_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Pakistan_______________
Blasphemy laws silence journalists
Christian writer faces execution
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws—which prescribe the death sentence for those who “by words, either spoken or written . . . directly or indirectly defile the sacred name of the Holy Prophet”—are increasingly being used against Christians and conscientious journalists. “There is fear around us,” one senior Pakistani journalist said. “You have to be so careful what you write and the way you write it.”
Ayub Masih, a Pakistani Christian, faces death by hanging, now that his appeal has been turned down. Masih was accused in October 1996 by a Muslim neighbor of saying “If you want to know the truth about Islam, read Salman Rushdie.” Masih was given a death sentence on April 27, 1998. (Outraged at the court’s verdict, a few days later, the Catholic bishop of Faisalabad, John Joseph, committed suicide in the courthouse.) On July 25, Masih’s appeal was rejected by the Multan Bench of Lahore High Court. Ayub, who faces death by hanging, has appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. But judges and lawyers are now frightened to take the case, since a High Court judge who acquitted another Christian from blasphemy charges was killed by a Muslim in 1997.
On January 5 of this year, five journalists of the Frontier Post were charged with blasphemy after the paper published a reader’s letter which, the prosecution contended, criticized the prophet Mohammed. In June, the newspaper’s outspoken editor, Rehmat Shah Afridi, was sentenced to death for drug trafficking. According to Reporters Without Borders, Afridi’s arrest and sentencing are politically motivated. Some months ago, the Frontier Post claimed that Pakistan’s powerful Anti-Narcotics Force was actually making money from drug trafficking.
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