet said she was shaken and aghast that she was never asked for a statement in her defense.

In an interview with Compass at Sheikhupura District Jail, Asia Noreen said through tears and a shaking voice that she was heartbroken and shattered. The mother of two children and step-mother to three others asked a question that no one has been able to answer for her. “How can an innocent person be accused, have a case in court after a false FIR [First Information Report], and then be given the death sentence, without even once taking into consideration what he or she has to say?”

Arrested on June 19, 2009, Noreen was accused of blaspheming Muhammad and defaming Islam. A judge under pressure from area Islamists convicted her under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes on Nov. 8.

“In the entire year that I have spent in this jail,” she told Compass, “I have not been asked even once for my statement in court. Not by the lawyers and not by the judge.” Noreen said the triggering incident resulted from a “planned conspiracy” to “teach her a lesson” because villagers in Ittanwali, near Nankana Sahib about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Lahore, disliked her and her family. “They have been saying that I confessed to my crime, but the fact is that I said I was sorry for any word that I may have said during the argument that may have hurt their feelings,” she said. “What my village people have accused me of is a complete lie.”

In spite of the trauma the blasphemy laws have visited on Pakistan’s minorities as well as on Muslims, the U.N. General Assembly voted on Dec. 21 to pass a “Defamation of Religions” resolution that lends international legitimacy to such laws. The resolution was adopted with 79 votes in favor, 67 votes against and 40 abstentions – the smallest level of support it has received since it was first voted on 10 years ago.
 

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