Advertising
Supported by
Being found guilty of this fee can result in a death sentence in the country. But being accused of disrespecting Islam can also be enough to lead to a person’s death.
By Zia Your-Rehman
Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan
Late last month, many others protested in Pakistan’s major cities in opposition to a blasphemy ruling by a senior judge, who also faced backlash and threats online. Two days later, a policeman in Punjab province saved a woman from an attack through other people who had the Arabic script dressed up for the Quranic verses.
Later that week, an organization in Karachi demolished minarets at a place of worship used by the Ahmadi sect, a long-persecuted minority and declared heretical in Pakistan’s constitution, amid accusations that their religion insults Islam.
These are just the latest episodes in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country where religion wields immense influence. Blasphemy is taken seriously in the country and a conviction can result in death.
But so can an accusation: mobs take matters into their own hands, lynching other people before their case can even be tried. A political climate that concealed extremism and a police force that was unable or unwilling to interfere contributed to such violence.
Last Sunday, police in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s most populous province, received a call from a shopkeeper at a local market who had built up a crowd around a woman, accusing her of blasphemy.
The woman, whose identity has been withheld by police for her safety, was wearing a suit with the word “Halwa” written in Arabic script, meaning “sweet” or “beautiful. “Passers-by, not knowing the meaning in Arabic, mistook the meaning for the Qur’anic verses.
We are retrieving the content of the article.
Please allow javascript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience as we determine access. If you’re in Reader mode, log out and log in to your Times account or subscribe to the full Times.
Thank you for your patience as we determine access.
Already a subscriber? Sign in.
Want all the Times? Subscribe.
Advertising