Pakistan: Sunnis Kill 43 Shi'ites on Bus in Karachi

Sunnis and Shias have been killing each other for nearly fourteen centuries. But we're not allowed to have a serious conversation about the violence, because that would require a discussion of Muhammad's teachings. So the violence continues, with no end in sight.

Reuters—Gunmen on motorcycles boarded a bus and opened fire on commuters in Pakistan's volatile southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing at least 43, police said, in the latest attack directed against religious minorities this year.

The pink bus was pockmarked with bullet holes and blood saturated the seats and dripped out of the doors on to the concrete.

"As the gunmen climbed on to the bus, one of them shouted, 'Kill them all!' Then they started indiscriminately firing at everyone they saw," a wounded woman told a television channel by phone.

Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters there were six gunmen and that all the passengers were Ismailis, a minority Shi'ite Muslim sect. Pakistan is mostly Sunni.

Militant group Jundullah, which has attacked Muslim minorities before, claimed responsibility. The group has links with the Pakistani Taliban and pledged allegiance to Islamic State in November.

"These killed people were Ismaili and we consider them kafir (non-Muslim). We had four attackers. In the coming days we will attack Ismailis, Shi'ites and Christians," spokesman Ahmed Marwat told Reuters. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistani Muslim Sets Wife on Fire in "Honor Killing"

Many women in Pakistan do not have the freedom to openly challenge and criticize honor killings. Hence, the task of calling for the protection of Muslim women falls to Westerners. Yet Westerners who call for an open, honest discussion of honor killings are labeled "Islamophobes" and "bigots." How will there ever come a time when Pakistani women will be safe from their own families if we allow fear to silence us?

AFP—A Pakistani man and his father have been arrested in the country's latest so-called "honour killing" after they set the son's wife alight for leaving the house without asking his permission, police said Sunday.

Muhammad Siddique became enraged on learning that his wife, Shabana Bibi, 25, had visited her sister without first asking him if she could go out, her brother Muhammad Azam said.

Siddique and his father then beat Bibi before dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire in Central Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district on Friday, Azam said.

Bibi had been married to Siddique for three years, during which time she had suffered repeated domestic abuse for the couple's inability to have children, Azam said.

Suffering burns to 80 percent of her body, Bibi died of her injuries in hospital on Saturday. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistani Christian Teen Nouman Masih Dies after Being Set on Fire by Muslims

Does there ever come a point when we're allowed to openly discuss the ideology that leads to these daily atrocities?

Christian Post—The 15-year-old Pakistani Christian boy who was beaten and set on fire by two Muslim men last Friday after answering truthfully if he was a Christian, died Wednesday morning due to burns inflicted during the attack.

According to prominent Pakistani human rights attorney Sardar Mushtaq Gill, the young boy, Nouman Masih, was walking on his way to a cloth stitching job when he was approached by two Muslim men.

After answering when asked by the men whether he was a Muslim or Christian, the men beat him, chased him down, doused him in kerosene and set him on fire when he told them that he was a Christian. Doctors ruled that Masih's body was 55 percent burned.

Although doctors thought Masih might be able to survive his burns, Gill told The Christian Post on Wednesday that the hospital did not have the burn treatment facilities needed to treat the severity of Masih's wounds.

Masih died around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday. (Continue Reading.)

Afghanistan: Cleric and Police Official Defend Lynching of Woman Accused of Burning a Qur'an

If you want someone dead in Afghanistan, all you have to do is yell, "She just burned a Qur'an!" The lynching that follows will even be defended by police and Muslim clerics.

KABUL (Reuters)—An Afghan cleric and a police official on Friday defended the lynching of a woman in central Kabul after a mob was filmed stamping on the woman and smashing a brick on her head after she was accused of burning a Koran, Islam's holy book.

The woman's body was set on fire and thrown onto the banks of Kabul's main river on Thursday.

It was unclear whether she had actually burned a Koran, but during Friday prayers at a mosque in a smart area of Kabul, a cleric's sermon broadcast by loudspeaker told devotees that the crowd had a right to defend their Muslim beliefs at all costs.

"I am warning the government not to arrest those who did this, because it will mean an uprising," said the cleric at the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque.

Another Afghan man boasted on Facebook of participating in the lynching, saying that "pious people of Kabul, including myself, killed her and then burnt her. Her place is in hell."

A spokesman in the Kabul police chief's office also appeared to justify the killing, saying the woman had deliberately insulted Islam.

"This (person) thought, like several other unbelievers, that this kind of action and insult will get them U.S. or European citizenship. But before reaching their target, lost their life," Hashmat Stanekzai wrote on his Facebook page. (Continue Reading.)

Lawyer for Physician Who Helped Locate Bin Laden Shot to Death in Pakistan

Dr. Shakil Afridi helped the CIA locate Osama Bin Laden. Samiullah Afridi (no relation), the Pakistani lawyer who defended him in court, received numerous death threats for defending a man who helped the U.S. government kill the world's most wanted terrorist. The lawyer has now been murdered, and the doctor is still being tortured in prison.

Dr. Afridi says he feels like the United States government used him "like a Kleenex."

Good luck getting help with the next terrorist.

Pakistani Lawyer Samiullah Afridi

Islamabad—A few days ago I spoke to the Pakistani attorney Samiullah Afridi over the phone, and he was worried. He had defended in court Dr. Shakil Afridi, the physician widely alleged to have fingered Osama bin Laden for the American hit team that killed the terrorist mastermind in 2011, and he felt ever more exposed as a target for Osama’s admirers.

Late last year, Samiullah Afridi (no relation to his client) quit the case reluctantly under a barrage of death threats targeting him and his family. On Tuesday he was shot dead as he returned to his home in Peshawar. A Taliban splinter group, Jundullah, claimed responsibility.

“It was not an easy decision to defend Dr. Shakil Afridi in the court,” Samiullah had told me when we had talked on the phone. “I knew the consequences from day one and don’t mind it,” he claimed.

Pakistani Physician Shakil Afridi

But he soon spoke about the many troubles he’d encountered, and the many threats that he and his family had received not only from al Qaeda and the Taliban but, he believed, from the Pakistan’s intelligence agencies as well.

Samiullah was deeply frustrated. Dr. Shakil had been hailed in the United States as a hero, and Washington pressured Pakistan to reverse the 33-year sentence its courts handed down. He is now awaiting a new trial. But Shakil told his attorney that he thinks the United States does not really want to get him out of jail, that if the Americans were honest they would have sent out a clear message to Pakistan to get him out. Samiullah said his client thinks he was used like a Kleenex by the U.S. then thrown away, left to survive as best he can in the hell of the Pakistani prison’s cages. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan: 14 Dead, Dozens Injured as Muslim Suicide Bombers Attack Churches

Politicians and the media continue to pretend that ISIS is an anomaly. But long before anyone had heard of ISIS, Christians were being killed in Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, and other countries where Muslims outnumber Christians.

Many Christians in the Muslim world face daily persecution. Meanwhile, most Christian leaders in the West are too worried about being called names to speak against the ideology that fuels the brutal deaths of their brothers and sisters.

Suicide bombers are willing to lay down their lives to bring death. Can we not at least speak out to defend life?

Reuters—Bombs outside two churches in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed 14 people and wounded nearly 80 during Sunday services, and witnesses said quick action by a security guard prevented many more deaths.

A Pakistani Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility.

Islamist militants in Pakistan have attacked Christians and other religious minorities often over the last decade or more.

Many Christians, who make up less than two percent of Pakistan's population of more than 180 million, accuse the government of doing little to protect them, saying politicians are quick to offer condolences after an attack but slow to act to improve security.

Sunday's blasts occurred minutes apart in a majority Christian suburb of the eastern city. Police said it seemed they targeted two churches, one Catholic and one Protestant, that are very close to each other.

After the explosions, enraged residents protested and lynched two suspects, police said.

"I was sitting at a shop near the church when a blast jolted the area. I rushed toward the spot and saw the security guard scuffle with a man who was trying to enter the church. After failing, he blew himself up," said witness Amir Masih.

"I saw his body parts flying through the air." (Continue Reading.)

To learn why jihadists attack churches, watch this:

Pakistan Sentences Bollywood Actress Veena Malik to 26 Years in Prison for Blasphemy

Politicians and the media continue to defend Islam from criticism. Meanwhile, Pakistani courts are sentencing actors to prison for blasphemy. Any idea how Veena Malik will be treated in prison?

Veena Malik

Fox News—An actress was sentenced to 26 years in jail by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court for "malicious acts" of blasphemy, the U.K.s' Independent reports.

Veena Malik, along with her husband Asad Bashir Khan Khattak and Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, the owner of the network that aired the "blasphemous" television program, have been given 104 years combined in prison by the Pakistani court.

The offending program aired several months ago and features a couple reenacting their wedding vows based on the marriage of the Prophet Mohammed's daughter.

The judge asked for immediate arrest of Malik, her husband and Shakil-ur-Rahman who are reportedly living in the United Arab Emirates.

"26 years! Come on. 26 years is a lifetime...But I have faith in higher courts in Pakistan," Malik said according to Gulf News. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistani Police Officer Hacks Shia Muslim to Death for Insulting Muhammad's Companions

In the Muslim world, Shias are killing Sunnis, and Sunnis are killing Shias. Christians are being killed. Ahmadis are being killed. Yazidis are being killed. Women are being raped.

In the non-Muslim world, we're called "racists" and "bigots" for speaking out against the violence.

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." ~Isaiah 5:20

LAHORE—A policeman used an axe to kill a man arrested for allegedly committing blasphemy, officials said Thursday, days after an enraged mob murdered a Christian couple accused of the same crime.

Tufail Haider, a 50-year-old member of the Shia sect, was arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks toward the companions of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and brought to the Civil Lines police station in the eastern city of Gujrat on Wednesday.

“Tufail was kept in the lock-up but he continued uttering derogatory remarks and hurled abuse at policemen. He looked like a malang (wandering preacher) and seemed mentally imbalanced,” duty officer Ali Raza told AFP.

“Assistant Sub-Inspector Faraz Naveed, 36, became very angry on hearing the derogatory remarks against the companions of the Prophet (PBUH) and he killed the detainee with an axe in the lock up,” he added.

Naveed has been arrested and legal proceedings have been started against him, he added.

Around 1,000 Shias have been killed in the past two years in Pakistan, a heavy toll on the community that makes up roughly 20 per cent of the country’s 180 million-strong population, most of whom are Muslim.

There has been a recent surge in extra-judicial killings linked to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. (Continue Reading.)

Asia Bibi’s Death Sentence for Blasphemy Upheld by Pakistani Appeals Court

The U.S. sends billions of dollars to the government of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan sentences Christians to death for blasphemy. Think about how your tax dollars are spent.

National Review—Pakistan is a perennial recipient of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. It’s an occasional ally/frequent enemy, sometimes actively conspiring against U.S. interests, sometimes actually firing on U.S. troops (incidents so notorious they now have their own Wikipedia page), and — of course — it’s the home of increasingly virulent jihadist extremism. And, no, this extremism isn’t confined to the fringes of Pakistani society but is sometimes even manifested in its appellate courts.

Last week, a Pakistani court of appeals upheld Asia Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemy. She’s a Christian and a mother of five.

Death. For allegedly saying bad things about Mohammed.

Barbaric.

Not that it matters (one should be able to freely insult the prophet of Islam without fear of death), but there’s evidence that even the inherently illegitimate blasphemy charge is trumped-up nonsense. Here’s Asia Bibi describing the incident in her own words. The story begins with Bibi taking a drink of water, then offering the cup to her Muslim neighbors:

Then I start to hear muttering. I pay no attention and fill the cup again, this time holding it out to a woman next to me who looks like she’s in pain. She smiles and reaches out . . . At exactly the moment Musarat pokes her ferrety nose out from the bush, her eyes full of hate: “Don’t drink that water, it’s haram!”

Musarat addresses all the pickers, who have suddenly stopped work at the sound of the word “haram,” the Islamic term for anything forbidden by God.

“Listen, all of you, this Christian has dirtied the water in the well by drinking from our cup and dipping it back several times. Now the water is unclean and we can’t drink it! Because of her!”

It’s so unfair that for once I decide to defend myself and stand up to the old witch.

“I think Jesus would see if differently from Mohammed.”

Musarat is furious. “How dare you think for the Prophet, you filthy animal!”

The story then moves into the familiar demand for conversion:

“That’s right, you’re just a filthy Christian! You’ve contaminated our water and now you dare speak for the Prophet! Stupid bitch, your Jesus didn’t even have a proper father, he was a bastard, don’t you know that.”

Musarat comes over as though she’s going to hit me and yells: “You should convert to Islam to redeem yourself for your filthy religion.”

I feel a pain deep inside. We Christians have always stayed silent: We’ve been taught since we were babies never to say anything, to keep quiet because we’re a minority. But I’m stubborn too and now I want to react, I want to defend my faith. I take a deep breath and fill my lungs with courage.

“I’m not going to convert. I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind? And why should it be me that converts instead of you?”

Bibi’s act of defiance is rewarded with physical assault, an assault that days later grows more sinister:

Five days later, I went to work fruit picking in another field. I’ve almost filled my bowl when I hear what sounds like a rioting crowd. I step back from my bush, wondering what’s going on, and in the distance I see dozens of men and women striding along towards our field, waving their arms in the air.

I catch the cruel eyes of Musarat. Her expression is self-righteous and full of scorn. I shiver as I suddenly realize that she hasn’t let it go. I can tell she’s out for revenge. The excited crowd are closer now; they are coming into the field and now they’re standing in front of me, threatening and shouting.

“Filthy bitch! We’re taking you back to the village! You insulted our Prophet! You’ll pay for that with your life!”

They all start yelling:

“Death! Death to the Christian!”

The angry crowd is pressing closer and closer around me. I’m half lying on the ground when two men grab me by the arms to drag me away. I call out in a desperate, feeble voice:

“I haven’t done anything! Let me go, please! I haven’t done anything wrong!”

When a young mullah intervenes, he is explicit: Convert or die.

“If you don’t want to die,” says the young mullah, “you must convert to Islam. Are you willing to redeem yourself by becoming a good Muslim?”

Sobbing, I reply:

“No, I don’t want to change my religion. But please believe me, I didn’t do what these women say, I didn’t insult your religion. Please have mercy on me.”

I put my hands together and plead with him. But he is unmoved.

“You’re lying! Everyone says you committed this blasphemy and that’s proof enough. Christians must comply with the law of Pakistan, which forbids any derogatory remarks about the holy Prophet. Since you won’t convert and the Prophet cannot defend himself, we shall avenge him.”

This is a nation with a nuclear arsenal, that flies dozens of F-16s supplied by the United States, and is an alleged partner in our war on terror. But it’s a nation that sentences mothers to death simply because they’re Christians who refuse to deny Christ — even in the face of an angry, violent mob. (Continue Reading.)

Liberal Muslim Scholar Muhammad Shakil Auj Accused of Blasphemy and Shot to Death in Pakistan

Western academics keep insisting that Muslim reformers will pave a path to peace in Islamic nations. But how is this going to happen when reformers are shot dead as soon as they call for reform?

The Independent–A Pakistani academic known for promoting liberal views on Islam has been shot dead by gunmen – two years after being accused of committing blasphemy in a speech he made in the US.

Dr Muhammad Shakil Auj, Dean of the faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Karachi, was attacked by two gunmen on a motorbike as he was making his way in his car to a function at the city’s Iranian cultural centre. A junior teaching colleague was also hit and suffered an injury to her arm.

“A bullet pierced through his head, proving fatal,” senior police officer Pir Mohammad Shah told the Associated Press. “We are investigating the killing. It would be premature to state the motive at the moment.”

The 54-year academic was known as someone who had spoken out on many issues in Islam and written several articles. One of the articles had suggested Muslim women should be allowed to marry non-Muslim men. He had also said Muslim women did not need to remove lipstick or make-up before going to prayer.

In 2012, Mr Auj, 54, had complained to police that four colleagues from the university had threatened him and sent him text messages accusing him of blasphemy. They had claimed a speech he had made that year in the US amounted to blasphemy.

One of the academics he complained about had previously held his position within the department. The four men face charges but are currently out on bail, according to reports. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan: Muslim Mob Kills Woman and Girls for Blasphemous Facebook Post

Here in the West, Ahmadis are some of the most vocal defenders of Islam. They are also quick to label critics of Islam "bigots" and "Islamophobes." And yet Ahmadis are viciously persecuted by Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia. Thus, they are defending the ideology that oppresses them.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani mob killed a woman member of a religious sect and two of her granddaughters after a sect member was accused of posting blasphemous material on Facebook, police said Monday, the latest instance of growing violence against minorities. 

The dead, including a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister, were Ahmadis, who consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims and many Pakistanis consider them heretics.

Police said the late Sunday violence in the town of Gujranwala, 220 km (140 miles) southeast of the capital, Islamabad, started with an altercation between young men, one of whom was an Ahmadi accused of posting "objectionable material".

"Later, a crowd of 150 people came to the police station demanding the registration of a blasphemy case against the accused," said one police officer who declined to be identified.

"As police were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and started burning the houses of Ahmadis."

The youth accused of making the Facebook post had not been injured, he said.

Under Pakistani law, Ahmadis are banned from using Muslim greetings, saying Muslim prayers or referring to his place of worship as a mosque.

Salim ud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community, said it was the worst attack on the community since simultaneous attacks on Ahmadi places of worship killed 86 Ahmadis four years ago.

"Police were there but just watching the burning. They didn't do anything to stop the mob," he said. "First they looted their homes and shops and then they burnt the homes." (Continue Reading.)

Pakistani Police Return Rape Victim to Parents Who Vow to Murder Her for Islamic Honor

A ten-year-old girl was brutally raped by a mullah (religious scholar) in a mosque in Pakistan. The community, of course, wants the girl dead, and her family has agreed to kill her to restore the family's "honor." Although a human rights group tried to protect the girl, Pakistani police have returned her to her family. Am I a racist for objecting to this insanity?

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque, and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex.

But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an “honor killing” in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead.

This past week, the awful matter became even worse. On Tuesday, local policemen removed the girl from the shelter that had given her refuge and returned her to her family, despite complaints from women’s activists that she was likely to be killed.

The case has broader repercussions. The head of the Women for Afghan Women shelter here where the girl took refuge, Dr. Hassina Sarwari, was at one point driven into hiding by death threats from the girl’s family and other mullahs, who sought to play down the crime by arguing the girl was much older than 10. One militia commander sent Dr. Sarwari threatening texts and an ultimatum to return the girl to her family. The doctor said she now wanted to flee Afghanistan.

The head of the women’s affairs office in Kunduz, Nederah Geyah, who actively campaigned to have the young girl protected from her family and the mullah prosecuted, resigned on May 21 and moved to another part of the country.

The case itself would just be an aberrant atrocity, except that the resulting support for the mullah, and for the girl’s family and its honor killing plans, have become emblematic of a broader failure to help Afghan women who have been victims of violence. . . .

The accused mullah, Mohammad Amin, was arrested and confessed to having sex with the girl after Quran recitation classes at the mosque on May 1, but claimed that he thought the girl was older and that she responded to his advances.

The girl’s own testimony, and medical evidence, supported a rape so violent that it caused a fistula, or a break in the wall between the vagina and rectum, according to the police and the official bill of indictment. She bled so profusely after the attack that she was at one point in danger of losing her life because of a delay in getting medical care.

After the two women’s officials began speaking out about the case, they started receiving threatening calls from mullahs — some of them Taliban, others on the government side — and from arbakai, or pro-government militiamen. One of their claims was that the girl was actually 17, and thus of marriageable age, not 10.

Photographs of the girl that Dr. Sarwari took in the hospital clearly show a pre-pubescent child, and the doctor said the girl weighed only 40 pounds. Few Afghans have birth records, and many do not know their precise ages. But the girl’s mother said she was 10, and a forensic examination in the hospital agreed, saying she had not yet started menstruating or developing secondary sexual characteristics. . . .

When Dr. Sarwari, who is a pediatrician, arrived to pick up the girl at the hospital, a crowd of village elders from Alti Gumbad, the girl’s home village on the outskirts of the city of Kunduz, were gathered outside the hospital; the girl’s brothers, father and uncle were among them. Inside, Dr. Sarwari encountered the girl’s aunt, who told her she had been ordered by her husband to sneak the girl out of the hospital and deliver her to the male relatives outside. “She said they wanted to take her and kill her, and dump her in the river,” Dr. Sarwari said.

Efforts to reach the girl’s relatives by telephone were unsuccessful, and insurgent activity around Alti Gumbad made the village too dangerous for journalists to visit. “The girl’s family gave us a guarantee that they would not harm her,” said Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, head of the Kunduz police criminal investigation division. “We would not hand her back unless we were sure.”

In the hospital room, the doctor found the girl’s mother holding her child’s hand, and both were weeping. “My daughter, may dust and soil protect you now,” Dr. Sarwari quoted the mother as saying. “We will make you a bed of dust and soil. We will send you to the cemetery where you will be safe.” (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan Sentences Illiterate Christian Couple to Death for Blasphemous Text Messages

Pakistan just sentenced a Christian couple to death for sending blasphemous text messages. The most glaring problem with the ruling is that the couple is illiterate—further proof that Sharia blasphemy laws are used to oppress minorities.

Christians protesting blasphemy laws

Pakistan—A Christian couple was sentenced to death in Pakistan for committing "blasphemy" via text messages. However, lawyers say this will appeal the ruling, as both the man and woman are illiterate.

"We are seriously concerned. Cases like these are common and cause great suffering. We continue to pray, while the issue remains unresolved," Fr. Aloysius Roy, Superior of the Pakistani province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, told Fides News Agency in a report on Monday.

"We express our solidarity, but Christians keep a low profile, because life is full of difficulties and dangers, and for us the first commandment is to survive. Christians are afraid and they move with extreme caution."

Shafqat Emmanuel is reportedly disabled, and his wife, Shagufta Kausar works as a waitress and is unable to read. Both were arrested in July of last year and sentenced to death last month.

Fr. Roy stated, "From the government we expect respect for the law, the rule of law and freedom of worship provided for in the Constitution."

The couple's lawyer say that the Sim card from the phone containing the messages was not registered in the couples name. While the contents of the texts have not been released, lawyers argue that the couple could not possibly have sent the messages, as the couple is illiterate. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan: Farzana Iqbal Stoned to Death by Her Own Family for Marrying Man She Loved

Politicians, the media, and Muslim organizations have spent years silencing critics of Islam. Meanwhile, women are still being brutally murdered by their own families for the sake of Islamic "honor." The people that should be standing up for these women are instead defending the ideology that promotes the honor killings.

Police collecting evidence near the body of Farzana Iqbal

Lahore, Pakistan — A pregnant woman was stoned to death Tuesday by her own family outside a courthouse in the Pakistani city of Lahore for marrying the man she loved.

The woman was killed while on her way to court to contest an abduction case her family had filed against her husband. Her father was promptly arrested on murder charges, police investigator Rana Mujahid said, adding that police were working to apprehend all those who participated in this “heinous crime.”

Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, and hundreds of women are murdered every year in so-called honor killings carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior.

Stonings in public settings, however, are extremely rare. Tuesday’s attack took place in front of a crowd of onlookers in broad daylight. The courthouse is located on a main downtown thoroughfare.

A police officer, Naseem Butt, identified the slain woman as Farzana Parveen, 25, and said she had married Mohammad Iqbal, 45, against her family’s wishes after being engaged to him for years.

Her father, Mohammad Azeem, had filed an abduction case against Iqbal, which the couple was contesting, said her lawyer, Mustafa Kharal. He said she was three months pregnant.

Nearly 20 members of Parveen’s extended family, including her father and brothers, had waited outside the building that houses the high court of Lahore. As the couple walked up to the main gate, the relatives fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from Iqbal, her lawyer said.

When she resisted, her father, brothers and other relatives started beating her, eventually pelting her with bricks from a nearby construction site, according to Mujahid and Iqbal, the slain woman’s husband. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan: Teenager Kills Ahmadi in Police Station for Blasphemy

Ahmadis are horribly persecuted by orthodox Muslims in places like Pakistan and Indonesia. Oddly enough, when Ahmadis flee Muslim countries and move to Western nations that protect them, they often become some of the most vocal critics of anyone who claims that Islam promotes violence against religious minorities.

Reuters-A teenager walked into a Pakistani police station on Friday and shot dead a 65-year-old man from a minority sect accused of blasphemy, their spokesman said, the second murder involving the country's controversial blasphemy laws in as many weeks.

Rights activists said the attack, and a spike in the number of blasphemy cases, was evidence of rising intolerance in the mainly Sunni Muslim South Asian state of 180 million people.

Victim Khalil Ahmad was a member of the minority Ahmadi community, a sect who say they are Muslim but whose religion is rejected by the Pakistani state.

Ahmad and three other Ahmadis had asked a shopkeeper in their village in central Pakistan earlier this week to remove inflammatory stickers denouncing their community, said Saleem ud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community.

In retaliation, the shopkeeper filed blasphemy charges against the four men on May 12. Ahmad, a father of four, was in police custody when the teenage boy walked in, asked to see him, and shot him dead, Din said.

He said police told him that the shooter, a high school student, had been arrested.

Din said the lapse in security would have to be investigated. Pakistani police are notoriously poorly trained and security is often lax, critics say. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistani Lawyer Rashid Rehman Murdered for Defending Client Accused of Blasphemy

So now any Muslim can accuse any non-Muslim of blasphemy, and the non-Muslim won't even be able to stand trial, because lawyers are too scared to defend people accused of blasphemy.

Welcome to the Islam that the media says has nothing to do with Islam.

Rashid Rehman

Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen posing as clients shot dead a prominent human rights lawyer defending a professor accused of blasphemy, officials said Thursday, underscoring the danger facing those trying to put an end to religious intolerance in majority-Muslim Pakistan.

Wednesday's killing of Rashid Rehman in the southern city Multan of was the first time a lawyer has been killed for taking on a blasphemy case, police said.

Rehman had been representing Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer in English accused by hardline student groups of making blasphemous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed in March last year.

Hafeez had been in prison without being able to find a lawyer until Rehman agreed to represent him in February.

Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan. The accused are often lynched or languish for years in jail without trial because lawyers are too afraid to defend them. Rights groups say the laws are increasingly used to seize money or property.

Judges have previously been attacked in Pakistan for acquitting blasphemy defendants and two politicians who discussed reforming the law were shot dead.

Rehman was shot dead by two gunmen at his office on Wednesday night. A junior lawyer and an assistant were wounded, police said.

"Rehman was at his office at night when two men came there posing as potential clients, asking for his help with a marriage case," police officer Shaukat Abbas told Reuters.

"He was shot five times and succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital."

On Thursday morning, an unsigned pamphlet was distributed in Multan saying Rehman met his "rightful end" for trying to "save someone who disrespected the Prophet Mohammed".

"We warn all lawyers to be afraid of god and think twice before engaging in such acts," the pamphlet said.

Rehman worked for the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). He frequently denounced the repression of Pakistan's dwindling religious minorities. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan: More Than 200 Women Honor-Killed in Sindh Province in 2013

Women are being brutally murdered by their own families in the Sindh province of Pakistan. In a sane world, men and women from around the globe would unite in drawing attention to the plight of women in Sindh, and countries would mobilize their resources in an effort to protect potential victims of honor violence. In the actual world, however, condemning any Islamic practices (no matter how barbaric) is regarded as a form of racism, so people generally ignore the problem.

ISLAMABAD—In 2013, as many as 202 women were murdered in the name of Karo-kari (honour killing) in Sindh, Special Home Secretary Sindh informed the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Monday.

The secretary also stated that at least 28 honour killing cases have been reported in 2014 thus far.

He added that the incidence of honour killing in interior Sindh is continuously rising because of the jirga system that exists in all districts of the rural parts of the province.

“The weakness of the legal system and the encouragement of the jirga system in rural areas are both responsible for the rise in the murder of women in the name of honour,” the secretary informed.

He assured that to prevent violence against women, special cells were functioning in all districts of Sindh, encouraging civil society to join the cells and report such cases.

He said that to create awareness, special seminars about the issue are also organised from time to time for the general public.

The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights Chairperson Senator Afrasiab Khattak expressed serious concerns about the rising number of women killed in the name of honour.

He directed the provincial government to take effective steps to discourage the act. (Source)

For a brief introduction to the Islamic view of women, watch this:

Pakistan: Five Dead in Family Honor Killing

Here's another one of those things we can't talk about without being called racists and Islamophobes.

SWABI: Five members of a family were killed in the name of honour in Kab Ghani village of Gadoon Amazai area here on Monday, police said.

They said that two members of the family were injured in the incident and they were shifted to Peshawar for treatment. The suspect managed to escape after committing the crime, they added.

Sources said that both the families, parties to the dispute, were blood relatives. They said that about a decade ago a sister of Fazl Amin had married his cousin Javed Ahmad without the consent of her parents. According to the decision of a local jirga, the family of Javed Ahmed left the village for Karachi soon after the marriage.

However, the victim family returned to its home a few days ago. The brothers of the girl got infuriated when they came to know about the return of the family, sources said.

Police said that Fazl Amin scaled the boundary wall of his cousin’s house before dawn and opened firing on the inmates. The suspect killed his uncle Jamil Ahmed, aunt Zarqia Begum, brother-in-law Javed Ahmed, sister Nizakat Bibi and nephew Aryan Khan on the spot, they added.

He managed to escape soon after the incident. Police said that search for the suspect was continued. They said that several areas and houses of his relatives were raided but he was still at large.

Farhan Khan, son of Javed Ahmed, and a woman identified as Zarhajia sustained injuries in the attack. They were shifted to a hospital in Peshawar. According to doctors, the injured were in critical condition. (Continue Reading.)

Pakistan: Christian and Hindu Girls Being Forced to Convert and Marry Muslim Men

Approximately 1000 Christian and Hindu girls and women are victims of forced conversion and forced marriage in Pakistan each year. Am I a racist for complaining, CAIR?

WASHINGTON—Around 1,000 Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan are forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men every year, according to a report released by Movement for Solidarity and Peace- in Pakistan on Monday.

The report states the estimates of the incidence of forced marriage and conversion from 100 to 700 victim Christian girls and 300 Hindu girls per year, adding that the true scale of the problem is likely to be much greater, as a number of cases are never reported or do not progress through the law-enforcement and legal systems.

The report has categorized the concurrent incidence of forced conversions and forced marriages as a distinct crime specific to minority Christian women in Punjab.

The research by MSP has lead to discovery of a distinguished pattern:

Christian girls — usually between the ages of 12 and 25 — are abducted, converted to Islam, and married to the abductor or third party.

The victim’s family usually files a First Information Report (FIR) for abduction or rape with the local police station. The abductor, on behalf of the victim girl, files a counter FIR, accusing the Christian family of harassing the willfully converted and married girl, and for conspiring to convert the girl back to Christianity.

Upon production in the courts or before the magistrate, the victim girl is asked to testify whether she converted and married of her own free will or if she was abducted.

In most cases, the girl remains in custody of the abductor while judicial proceedings are carried out. Upon the girl’s pronouncement that she willfully converted and consented to the marriage, the case is settled without relief for the family.

Once in the custody of the abductor, the victim girl may be subjected to sexual violence, rape, forced prostitution, human trafficking and sale, or other domestic abuse. (Continue Reading.)

The same thing is happening in Egypt. Coincidence?

Pakistan: Christian Couple Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy

Here in the West, Muslim groups (such as CAIR and ISNA) and Muslim apologists (such as Yahya Snow and Ijaz Ahmad) attempt to silence critics of Islam through character assassination (attacking the character of anyone who objects to child marriage, jihad, spousal abuse, female genital mutilation, etc.). In Muslim countries, leaders simply enforce sharia blasphemy laws. The penalty for blasphemy in Pakistan is death.

These blasphemy laws are also used to persecute Christians, even Christians who haven't said a word about Muhammad.

News Daily—A court in eastern Pakistan has sentenced a Christian couple to death for sending a blasphemous text message insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, their lawyer said Saturday.

Judge Mian Amir Habib handed the death sentence to Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar in a jail in the town of Toba Tek Singh on Friday, defence lawyer Nadeem Hassan told AFP.

Prosecution department officials confirmed the sentence.

The impoverished couple, who are in their forties, have three children and live in the town of Gojra, which has a history of violence against Christians, Hassan said.

Both denied the charges, Hassan said, adding that they would appeal the sentence.

Maulvi Mohammad Hussain, the prayer leader at a local mosque in Gojra, lodged a complaint against couple on July 21 last year for sending him a text message which he said was insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

Hussain accused the husband of sending the message from his wife's cellphone.

However, defence lawyer Hassan said that the text originated from a cellphone which the couple had lost some time before the incident, so they could not have sent the message.

The defence lawyer said that the couple had suspected rivals of implicating them into blasphemy case to settle personal scores and that they had ties with the complainant.

Pakistan has extremely strict laws against defaming Islam, including the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, and rights campaigners say they are often used to settle personal disputes. (Continue Reading.)