Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan Threaten the Lives of Christians – What We’re Doing About It

Christian persecution continues globally as more and more believers suffer for their faith. We are working diligently to rescue Christians who are being tortured or killed. One place we especially fight to protect Christians is in Pakistan, which currently ranks as the seventh worst place in the world for Christians.

In Pakistan, Christians and other minorities are persecuted because of their faith. Religious minorities literally face execution by hanging under the country’s blasphemy laws. Such laws and the overall lack of protection for Christians and other religious minorities lead to mobs attacking Christian neighborhoods, Muslim men kidnapping and forcing young Christian girls to convert to Islam, and the murdering of innocent Christians.

Through our affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), we submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council for its 52nd session about the abuses Christians (and other religious minorities) suffer in Pakistan. Our submission pinpointed a few of our Pakistan affiliate’s cases as well as the issue of blasphemy laws.

We began by reminding the Council about Shahzad Masih, who was just a 16-year-old Christian boy when he was falsely accused and who was recently sentenced to death after spending five years in prison over a false blasphemy accusation.

During police investigation and their in-court testimony, all the witnesses testified that Shahzad told a Muslim co-worker that his father’s friend passes derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad. The investigating officer testified that an eyewitness did not observe any insult against the Prophet in Shahzad’s conversation. He further testified that he did not find that Shahzad had committed any crime. The trial court, however, disregarded this evidence (as they had disregarded the fact that he was a juvenile) and convicted Shahzad.

We have appealed Shahzad’s unjust execution sentence and our affiliate in Pakistan is now waiting for the Lahore High Court to schedule the oral argument in his case. We will not rest until we see Shahzad freed from death row.

We also again raised the case of two Christian brothers, Qaiser and Amoon Ayub, who have been sentenced to death over an accusation that they published blasphemous material on the internet.

The case began in June 2011 when a Muslim man “stumbled upon” a website that contained “sacrilegious” content against Islam and its Prophet Muhammad. The website also contained the name, phone number, and office address of the alleged author, Qaiser Ayub, older of the two brothers. Based on just that information and without inquiring as to who actually published the alleged material, the police registered a case against both brothers and arrested them.

In December 2018, they were convicted [and sentenced] to death by hanging. The court erroneously reasoned that the presence of the Ayub brothers’ contact details on the blasphemous website clearly led to the conclusion that they were responsible for creating the website.

While unfathomable to many in America, such human rights violations are rampant in other areas of the world. The ACLJ continues to battle to get the conviction overturned for these brothers, appealing this case all the way to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.

Our submission next asked the U.N. to intervene in the case of Mehak James, a 14-year-old Christian girl who was kidnapped in September 2020. The prime suspect, Muhammad Adnan, is Mehak’s 45-year-old Muslim neighbor who was in continuous inappropriate contact with her on the phone the day she disappeared and two days prior to that. Muhammad Adnan was released on bail, and Mehak is still missing.

As we noted: “This case is part of the overall situation and a larger campaign in which young Christian and Hindu girls are often lured into inappropriate relationships by much older Muslim men, who then force the girls to convert to Islam and marry them.” The men also often force the girls into prostitution.

Such heinous behavior against young girls must be stopped. We asked the U.N. to urge Pakistan to protect minority women from kidnappings and forced conversions.

Another key component of our submission requested the U.N. to urge Pakistan to stop the abuse of the blasphemy laws and comply with its international commitments under the human rights treaties.

Much of the violence against Christians in Pakistan stems from the decades-long abuse of its blasphemy laws. However, instead of repealing these laws or at least introducing procedural protections and controlling their abuse, the National Assembly of Pakistan recently amended a section of the blasphemy laws and increased punishment from three years to life in prison “for a period not less than 10 years” for making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, family, caliphs, or companions.

Additionally, the amendment made the offense non-bailable. Instead of reducing persecution, this amendment made the laws more lethal and opened the door for more persecution. Just recently, an angry mob attacked a police station, snatched a man who was accused of desecrating the Quran from his cell, and lynched him.

In briefly explaining the history of the blasphemy laws, our submission noted:

The British are often mistakenly blamed for introducing blasphemy laws during their colonial rule in the Indian sub-continent. However, the penal code at that time merely contained provisions regarding desecration of places of worship and “[d]eliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” These laws were intended to protect followers of many religions that resided in the sub-continent from communal violence. The provisions were applicable to all religions, did not protect any one religion, and did not prescribe severe punishments.

However, after Pakistan gained independence and mostly in the 1980s, it added several provisions to its penal code that protected Islam. For example, in 1980, it added section 298-A, which punished derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, any member of his family, any caliphs, or the Prophet’s companions with a three-year imprisonment. [This section was recently amended as mentioned above]. In 1982, Pakistan added section 295-B, punishing willful desecration of the Quran with life imprisonment. And, in 1986, it added section 295-C, which prescribed life imprisonment or the death penalty for “directly or indirectly” defiling the name of the Prophet Muhammad by “[w]ords either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation.” But in 1991, the Federal Shariat Court held that the death penalty was the only appropriate Islamic punishment for this crime, making it the mandatory punishment.

These blasphemy laws have led to mob violence, brutal murders, destruction of property, and imprisonment of innocent minorities.

As illustrated, we work endlessly to protect our Christian brothers and sisters worldwide. Pakistan is a perilous place for religious minorities and will remain so until the country repeals such laws, curbs mob violence, and punishes those who take the law in their own hands. Continue to pray for our work in Pakistan, saving Christians from death row, and protecting the rights of young minority women.