South Capitol Street

For even if she is cleared, she could easily then be murdered by Islamic supremacist vigilantes. “Jailed Pakistani Mother Living in Constant Fear, Husband Says,” from Compass Direct News, January 19:

LAHORE, Pakistan, January 19 (CDN) — A mother of five sentenced to death on “blasphemy” charges has lived in constant fear since the killing of Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, her husband told Compass as he came out of Sheikhupura District Jail after meeting with her last week.

Ashiq Masih said his wife, Asia Noreen (alternatively spelled Aaysa, and also called Asia Bibi), is “very afraid.” Her conviction triggered a violent chain of events in Pakistan, including the Jan. 4 murder of Taseer by his bodyguard after the governor voiced support for her.

“She knows the Muslims have announced a prize on her head and would go to any lengths to kill her,” a visibly nervous Masih told Compass. “The governor’s murder in broad daylight has put her in a state of paranoia.”

He added that threats by Islamist extremists have dampened Noreen’s hope of getting justice from the Lahore High Court, where her appeal against the conviction has been filed but yet to be taken up….

Jihad Watch

The Sufis, you’ll recall, are widely believed in the West to be moderate, mystical, peaceful, live-and-let-live types. “Pakistan: Prime minister confirms govt has no plans to amend blasphemy law,” by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AKI, January 18 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Islamabad, 18 Jan. (AKI) - - Pakistan’s prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday reiterated that the government does not intend to amend the country’s controversial blasphemy law, under which a Christian woman has been sentenced to death.

“Everybody trust me. The government trusts my statement and even the opposition parties believe whatever I promise to them,” he told Muslim scholars and spiritual guides from the mystical Sufi strand of the faith.

“You (Sufis) belong to me. Why don’t you trust when I say that government would never amend the Blasphemy law?” added Gilani, who hails from a revered Sufi family.

He said the parliamentary committee to review the blasphemy law following the sentencing to death last year of a Christian woman was formed in response to a private bill to amend the blasphemy law.

The committee was formed to make sure that nothing should be formulated against Islam and the popular wishes of the people, Gilani claimed.

It was not set up on the orders of the speaker of the national assembly or on his direct orders, but followed the bill tabled by ruling Pakistan Peoples Party MP Sherry Rahman, Gilani noted.

“I think it is to protect the blasphemy law rather than suggesting any amendment,” Gilani added.

The sentencing of a Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five to death under the blasphemy law last November in eastern Pakistan sparked an international outcry. It came amid Rahman’s moves to reform the law, which has exposed a deep rift between conservatives and liberals in the Muslim country.

Religious parties and their supporters have staged protests across Pakistan over Rahman’s bill. They have praised the killer of late Punjab governor Salman Taseer, an outspoken critic of the blasphemy law who had appealed to Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zarzari to save Bibi. Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard earlier this month.

The PPP has distanced itself from Taseer and brought forward Gilani to assure Pakistanis that government does not have any intention to reverse or amend the blasphemy law.

“If you closely watch the trends, the PPP government distant itself from Salman Taseer once religious edicts were issued against him. The PPP left him alone,” Punjab’s home minister Rana Sanaullah said in a TV talk show.

After Taseer’s murder, Zardari, who is also the PPP’s co-chairman, did not even attend the the slain governor’s funeral and travelled instead to his coastal residence in the southern port city of Karachi.

Muslim clerics refused to say prayers for Taseer and the prayers were offered by a PPP member instead.

The PPP instructed all its leaders including Rahman to change their stance, claiming the government could not withstand the pressure devout Muslims were exerting on it to retain the blasphemy law unamended….

Jihad Watch

The Sufis, you’ll recall, are widely believed in the West to be moderate, mystical, peaceful, live-and-let-live types. “Pakistan: Prime minister confirms govt has no plans to amend blasphemy law,” by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AKI, January 18 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Islamabad, 18 Jan. (AKI) - - Pakistan’s prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday reiterated that the government does not intend to amend the country’s controversial blasphemy law, under which a Christian woman has been sentenced to death.

“Everybody trust me. The government trusts my statement and even the opposition parties believe whatever I promise to them,” he told Muslim scholars and spiritual guides from the mystical Sufi strand of the faith.

“You (Sufis) belong to me. Why don’t you trust when I say that government would never amend the Blasphemy law?” added Gilani, who hails from a revered Sufi family.

He said the parliamentary committee to review the blasphemy law following the sentencing to death last year of a Christian woman was formed in response to a private bill to amend the blasphemy law.

The committee was formed to make sure that nothing should be formulated against Islam and the popular wishes of the people, Gilani claimed.

It was not set up on the orders of the speaker of the national assembly or on his direct orders, but followed the bill tabled by ruling Pakistan Peoples Party MP Sherry Rahman, Gilani noted.

“I think it is to protect the blasphemy law rather than suggesting any amendment,” Gilani added.

The sentencing of a Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five to death under the blasphemy law last November in eastern Pakistan sparked an international outcry. It came amid Rahman’s moves to reform the law, which has exposed a deep rift between conservatives and liberals in the Muslim country.

Religious parties and their supporters have staged protests across Pakistan over Rahman’s bill. They have praised the killer of late Punjab governor Salman Taseer, an outspoken critic of the blasphemy law who had appealed to Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zarzari to save Bibi. Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard earlier this month.

The PPP has distanced itself from Taseer and brought forward Gilani to assure Pakistanis that government does not have any intention to reverse or amend the blasphemy law.

“If you closely watch the trends, the PPP government distant itself from Salman Taseer once religious edicts were issued against him. The PPP left him alone,” Punjab’s home minister Rana Sanaullah said in a TV talk show.

After Taseer’s murder, Zardari, who is also the PPP’s co-chairman, did not even attend the the slain governor’s funeral and travelled instead to his coastal residence in the southern port city of Karachi.

Muslim clerics refused to say prayers for Taseer and the prayers were offered by a PPP member instead.

The PPP instructed all its leaders including Rahman to change their stance, claiming the government could not withstand the pressure devout Muslims were exerting on it to retain the blasphemy law unamended….

Jihad Watch

The Sufis, you’ll recall, are widely believed in the West to be moderate, mystical, peaceful, live-and-let-live types. “Pakistan: Prime minister confirms govt has no plans to amend blasphemy law,” by Syed Saleem Shahzad for AKI, January 18 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Islamabad, 18 Jan. (AKI) - - Pakistan’s prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday reiterated that the government does not intend to amend the country’s controversial blasphemy law, under which a Christian woman has been sentenced to death.

“Everybody trust me. The government trusts my statement and even the opposition parties believe whatever I promise to them,” he told Muslim scholars and spiritual guides from the mystical Sufi strand of the faith.

“You (Sufis) belong to me. Why don’t you trust when I say that government would never amend the Blasphemy law?” added Gilani, who hails from a revered Sufi family.

He said the parliamentary committee to review the blasphemy law following the sentencing to death last year of a Christian woman was formed in response to a private bill to amend the blasphemy law.

The committee was formed to make sure that nothing should be formulated against Islam and the popular wishes of the people, Gilani claimed.

It was not set up on the orders of the speaker of the national assembly or on his direct orders, but followed the bill tabled by ruling Pakistan Peoples Party MP Sherry Rahman, Gilani noted.

“I think it is to protect the blasphemy law rather than suggesting any amendment,” Gilani added.

The sentencing of a Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five to death under the blasphemy law last November in eastern Pakistan sparked an international outcry. It came amid Rahman’s moves to reform the law, which has exposed a deep rift between conservatives and liberals in the Muslim country.

Religious parties and their supporters have staged protests across Pakistan over Rahman’s bill. They have praised the killer of late Punjab governor Salman Taseer, an outspoken critic of the blasphemy law who had appealed to Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zarzari to save Bibi. Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard earlier this month.

The PPP has distanced itself from Taseer and brought forward Gilani to assure Pakistanis that government does not have any intention to reverse or amend the blasphemy law.

“If you closely watch the trends, the PPP government distant itself from Salman Taseer once religious edicts were issued against him. The PPP left him alone,” Punjab’s home minister Rana Sanaullah said in a TV talk show.

After Taseer’s murder, Zardari, who is also the PPP’s co-chairman, did not even attend the the slain governor’s funeral and travelled instead to his coastal residence in the southern port city of Karachi.

Muslim clerics refused to say prayers for Taseer and the prayers were offered by a PPP member instead.

The PPP instructed all its leaders including Rahman to change their stance, claiming the government could not withstand the pressure devout Muslims were exerting on it to retain the blasphemy law unamended….

Jihad Watch

Musharraf intends to re-enter Pakistani politics, having founded a new party last year: the All Pakistan Muslim League. Obviously, if he is campaigning from that angle, he can’t remain silent on the laws, and given the popularity of the laws that the aftermath of Salman Taseer’s assassination has made so clear, denouncing them would endanger not only his political career, but make him another target for assassination over the issue, joining Sherry Rehman and Shabhaz Bhatti.

So, for his political gain, Musharraf joins those clinging to the notion that the laws can be meaningfully reformed to protect against “abuse,” without merely adding a perfunctory layer of judicial review that ultimately only lends legitimacy to kangaroo court proceedings on blasphemy. The notion that it is necessary and proper for the government to apprehend, punish, and possibly kill those who are convicted supposed insults to Islam or Muhammad remains intact.

Musharraf thinks that can just be tweaked to avoid “abuse.” Again, perhaps no other case has done more to rip the fig leaf of “moderation” off of our supposed “Friend and Ally.”

“Blasphemy laws must not be scrapped, says Musharraf,” by Ben Farmer for the Telegraph, January 17:

Mr Musharraf said rather than amend the legislation punishing those convicted of insulting Islam, Pakistan needed to ensure the laws were not abused.

The laws have come under scrutiny after a Christian mother-of-five, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for defaming the Prophet Mohammed in her Punjab village.

A false charge. But in a civilized society, one could have said he scared children and wore plaids with stripes, and the villagers would have shrugged their shoulders and gone about their business. But no, somebody has to die.

Salman Taseer, governor of the state, was then killed by one of his own bodyguards for backing reform of the law, in an assassination exposing deep division between liberal and conservative Pakistan.

Mr Musharraf said blasphemy was deeply sensitive in the country and doing away with it was not possible. He did say however that Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard, must face trial.

“The killer of the governor, he is a culprit, he is a criminal, he must be tried and he must be punished,” he said during an interview in London.

While no one has ever been executed under the blasphemy laws and most are freed on appeal, as many as 10 accused are thought to have been murdered while on trial.

Mr Musharraf also said he would return to Pakistan before the next elections after last year founding his new party, the All Pakistan Muslim League.

Jihad Watch

Musharraf intends to re-enter Pakistani politics, having founded a new party last year: the All Pakistan Muslim League. Obviously, if he is campaigning from that angle, he can’t remain silent on the laws, and given the popularity of the laws that the aftermath of Salman Taseer’s assassination has made so clear, denouncing them would endanger not only his political career, but make him another target for assassination over the issue, joining Sherry Rehman and Shabhaz Bhatti.

So, for his political gain, Musharraf joins those clinging to the notion that the laws can be meaningfully reformed to protect against “abuse,” without merely adding a perfunctory layer of judicial review that ultimately only lends legitimacy to kangaroo court proceedings on blasphemy. The notion that it is necessary and proper for the government to apprehend, punish, and possibly kill those who are convicted supposed insults to Islam or Muhammad remains intact.

Musharraf thinks that can just be tweaked to avoid “abuse.” Again, perhaps no other case has done more to rip the fig leaf of “moderation” off of our supposed “Friend and Ally.”

“Blasphemy laws must not be scrapped, says Musharraf,” by Ben Farmer for the Telegraph, January 17:

Mr Musharraf said rather than amend the legislation punishing those convicted of insulting Islam, Pakistan needed to ensure the laws were not abused.

The laws have come under scrutiny after a Christian mother-of-five, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for defaming the Prophet Mohammed in her Punjab village.

A false charge. But in a civilized society, one could have said he scared children and wore plaids with stripes, and the villagers would have shrugged their shoulders and gone about their business. But no, somebody has to die.

Salman Taseer, governor of the state, was then killed by one of his own bodyguards for backing reform of the law, in an assassination exposing deep division between liberal and conservative Pakistan.

Mr Musharraf said blasphemy was deeply sensitive in the country and doing away with it was not possible. He did say however that Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard, must face trial.

“The killer of the governor, he is a culprit, he is a criminal, he must be tried and he must be punished,” he said during an interview in London.

While no one has ever been executed under the blasphemy laws and most are freed on appeal, as many as 10 accused are thought to have been murdered while on trial.

Mr Musharraf also said he would return to Pakistan before the next elections after last year founding his new party, the All Pakistan Muslim League.

Jihad Watch

So says CNN.

This is very disappointing news. The President and other leaders were leaning toward a pardon back in November of 2010. More recently, in light of the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, the government has sought to placate Pakistani Islamic hard right.

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan’s prime minister pledged on Monday the government will not change the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s announcement comes amid growing pressure from hard-line religious groups and nearly two weeks after the assassination of a leading liberal politician who led a public campaign to change the laws.

“We are not going to amend them,” Gilani told a gathering at a scheduled appearance in central Pakistan on Monday. “Anyone who says there will be changes is lying.”

I have no proof, but reading between lines, I wonder if the government agreed to leave the blasphemy laws in place in exchange for a cessation of violence from the far right Isalamic groups.

I am quite concerned now that the next placation will be Asia Bibi. I pray that she can still be pardoned and leave the country with her family.

Warren Throckmorton

(Eugene Volokh)

“[S]ubsequently, the duo, along with the family, has gone in hiding over fears of being killed.” So reports Karachi News.Net, and adds:

According to the family, the blasphemy allegations stemmed from a dispute between a Muslim woman and her sister-in-law, who is a Christian, in an East Lahore locality.

A day after the two got into an argument, the Muslim woman walked out onto the street and started shouting that her sister-in-law had abused the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

A short while later, a group of men forced their way into the house and started slapping the Christian woman, said another of her brothers.

“Other men and women from the neighbourhood started gathering at the house too and they beat up my sister and mother. They were the only people in the house,” he added.

A participant in the beating said that the women’s faces were blackened, and that they were made to wear necklaces of shoes and paraded around the locality on donkeys to humiliate them. The women denied blaspheming and repeatedly touched their feet, seeking mercy, he added.

A member of a religious organisation, with which Taseer’s assassin Malik Mumtaz Qadri is also associated, said he was very proud that his wife beat the Christian woman “more than anyone else[.]”

What strikes me as especially troubling here is the participation of ordinary residents from the neighborhood, and not just of some preexisting extremist organization. Such an organization may well have been involved — the Press Trust of India account reports that the “group of men” was “led by Muhammad Sameer, a member of a religious organisation ‘keen on raising its sectarian profile’” — but apparently many neighbors felt no compunction about joining in. And this in a nuclear power, the 6th-most populous nation in the world, and a crucial American ally.

Thanks to commenter Neo for the pointer.

The Volokh Conspiracy

Because the Government knows that to go against the law will bring them charges of disloyalty to Islam, and could topple the Government entirely. “For Pakistani Christians, the government is hostage to Islamic parties on the blasphemy issue,” by Jibran Khan for AsiaNews, January 14 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Lahore (AsiaNews) - Churches in Pakistan have expressed frustration over the government’s refusal to amend a controversial blasphemy law, as urged by Pope Benedict XVI and civil rights activists. Instead, the Interior Ministry had ordered a crackdown against websites and text messages that propagate “an anti-Islam agenda”, and has appealed to internet users and young people to report websites that post material deemed anti-Islam and Pakistan. In reality, its actions are a sign of its weakness in the face of the country’s extremist camp and the length to which it is willing to go to hang on to power. At the same time, anti-Pope demonstrations took place in Karachi and two other cities.

As organisers had previously announced, anti-Benedict XVI demonstrations took place in Karachi and two other Pakistani cities, drawing hundreds of people into the streets against the papal call for the repeal of the blasphemy law. At the end of Friday prayers, protesters shouted slogans against the Pontiff and in favour of the law.

“We are disappointed by the stand taken by the Prime Minister,” said Rizwan Paul, President of Life for All (LFA), an organisation that has defended dozens of Christians and Muslims charged under the law.

On Tuesday, after the papal speech to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ruled out any changes to the law.

Rizwan had expected the prime minister to take “a strong stand” against the law, given the growing protests that brought together Christians and Muslims.

The organisation representing Pakistan’s four mainline Protestant churches also expressed its displeasure with Gilani.

“We are certainly frustrated by the response of the Prime Minister,” Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Pakistan (NCCP), told AsiaNews from his office at Lahore.

Nevertheless, “the negative government response was no surprise in the present political situation,” he added.

In fact, the current government is hostage to the fundamentalist camp, especially now that it has weak support in parliament.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) holds only 125 seats in the 342-member National Assembly, and is forced to rely on the support of independent legislators and Islamic parties that insist on upholding the blasphemy law in exchange of their support for the government….

Jihad Watch

One cleric goes so far as to say Christians aren’t following “Jesus Christ’s teachings” here, but in doing so, he knows his listeners believe in the revisionist, Islamic narrative about Jesus. The main purposes of Jesus’ portrayal in the Qur’an are to claim him as a messenger of Islam and deny and denounce Christian beliefs about him, with Allah saying anyone who says otherwise faces “a penalty such as I have not inflicted on any one among all the peoples” (Qur’an 5:110-116). To defend any other position would be, well, blasphemous. And you know where that leads.

More on this story. “Rallies seek Pope’s apology,” from The News, January 15:

LAHORE: Despite Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s categorical rejection of a demand by Pope Benedict to repeal the blasphemy laws, religious parties and groups continued their campaign to protect the laws and refused to stop it till Pope’s unconditional apology and dissolution of the parliamentary committee to review the laws.

On Friday, religious parties observed a countrywide protest day against what they called the west-backed conspiracies to amend the blasphemy laws. They held rallies and demonstrated while prayer leaders warned that Pope Benedict’s blatant and outrageous demand had exposed the hands pulling the strings behind the organised conspiracy to ignite religious clashes in Pakistan under the cover of a change in the blasphemy laws.

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) staged a demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club, led by Pir Ajmal Gilani and others who warned that Pope Benedict had challenged the very pillars of Islam and his outrageous act could endanger the security of Christians living in Pakistan and other Muslim countries. Ajmal Gilani said the Pope had in fact exposed the hands pulling strings of the organised campaign against the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. He said it also explained why the Pope did not utter any single word of condemnation against the organised blasphemy by the European press through the desecration of Holy Quran and sketches of the Prophet (SAW) of Islam.

Other leaders, including Pir Atharul Qadri, Raza-e-Mustafa Naqshbandi, Mohammad Ali Naqshbandi, Nawaz Kharal, Mujahid Abdul Rasool, Naeem Arif Noori, Ziaul Mustafa Haqqani, Mukhtar Siddiqi, Khurran Riaz, Mufti Imran Hanfi, Ziaul Haq Naqshbandi, Moeenul Haq Alvi, and Chaudhry Usman said Islam provided the best security and rights to religious minorities, which was evident from the fact that religious liberties and identity of Muslim minorities were brutally suppressed in liberal Europe and the US.

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan, while delivering the Friday sermon at Mansoorah mosque, warned that the nation won’t forgive the people who wanted to amend the blasphemy law of the Holy Prophet (SAW).

He said the so-called secular lobby in Pakistan must correct itself and refrain from challenging the religious belief of Muslim majority. He said instead of following Jesus Christ’s teachings, the Christians had placed themselves at the disposal of the Pope and illiterate pastors who were out to destroy the world peace….

Photo from AsiaNews.

Jihad Watch

Since the aftermath of Salman Taseer’s assassination has firmly established the wild popularity of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, perhaps it is to be expected that they will see even more use. The blasphemy bandwagon has become a popular place to see and be seen.

“Blasphemy allegations: Another Christian family on the run,” from the Express Tribune, January 15:

LAHORE: Two Christian women were beaten and publically humiliated by an angry mob over apparently frivolous blasphemy allegations and they and their family are now in hiding for fear of being killed, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“None of our relatives is ready to let us stay with them. They fear the wrath of the extremists, particularly after the assassination of Salmaan Taseer,” a male member of the family said over the phone from an undisclosed location.

The family and a non-governmental organisation that is helping them asked that their identities not be revealed, lest it put them in further danger. The names mentioned here are fictitious.

According to the family, the allegations stem from a dispute between Amina, a Muslim, and her sister-in-law Zahira, a Christian, in an East Lahore locality. The two got into an argument on Tuesday night and though it appeared to have been settled, on Wednesday morning, after her husband Zahid had gone to work, Amina walked out onto the street and started shouting that Zahira had abused the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

A short while later, a group of men led by Muhammad Sameer, a member of a religious organisation keen on raising its sectarian profile, forced their way into the house and started slapping Zahira, said another of her brothers, Sohail. “Other men and women from the neighbourhood started gathering at the house too and they beat up my sister and mother. They were the only people in the house,” he said.

“We tried our best to get her to confess her crime,” Sameer told The Express Tribune. As a member of the religious organisation, he said he could not tolerate any derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

Sameer added that he was very proud of his wife’s performance during the mob beating. “She beat Zahira more than anyone else. Her hand is so swollen that she hasn’t been able to make rotis since the day of the incident. I’ve been getting my meals from a restaurant,” he said.

Jihad Watch

While the news has been dominated by the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), there was a successful assassination that you may not have heard about. Malik Mumtaz Qadri, a guard for Salman Taseer, murdered the Pakistani provincial governor he was supposed to be protecting.

Taseer had recently announced his support for pardoning Asia Noreen, a Punjab Christian who defended her faith after offering water to thirsty Muslims-who turned down her generosity because she was” unclean.”

Which drove Qadri to fire 26 rounds into the governor. The Arab News reports one guest on a television show declared, “It was a glorious act that Qadri did for Islam.”

In an op-ed for the paper, Tariq A. al-Maeena, while not calling for the repeal of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, manages to criticize them in the Saudi-based publication.

“These laws are used to victimize Christians and other groups,” Taseer told reporters back in November. “They are a foul leftover from the military regime of General Zia-ul Haq which lasted from 1977 till his death in a plane crash in 1988.”

Others have called the blasphemy law “wide open to abuse, through and by the miscreant mullahs for political, repressive and vindictive purposes…It is part of a rising wave of aggressive ignorance, incivility and intolerance as well as the medieval theocratic darkness.”

In a statement, the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan said, “No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salman Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident.” The group also added that anyone who expressed sympathy for the death of the Punjab governor was also committing blasphemy.

What right does this Jamaat have to demand that Muslims not pray for the souls of the dead? Who allowed these bands of misfits to hijack Islam, a religion of peace, to spread their brand of terror on people of other faiths or beliefs? And what gives them the right to encourage further violence against those minorities of differing faiths. Muslims must wrest their religion back from these wretched terrorists.

Technorati tags: muslim islam religion culture christianity pakistan blasphemy punjab

Marathon Pundit

Great, who’s guarding the nukes? “Pakistani governor bodyguard served on President Zardari’s security team,” by Dean Nelson for the Telegraph, January 14:

Mumtaz Qadri was part of Punjab Police’s Elite Force whose members are selected to protect the province’s most senior ministers, politicians and VIPs. He had also served on security details for Rehman Malik, the interior minister, Ifthikhar Mohammed Chadhry, the state’s chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, and his brother, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Four more of its members have now been suspended after Qadri told his interrogators that they shared his extremist views, including his cousin.

The assassination of Salman Taseer plunged the volatile country further into crisis after Qadri said he had killed him because of his campaign to repeal Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and to seek a reprieve for a Christian woman sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammad.

The blasphemy is believed to be widely misused to accuse members of the country’s Christian and other minorities.

A law that is inherently abusive of freedom of speech and conscience can only be “misused.”

Police are currently investigating claims that officials ignored a formal warning from a senior Punjab police officer who told them Qadri’s extremist views meant he should not be deployed to protect ministers and other VIPs.

Jihad Watch

A billion-plus Muslims, savagely and unsuspectingly attacked by an octogenarian pontiff! Casting their grievances in those terms is, of course, an attempt to broaden the conflict beyond Pakistan, by portraying the Pope’s criticism of the law as an attack on all Muslims. “Rally supports governor’s killer,” from the Press Association, January 14:

Islamic extremists have rallied in support of the confessed killer of a liberal Pakistani governor and protested against Pope Benedict XVI for urging the scrapping of blasphemy laws stipulating death for those who insult Islam.

Right-wing Muslim groups rallied against any move to change the laws after a Christian woman was sentenced to death for blasphemy, attracting local and international condemnation.

Governor Salman Taseer was among the critics of the judgement and he was last week gunned down by guard Mumtaz Qadri, who later said he was motivated by Mr Taseer’s stance on the laws.

Around 1,000 protesters gathered near the house of the confessed killer in Rawalpindi, close to the capital, Islamabad, carrying banners in support of him. Protesters also took to the streets in Karachi and two other cities in support of the laws and against the remarks by the pope last week, with one placard reading: “Pope Benedict’s statement is an attack on the hearts of Muslims.”

Last week, some 40,000 people protested in Karachi in support of Qadri, shocking many liberal Pakistanis and raising concern about growing extremism in the country.

The government, which is struggling against al Qaida and Taliban militants, has since stated it has no plan to amend the blasphemy laws. Analysts believe the government is too weak to pick a fight with Islamist forces, which are able to rally thousands of people on the streets even though their political parties only have a few seats in parliament.

Benedict spoke out against the blasphemy laws by saying that they should be repealed because they were used as a pretext for violence against non-Muslims.

Also in Karachi, police said 10 people had been killed over the last 24 hours in what appears to be a fresh round of ethnic and political violence. Police officer Rafiq Gul said the slayings were “target killings,” the phrase used by authorities to describe political or ethnically motivated murders.

Meanwhile, gunmen stormed the house of a female police officer, killing her and four relatives, in an attack in north-west Pakistan. The attack happened on Thursday night in Hangu, a district just outside the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

The 50-year-old female officer, Shamshad Begum, had been in the force for several years. Her latest assignment was searching women at checkpoints. Her two sons, daughter and a daughter-in-law were also killed.

Jihad Watch

After all, nothing speaks to the inherent merits of a law quite like having to defend it by threatening anyone who criticizes it with murder. “Taseer’s daughter warned to back off,” from the Telegraph, January 14:

ISLAMABAD: The leader of an Islamic political party in Pakistan has warned the daughter of a murdered politician to ”remember her father’s fate” and to stop supporting his cause.

Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead by Mumtaz Qadri, a police officer, on January 4 because of his campaign to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Many Muslims celebrated the murder and marched in support of Taseer’s confessed killer.

Shadab Qadri, the leader of Sunni Tehreek, said the politician’s daughter, Shehrbano Taseer, 21, must stop speaking out against blasphemy laws.

”We read the statement of the slain governor’s daughter in a newspaper. She should refrain from issuing such statements and must remember her father’s fate,” Shadab Qadri said.

His organisation has also offered legal support to Mumtaz Qadri and financial help to his family ”as he performed a great duty in the name of Islam”.

The killing shocked Pakistan’s small, liberal elite but has found support among its conservative population, who were told by imams that Mr Taseer wanted to open the floodgates to abuse of the Prophet Muhammad.

On Wednesday, Ms Taseer told the BBC Today program: ”My father’s stance has been misrepresented and has been misquoted because he simply said these laws are being misused and they target the poor, the dispossessed and the voiceless.

”He said it’s a man-made law and these things should be debated in parliament. That has been misconstrued into saying that he has been blasphemous.”…

Jihad Watch