In Pakistan, yet another person is sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Blasphemy laws don’t just target nonbelievers. In Pakistan, about 50 Shia Muslims have been charged since the beginning of a “crackdown” on blasphemy over the past couple of months, and five Shias have been killed in attacks.
Quote:Amin, a resident of Layyah district which is some 400 kms from here, was arrested a few years ago on his neighbour’s complaint that he had committed blasphemy.
A district and sessions court of Layyah handed down the death sentence to Amin and also imposed a fine of 500,000 Pakistani Rupee ($3,085) on him
Earlier this month, the Lahore High Court acquitted a Christian man sentenced to death for blasphemy in a rare judgement
The news of the alleged blasphemy sparked protests and a mob torched more than 100 Christian homes in Lahore's Joseph colony.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence. Anyone convicted or even just accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes. Rights groups have said the blasphemy laws are routinely abused to seek vengeance and settle personal scores.
https://www.deccanherald.com/internation...05591.html
Blasphemy laws don’t just target nonbelievers. In Pakistan, about 50 Shia Muslims have been charged since the beginning of a “crackdown” on blasphemy over the past couple of months, and five Shias have been killed in attacks.
Quote:Pakistani Shias live in terror as sectarian violence increases
Over the past month, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in attacks and arrests of its Shia population, who make up between 15% and 20% of the Sunni-majority country, the largest Shia community outside Iran.
As well as the 50 who have been charged in the blasphemy crackdown, five have been killed since September and many more Shia families and well-known figures have gone into hiding. Last week, in Punjab, police beat up and arrested 22 Shia Muslims, including seven women, who were taking part in a ceremony to mark a Shia martyr.
in mid-September, a march of more than 30,000 people, organised by extremist Sunni Muslim groups, gathered in Karachi over two days to call Shia Muslims “unbelievers” and “blasphemers” and called for their beheading. It was the largest anti-Shia march seen in decades in Pakistan, and was copied in other cities including the capital Islamabad.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/o...-increases
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
