The stupid blasphemy laws in Pakistan have another victim.
A court in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province has sentenced a journalist to life imprisonment for blasphemy. Munawar Mohsin, a sub-editor at the Frontier Post newspaper was convicted of publishing a blasphemous letter that led to violent protests across the country.
[…]Two other defendants – former Frontier Post news editor Aftab Ahmad and computers chief Wajeehul Hassan were acquitted. […]An arrest warrant was issued against a fourth man, newspaper managing editor Mahmood Shah Afridi, who has absconded.
[…]The court ruling said: “The accused was responsible for selection of the letter in question and subsequently he sent the same for the purpose of printing.”
The letter was published on 29 January, 2001. It was written by a person named Ben DZec and appeared in the Your Views column of the newspaper. The letter contained remarks about the Prophet Mohammed deemed derogatory. The day after it was printed, a violent mob attacked the offices of the newspaper, set the printing press on fire and damaged other public property, including a cinema.
The Frontier Post quickly carried large advertisements in national dailies apologising for publishing the letter and Mr Afridi also apologised. However, publication of the newspaper was suspended for a few months after the incident.
Mohsin had been in detention since the publication of the letter.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan but no convict has ever been executed.
I think the high court is likely to acquit Munawar Mohsin, but the decision by the district judge is still very wrong. In fact, the blasphemy law itself needs to go.
What was it he published that caused such an uproer?
That is, such an uproar.
It was a letter to the editor titled “Why Muslims hate Jews?” I don’t remember the contents now (and can’t find them on the web) but it was basically a rant that is all too common on the net.
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Pakistan Social Justice Group views court verdict as unjust. There is hardly any concept of blashphemy in Islam and many Muslim authors have written about it.
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