Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (80 page)

18
. Pew Research Center, “Pakistani Public Opinion,” August 13, 2009,
http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=265
.

19
. The Persecution.org (Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community), “Apostasy Bill 206 (Proposed),”
http://www.thepersecution.org/50years/apostasybill.html
; Qaiser Felix, “New Apostasy Bill to Impose Death on Anyone Who Leaves Islam,”
AsiaNews.it
, May 9, 2007,
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9218
;
UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review: Pakistan
, submission of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, 14 January 2008, see n. 17,
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session2/PK/BFRL_PAK_UPR_S2_2008_BecketFundforReligiousLiberty_uprsubmission.pdf
.

20
. “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan.”

21
. Amnesty International, “Pakistan: Insufficient Protection of Religious Minorities,” May 14, 2001,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/008/2001/en
; Paul Marshall, ed.,
Religious Freedom in the World
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 321.

22
. “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan.”

23
. Ahmad, “Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws”; U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,
Annual Report 2006
,
http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2191&Itemid=1
. Anwar Keneth received a death sentence because (allegedly) “[H]e addressed a letter to a local imam and others stating that Islam was a fake religion. He also claimed in the letter to be Christ.” See “Blasphemy Results in Death Sentence,”
Associated Press (AP)
, July 18, 2002,
http://wwrn.org/articles/11079/
.

24
. National Commission for Justice and Peace,
A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan
.

25
. “Christian Cleared of Blasphemy Charges, Fired from Job, Facing Death Threats,” February 22, 2008,
http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newssummpopup.php?newscode=7202&PHPSESSID=950237e02e168d2f4ba712d5984333d7
; NCJP,
A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan
; Marshall,
Religious Freedom in the World
, 321; Ali Waqar, “60 Accused of ‘Blasphemy’ in Six Months: NCJP,”
The Daily Times
(Islamabad), July 31, 2005,
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_31–7–2005_pg7_22
; “More Ahmadis Killed as Government Continues to Ignore Religious Violence,” Amnesty International, November 1, 2000,
http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA330132000?open&of=ENG-PAK
.

26
. Ahmad, “Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws.”

27
. “Blasphemer Attacked in Pakistan,”
BBC News
, August 7, 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8189209.stm
.

28
. “Pakistani Government Drafts Bill to Revise Discriminatory Laws,” All India Christian Council, July 25, 2007,
http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/137/47/
; Amnesty International, “Pakistan: Insufficient Protection of Religious Minorities,” May 14, 2001,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/008/2001/en
.

29
. “Pakistan City Tense after ‘Blaspheming’ Christians Shot,”
BBC News
, July 20, 2010,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10696762
.

30
. “Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan,” CSW-US, n.d.,
http://www.cswusa.com/Countries/Pakistan-blasphemylaws.htm
.

31
.
Daily Pakistan
, January 30, 2001, excerpted in National Commission for Justice and Peace,
A Report on the Religious Minorities in Pakistan
.

32
. Ron Synovitz, “After Facebook, Pakistan Shuts Down YouTube over Blasphemy,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 20, 2010,
http://www.rferl.org/content/After_Facebook_Pakistan_Shuts_Down_YouTube/2047818.html
; “Pakistan to Monitor Google and Yahoo for ‘Blasphemy,’ ”
BBC News
, June 25, 2010,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/10418643.stm
.

33
. “Ahmadisyya Islam,”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/islam-Ahmadis.htm
; “Rejected Muslim Sect Keeps Faith: Ahmadis Thriving in Silver Spring Despite Disdain, Fear,”
Washington Post
, August 30, 2008,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/29/AR2008082902302.html
.

34
. Amjad Mahmood Khan, “Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan: An Analysis Under International Law and International Relations,”
Harvard Human Rights Journal
16 (2003): 217–44,
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss16/khan.shtml#fn6
.

35
. “Ahmadisyya Muslim Community,”
http://www.alislam.org/introduction/index.html
.

36
. “Ahmadisyya Islam.”

37
. Barends, “Sharia in Pakistan.”

38
. USCIRF,
Annual Report 2006
.

39
. Testimony of Amjad Mahmood Khan, Esq., before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, October 8, 2009.

40
. Testimony of Mujeeb I. Ijaz before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. Congress, October 8, 2009.

41
. Embassy of Pakistan, “Application Form for Passport,”
http://www.embassyofpakistanusa.org/forms/A%20form%20fillable.pdf
.

42
. Marshall,
Religious Freedom in the World
, 322. Continuing reports on the persecution of Ahmadis are given at
http://www.thepersecution.org/
.

43
.
International Religious Freedom Report 2002
, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/14026.htm
; Khan, “Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan.”

44
. Marshall,
Religious Freedom in the World
, 321.

45
.
International Religious Freedom Report 2008
, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008
.

46
. The Persecution.org, “Summary of the Cases,”
http://thepersecution.org/facts/summary.html
. The U.S. State Department records from early 2008: “In January 2008 authorities arrested an Ahmadi in Wazirabad, Punjab, on charges of distributing Ahmadi-related pamphlets. He was granted bail in March 2008 and forced to leave the area after receiving numerous death threats. In January 2008 police charged an Ahmadiyya businessman,
Manzur Ahmed
, with destroying pages that included religious inscriptions.… On March 6, 2008, police arrested 80-year-old Ahmadi Altaf Husain in Kabeerwala for desecrating the Qur’an. According to police, a student saw Husain rip pages out of the Qur’an and throw them on the ground. Members of the Ahmadiyya community stated that Husain was reading the power meter outside his home when the student warned him that he was stepping on a page of the Qur’an.… On June 18, 2008, Mohammad Shafeeq was sentenced to death for blasphemy after he allegedly defiled the Qur’an and used derogatory language to refer to the Prophet Mohammad.” See
International Religious Freedom Report 2008; International Herald Tribune
, June 18, 2008; “Muslim Man in Pakistan Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy,”
http://newshopper.sulekha.com/news/muslim-man-in-pakistan-sentenced-to-death-forblasphemy.htm
. For another case, see “Presumed Guilty Five Ahmadis Arrested in Punjab for Blasphemy,”
AsiaNews.it
, February 13, 2009,
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14481
, and Asian Human Rights Commission, “Four Children and One Man Have Been Arbitrarily Arrested and Charged,” January 30, 2009,
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/1859/
.
In March 2009, two Ahmadi medical doctors were brutally murdered by unknown assailants. Dr. Shiraz Ahmad Bajwa and his wife, Dr. Noreen Bajwa, pregnant with her first child, were strangled to death in their home and then hung from a fan. There has been no motive attributed to the murders apart from the couple’s Ahmadi identity. See “Brutal Murder of Ahmadi Muslim Husband and Wife in Pakistan,” Fox Business, March 16, 2009,
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS83347+16-Mar-2009+PRN20090316
.

47
. “Pakistan: Insufficient Protection of Religious Minorities” (n. 28 above).

48
. Ibid.

49
. “Pakistan: Two Persons Murdered after an Anchor Person Proposed the Widespread Lynching of Ahmadi Sect Followers,” Asian Human Rights Commission, Urgent Appeals Programme, September 10, 2008,
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2999/
.

50
.
Asian Human Rights Commission Statement
, AHRC-STM-062–2009, March 18, 2009,
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/1947/
.

51
. Jane Perlez and Waqar Gillani, “Sectarian Attacks Hit Two Pakistani Mosques,”
New York Times
, May 28, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/world/asia/29pstan.html?ref=world
; “Pakistan Mosque Attacks in Lahore Kill Scores,”
BBC News
, May 28, 2010,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10181380.stm
.

52
. M Zulqernain, “Sharif Stuns Pakistan: Calls Ahmedis Brothers,”
Indian Express
, June 8, 2010,
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sharif-stuns-pakistan-calls-ahmedis-brother/630800/
.

53
. “Pakistan: Insufficient Protection of Religious Minorities.” See also Javaid Rehman, “Minority Rights and the Constitutional Dilemmas of Pakistan,” in
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
19, no. 4 (2001): 417–43; “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan.”

54
. On some other cases, see David Pinault, “Loser’s Vengeance: Muslim-Christian Relations and Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law,”
America
194, no. 13 (April 10, 2006); “Sangla Hill Christian Accused of Blasphemy Released,” February 22, 2006,
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?art=5456&l=en
; International Christian Concern (ICC), “Faces of Persecution in Pakistan,” June 6, 2001,
http://www.persecution.org/concern/2001/06/p3.html
;
Religious Prisoners Congressional Task Force: The Islamic Republic of Pakistan
,
http://www.house.gov/pitts/initiatives/humanrights/hr-rp-pak-ayubmasih.htm
; Amnesty International,
Annual Report 2002
,
http://www.amnesty.org
; “Faces of Persecution in Pakistan (continued),”
http://www.persecution.org/concern/2001/06/p4.html
; “School Owner Muhammad Ibrahim Became Jealous Because the School Run by Pervez Masih Was Attracting More Pupils,” Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement,
http://www.claas.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?ID=57
; Ali Waqar, “84 Year Old Accused of Blasphemy,”
The Daily Times
, May 10, 2007. See also
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1826359.ece
.

55
. For an overview of the Ayub Masih case, see “Death Sentence Confirmed for Ayub Masih,”
Compass Direct News
, August 24, 2001,
https://www.strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=kb&view=v&id=6899&fto=662&
; “Last Appeal for Ayub Masih,”
Compass Direct News
, September 21, 2001,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=264&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Pakistan&rowcur=125
; “Eleven Christians Currently Jailed on Blasphemy Charges,”
Compass Direct News
, July 18, 2002,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=1503&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Pakistan&rowcur=100
; “Acquitted Christian Flees to Freedom,”
Compass Direct News
, September 13, 2002,
http://archive.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&idelement=1573&lang=en&length=short&backpage=archives&critere=&countryname=Pakistan&rowcur=100
.

56
. “Religious Intolerance in Pakistan.”

57
. Christian Solidarity Worldwide,
Briefing: Pakistan, Visit to Pakistan, October 25–November 2, 2004
,” 5,
http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&id=12&search
.

58
. “Illiterate Christian Acquitted of Blasphemy,” June 16, 2003,
http://www.crossroad.to/News/Persecution/alert/compass.htm
.

59
. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, “Visit to Pakistan,” 6.

60
. “Illiterate Christian Acquitted of Blasphemy.”

61
. “Man to Die over Insult,”
Daily Herald
, June 2, 2007, 2,
http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,1220,Man-to-die-over-insult,Daily-Herald,page2
.

62
. Qaiser Felix, “Christian Tortured and Detained on False Charges of Blasphemy,”
AsiaNews. it
, July 3, 2009,
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Faisalabad,-a-Christian-tortured-and-detained-on-false-charges-of-blasphemy-15685.html
; “Pakistani Christian Sentenced to Life Under Blasphemy Law,”
Compass Direct News
, January 22, 2010,
http://www.compass-direct.org/english/country/pakistan/14329
; Fareed Khan, “Punjab: Christian Couple Touches Qur’an with Dirty Hands, Gets 25 Years in Prison,”
AsiaNews.it
, March 3, 2010,
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/pakistan/14329
.