Moderate Muslim leaders in Pakistan have warned muslims against expressing any sympathy towards the assasinated Punjab Governor in Pakistan, Salman Taseer
The governor had been a vocal opponent against the current blasphemy law in Pakistan. A young woman has received a death sentency because of the law, and while the current government are under international pressure to change the law and the sentence, religious leaders are making it difficult for them to do so.
Salman Taseer was killed by one of his own bodyguards. Most political parties condemned the killing, and the government announced a three-day mourning period.
Salman Taseer
The mourning period and the official respect shown for Taseer have provoked religious leaders in Pakistan, though:
Five hundred Pakistani religious scholars have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination of a senior ruling party official who opposed the country's blasphemy law could suffer the same fate.
"Also, there should be no no expression of grief or sympathy on the death of the governor, as those who support blasphemy of the Prophet are themselves indulging in blasphemy."
The scholars also noted the "courage" and religious zeal of the killer, saying his action has made Muslims around the world proud.
The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan group of scholars making the veiled threat is actually from a moderate school of Islam in Pakistan. It is a vocal critic of Taliban militants.
The group is one of the largest representing scholars from the mainstream Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. Although moderate, they have been leading protests in favour of the blasphemy law.
Reuters
(As a Norwegian I notice that this is the same branch of Islam that is behind Norway´s biggest mosque, so it´s not an extreme group. Pakistanis are the biggest Muslim group in Norway. Public figures in the community have expressed sadness over the killing.)
Time Magazine also has a story about this:
It is not just Christians and other minorities who feel threatened. Even seasoned politicians have started measuring their words. In what seemed to be an attempt to allay members of the religious right upset at the state funeral given to Taseer, Interior Minister Rahman Malik declared during a press conference, "If someone dishonors Islam in front of me, I will shoot him dead." Said a rueful Shabaz Bhatti, federal minister for minorities: "[Taseer's] death is detrimental for the state of human rights, and the state of Christians in Pakistan. All of us should now worry about the future."
Read more:
Unfortunately the support for the blasphemy law in Pakistan isn´t so surprising considired the last numbers from Pew Report on Pakistan this summer:
While most Pakistanis oppose extremist groups like the Taliban and al Qaeda - 65% give the Taliban an unfavorable rating and 53% feel this way about al Qaeda - many Pakistanis still support harsh religious laws: for instance 82% percent support stoning for adultery.
I would guess the views on these matter are hardly less severe among people on the other side of the Khyber pass and it tells me that building some kind of democracy with respect for human rights in Afghanistan hardly is possible for the moment.
Pakistan itself has a hard and long way to go, as writes Mosharraf Zaidi in Foreign Policy.
Unfortunately, what is more likely is that Taseer's death will not only not stimulate a more serious examination of how the Pakistani state deals with the highly toxic issues of blasphemy, but it may help mute the already nervous voices within the thin sliver of Pakistani society that seek to amend these kinds of legal provisions.
The cancer of fanaticism that consumed Taseer's life is a product of two generations of Pakistani state actions, starting with General Zia-ul Haq's offering up the country as an assembly line of warriors for the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the 1990s, and continuing with General Pervez Musharraf's offering up the same country as a staging ground for a war against those very warriors. The role of the war in Afghanistan and America's presence in the region is inescapable. It has helped catalyze and deepen the pre-existing groundswell of a radicalized the mainstream Pakistani narrative.
Pakistan has about 170 millions inhabitants, of which more than 95% are Muslims.
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Asia Bibi is a Pakistani Christian woman who has been convicted by a Pakistani court of blasphemy, receiving a death sentence by hanging. The verdict, which would need to be upheld by a superior court, has received worldwide attention. If executed, Bibi would be the first person in Pakistan to be lawfully killed for blasphemy.
In June 2009, Asia Bibi, a farm hand from the village of Ittan Wali in Sheikhpura District, was asked to fetch water; she complied, but some of her fellow Muslim workers refused to drink the water as they considered Christians to be "unclean". Apparently some arguments ensued. There had already been a running feud between Bibi and a neighbour about some property damage.Later some coworkers complained to a cleric that Bibi made derogatory comments about Muhammad. A mob came to her house, beating her and members of her family before she was rescued by the police. However, the police initiated an investigation about her remarks resulting in her arrest and prosecution under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Taseer had visited Bibi in prison in a campaign for her release. He wrote on his Twitter page last Friday: "I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing."
