Christian Critic of Islamic Blasphemy Law Shot Dead in Pakistan
Offline Ben Doherty SOUTH ASIA CORRESPONDENT
March 3, 2011
Assassinated ... the Minority Affairs Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was killed in his official car. Photo: AFP
ANOTHER critic of Pakistan's blasphemy law has been assassinated, the second prominent politician shot dead in the capital this year.
Up to four gunmen opened fire on the car of the Minorities Affairs Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, as he was being driven to work in Islamabad yesterday.
Mr Bhatti, a leader in the ruling Pakistan People's Party, had received death threats over his opposition to the blasphemy law.
Advertisement: Story continues below <iframe id="dcAd-1-4" src="http://ad-apac.doubleclick.net/adi/onl.smh.news/world;cat=world;ctype=article;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=2.7062086E7?" width='300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> </iframe>''I was told that if I was to continue the campaign … I will be assassinated, I will be beheaded. But forces of violence, forces of extremism cannot harass me, cannot threaten me,'' he said less than two months ago.
The law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Mr Bhatti, who was the only Christian in the cabinet, said it was being used to persecute minorities.
Christians make up less than 4 per cent of the population.
In January, the governor of Punjab province, Salmaan Taseer, another opponent of the law, was shot dead by his bodyguard. He had called for a pardon for Asia Bibi, a Christian farmhand in Punjab who has been sentenced to hang for alleged anti-Islamic remarks.
In 2009 her neighbours accused her of insulting the prophet Muhammad during an argument. She says the allegation was invented to settle an old dispute.
Her case has attracted international attention and widespread condemnation of the law.
A 17-year-old is also being held in a Karachi jail on charges that he scribbled an anti-Islamic message on a school exam paper.
No one has been executed under the blasphemy law but it is believed as many as 10 people have been killed while on trial.
Police say Mr Bhatti's car was ambushed shortly after he left his home in central Islamabad.
''Three or four armed men riding in a white Suzuki car intercepted his official vehicle,'' the police chief, Wajid Durrani, said.
The gunmen sprayed the car with bullets, dragged Mr Bhatti's niece outside, then shot Mr Bhatti inside the car.
The driver was wounded but survived, and drove Mr Bhatti to hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The killers escaped and no arrests have been made.
Pakistani TV showed images of the bullet-riddled car and reported that pamphlets in the name of the extremist group Tanzim Al Qaida Tehrik Taliban Punjab, were found at the scene.
The police chief said Mr Bhatti did not have a guard with him when he was attacked. The minister had security at his office, but had requested none at his house.
''He was vulnerable at his residence,'' Mr Durrani said.
Mr Bhatti's assassination has raised fears for the safety of Sherry Rehman, a Pakistan People's Party MP who championed reform of the blasphemy law.
Under pressure from her party she withdrew a bill amending the law in February, and has since been in semi-hiding.
The President, Asif Ali Zardari, and Prime Minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, condemned Mr Bhatti's assassination and vowed the government would not be cowed by terrorists.
But Mr Gilani said last month his party had ''no intention to amend the [blasphemy] law''.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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60 per cent of Australians are unhappy with muslim immigration and, given the ongoing calls for Sharia here, and events like the one above, I think those worried Aussies are being sensible.
Imagine a religion full of nutbags but with guns instead of hymnbooks. Yum.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
What a bunch of pussies. Their god is all powerful and cant handle a fight by himself?
Childish schoolyard bullies, "You picked on my daddy"
HERE'S ONE FOR YOUR DADDY, FUCK ALLAH!
And you dip shits wonder why the west bombs the shit out of your countries?
To the moderate Muslims reading this, please turn to the pricks in your camp and tell them to knock it off. They make you look bad.
Words are one thing, killing merely because of name calling is fucking childish. Your dad is a petty tyrant bully if the most important thing in this world is that you don't call him names.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
He had nuts, you have to say, standing up for his beliefs like this in the face of threat. Looking at this event in another way you can see that there are people in these oppressive nations we are ethically bound to support.
And yeah, Brian. Fuck Allah and the horse he spent the night in.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
The next time some religious nut defends religion as being logically sound, send them that as 100% proof positive that religion not only motivates people to do those things, it commands and condones it.
I remember getting an email that was supposedly a copy/paste of some high level government official in Australia, that simply blasted Muslim's (or other religions, I don't remember exactly) for being bronze age barbarians, and that he wanted them to all leave Australia.
I have no idea if it was accurate, but it seemed that way.
It was circulated asking for the email to be circulated to friends if you agreed with it.
I certainly agreed 100% with what he purportedly wrote.
I have zero issue with vocally targeting religious groups.
I don't care how politically incorrect it is, to target 'groups'.
These groups are not only toxic, but they are certifiably insane, by virtue of adopting a hate based 'manifesto', and 'culture'.
It matters not that they are 'moderates', to me.
They drink the 'koolaid'.
Anyone who drinks the 'koolaid' needs to stay the fuck out of my face, and keep away from my family or loved ones.
" I'm a pacifist by nature, if you threaten that, I'll kill you first.." is my nature.
Pretty simple, innit?
I keep asking myself " Are they just playin' stupid, or are they just plain stupid?..."
"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy" : David Brooks
" Only on the subject of God can smart people still imagine that they reap the fruits of human intelligence even as they plow them under." : Sam Harris
You are never going to rid the world of "kool aid" thinking of any form. There will always be those who believe in gods and stupid superstitions. The best you can do with these people is to put the leash of secular government on them by making it illegal to be violent to another person, for any reason.
What you and I can do and are doing is challenging absurd claims and superstition to marginalize it and keep it off of a pedestal.
"Eye for an eye" is what they do. I don't think we need to lower ourselves to their standards.
You cant fight simplistic utopia thinking with a sledgehammer. You can only challenge people with reason.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Pakistan is the last of a few crazy insane looney fundamentalist muzzie nations who would have such a psychotic delusional hateful barbaric law. The fundamentalist muzzies know they are losing power so they resort to violence since they know the world is getting more secular.
I just can't believe as a Christian he so openly displayed such bravado saying he wasn't afraid of the threats. Saying that in a nation with the most terrorists on earth is akin to signing your death warrant which is exactly what happened.
Click here to find out why Christianity is the biggest fairy tale ever created!! www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm www.JesusNEVERexisted.com
I saw a picture of his car on the television. It reminded me why I voted for the PVV yesterday, kind of the anti-muslim party.
Try convincing some non-muslims (namely in America) that their religion is symmetrical with Islam in terms of (lacking) logic and reasoning sometime. You'll have your work cut out for you, and it's doubtful you'll get anywhere even after making some of the most meticulous arguments possible in favor of antitheism.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
I see that's a Dutch party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Freedom
I can easily understand why you guys are so pissed off. Are you in Holland?
Click here to find out why Christianity is the biggest fairy tale ever created!! www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm www.JesusNEVERexisted.com