Legal Change May Help Pakistan's Persecuted Christians
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
August 19, 2004
(AgapePress) - Government officials in Pakistan are pushing for a revision of that country's blasphemy law, a change that would be a major boon to followers of the Christian faith in that country.For years now, Pakistan's Law 295c -- which prohibits blaspheming Mohammed, a crime punishable by death -- has been used against Christians to settle various disputes. According to Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), many times Pakistani Christians are falsely accused, often in the midst of an argument.
"If there's a dispute about property," Nettleton says, "or if you're upset about something, you just point the finger and say, 'You know what? He blasphemed Muhammad.' And the police come in and arrest them, and they're out of your way."
VOM, an international ministry to the persecuted Church, reports that Pakistani followers of Jesus are often falsely accused of blaspheming Mohammad, and some have even been murdered by mobs after being acquitted of such charges. In any circumstances, the mere allegation has frequently been all that was required for a Muslim accuser to get rid of a Christian enemy.
But now, Nettleton says, a proposed revision to the law calls for harsh penalties for anyone making a spurious accusation of blasphemy. "One of the changes they're looking at is to make it so that if you make a false charge, you will be punished as the person would have been punished if they were guilty of blasphemy," he says.
The VOM spokesman believes there is a good chance the proposal to revise the anti-blasphemy law will be approved, which he says would be a major benefit to Christian believers. "Obviously that will make it a lot more difficult to use the blasphemy law against Christians and others just to settle a dispute," he says.
According to VOM reports, even if the law is amended, Christians will continue to be at risk in Pakistan, where militant Islamic forces continually initiate violence against them. Also, efforts to officially adopt Muslim Sharia law as the law of the land are ongoing in the Islamic nation, and should those efforts succeed, even more persecution of Christians will inevitably result.
But for the present, Nettleton asserts, the proposed revision to the anti-blasphemy law is greatly needed to corrected a common injustice in the Muslim-controlled country. Hopefully, he says, the change will make many people "think long and hard" before lodging a false complaint of blasphemy against a Christian.
