Search Results for: blasphemy

Civil action and criminal prosecution are the two great substitutes invented by law to replace revenge, a deeply wired instinct among humans expressed in a Mesopotamian maxim, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. In Pakistan, most ironically, civil litigation and criminal prosecution have become the revenge instrument, particularly among ruling elites fighting [...]

Iran Monday executed two men in Arak Central Prison, following multiple convictions upheld by the country’s Supreme Court. According to the human rights organisation Iran Human Rights, these hangings are the most recent of 42 executions carried out in Iran in the last ten days. Mizan, a state-linked news source for Iran’s judiciary, announced the [...]

Law students and law graduates from Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. Here, Eisha Chaudhry, a law student from Islamabad pursuing her LL.B. program at the University of London, reflects on former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks last weekend at a mass rally in Rawalpindi at the [...]

Law students and law graduates in Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. University of London law graduate Mariyam Taher Qayyum files this dispatch from Islamabad.  Religious extremism is on the rise once again in Pakistan, a country that is persistently condemned for its disregard for human rights. The [...]

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Monday released its 2022 annual report, which noted “significant regress” in countries such as Afghanistan and the Central African Republic. As part of its report, USCIRF recommended that the US Department of State designate 15 countries as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs), as their governments are involved [...]

A Pakistan anti-terrorism court (ATC) Monday sentenced six people to death and nine people to life in prison for the lynching of Priyantha Kumara, according to reports from local news outlets. In a press conference, Punjab Prosecution Department Secretary Nadeem Sarwar also said Judge Natasha Nasim sentenced 72 people to two years in jail, sentenced [...]

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, announced Sunday that he had ordered full action be taken against a mob who lynched a mentally ill man for burning pages of the Qur’an in Khanewal district of Punjab last week. The man was arrested for a violation of Pakistan’s strict anti-blasphemy laws, which penalize defiling a [...]

A Pakistan sessions court in Rawalpindi Wednesday sentenced a Muslim woman to death for committing blasphemy by insulting Prophet Muhammad over WhatsApp messages. Aneeqa Atteeq was accused of sending blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad and making remarks about holy personages on WhatsApp while also using her Facebook account to post blasphemous materials to others. The [...]

An urgent writ petition was filed Saturday calling for an end to the protests in the wake of the lynching and murder of a Dalit laborer at the Singhu border, a farmer protest site near Delhi. The body of Lakhbir Singh was found mutilated and hung on the police barricades in the early morning Friday. The [...]

The Pakistani Taliban on Friday accused International Women’s Day organizers of blasphemy and obscenity, threatening them with vigilante action in response to the proliferation of doctored images and video clips suggesting that participants in the demonstrations had insulted Islam. International Women’s Day is annually celebrated on March 8. In Pakistan, women’s right advocates organized demonstrations [...]