Human Rights Lawyer Killed Over Pakistan's 'Blasphemy' Law

A prominent human rights lawyer in Pakistan was shot dead because he was defending a man accused of "blasphemy" against the Prophet Mohammed.

Rashid Rehman Khan, a coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), was killed on Wednesday when two gunmen burst into his office in the city of Multan.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws call for the death penalty for anyone convicted of defiling "the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed."

Human rights activists say the laws have contributed to violence against Christians in Pakistan. Around half of those charged under the laws since 1988 have been non-Muslims, who comprise just 2 percent of the population. 

Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer in English at Multan's Bahauddin Zakariya University, was charged with blasphemy in March after radical Islamists accused him of posting "blasphemous" comments on his Facebook page.

Hafeez struggled for months to find an attorney willing to represent him before Khan stepped in, CNS News reported.

In April, the HRCP issued a statement expressing concerns about Khan's safety after he was threatened by a group of men in a Multan courtroom who told him, "You will not come to court next time because you will not exist anymore." 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent watchdog, said it is aware of 17 Pakistanis currently on death row for blasphemy, and 19 serving life terms in prison.

One notable case that has attracted international attention involves an illiterate Christian farm laborer known as Asia Bibi, the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy.

In June 2009, Muslim women she was working with in the field made derogatory statements about her religion, according to the New York Post, and Bibi responded: "I believe in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Muhammad ever do to save mankind?" 

A mob later came to her house, where she lived with her husband and five children, and beat her. She was arrested and spent a year in jail before being charged.

In November 2010, a judge sentenced her to death by hanging.

A month after her conviction, a Muslim cleric announced a reward equivalent to $10,000 to anyone who killed her, the Express Tribune in Pakistan reported.

After the governor of Punjab state, Salman Taseer, took up Bibi's case, he was shot dead by a member of his bodyguard. Hundreds of lawyers offered the killer free representation and 500 Muslim scholars gave him an honorary title as "Lover of the Prophet."

Pakistan's federal minorities minister, a Christian who also supported Bibi, was also shot dead.  

 

 

 

Yup...looks peaceful to me...I say Islam/Sharia Law should be illegal world wide..*PERIOD*

Khan's murder came a week after the USCIRF repeated a recommendation that the U.S. State Department designate Pakistan, which is a major recipient of American aid, as a "country of particular concern" under U.S. law, CNS disclosed.

But the Obama State Department has chosen not to do so.