The BBC World Service has just broadcast a report on the blasphemy law in Pakistan. You know that's the one where it you diss the Prophet or doubt the Koran, you'll have your head lopped off judicially or be riddled by bullets extra judicially. Amazingly the program was not too bad, given that Al-Beebs is usually so pro Islam.
(This link to Pakistan's blasphemy laws is a Q&A and not the program itself, which I could not find online. I also wrote about Pakistan's blasphemy laws before in a letter The South China published here).
But a couple of curiosities:
The Presenter (I forget her name) suggested that it might be better if the punishment were "only" a life sentence instead of death. Waaaaat? You mean she accepts that basic premise? The barbaric premise that it's acceptable to have any punishment at all, let alone death or life in prison, for the "crime" of blasphemy? Surely not?!
A lady towards the end was allowed to make some points in extenso about how all this killing and accusing people of blasphemy is the religion being "misused", that it's been "hijacked by the extremely small number of extremests" and blah blah, the usual guff. Whereas it is of course, precisely because the punishment is in the Koran and the Hadith that the death penalty exists. An imam earlier on was more on the money: he said that the death penalty for blasphemy is in "all the texts of Islam", and -- nota bene you folk who are soft on Sharia being implemented in the west -- that it applied equally to Muslims and non-Muslims. That ought to give pause to the US State Attorneys who are overturning bans on Sharia, in the mistaken belief that it's just an issue of "freedom of religion". It's nothing of the sort, as the imam above makes clear. If we allow Sharia in the west then the imposition of such draconian punishments is only a matter of time, and not just for Muslims, as the imam made clear.
Wait a minute! I just realised that we're already some ways along the path already. The people who lambasted Terry Jones, the dopey Floridian Pastor who burned the Koran, are spruiking for Islam's blasphemy laws. For, instead of supporting Jones' freedom of speech to do something dopey, they're pursuing the punishment of Sharia. This time he was "only" jailed for a time. How long before there's call for the "proper" Islamic punishment? Death, in a word.
The curious thing about those critical of Jones was how many said he was "ignorant" (true), "unread" (true) and just a bit of a dope (true). Since when is being an ignorant, unlettered dope a reason for punishment? How many would be in jail for that?? Think of this: how stupid is the average person; then think that half the population is more stupid than them.
Still, maybe this World Service program is a hint that some in Al-Beebs are getting a hint, just a glimmer, of the awfulness of Islam. Death for having an opinion on religion. Really!
