Pakistan MP incriminated with blasphemy

(February 18, 2011) A woman Member of Parliament from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who launched the motion in the parliament to modify the country’s controversial blasphemy laws has herself now been incriminated with blasphemy. A court in Multan formally charged Sherry Rehman with blasphemy, enlisting the help of the local police. The court received the denouncement by a local shopkeeper, who accuses the woman of blasphemy in her address on television in November 2010. The local police, for now, have declared her legally incompetent. In recent weeks there have been other attempts to incriminate her but other Pakistani courts have refused to give authorisation. This news creates “discouragement and deep concern within the Christian community” which, as a local source told Fides news agency, sees its fears being realised: that it has gone beyond the idea of defining “blasphemous”, and therefore, anyone who opposes the law on blasphemy can be incriminated. Meanwhile cases are multiplying in which extremist Islamic groups openly praise the “holy war”, the civil disobedience and murders. Fides sources in Pakistan's civil society express growing concern that these attitudes, however, “are not producing any solid responses from the Pakistani Government,” which “should stop these preachers of hate and lawlessness.” Many mullahs use the Friday sermon to convey hostile messages to increase social and interreligious tensions, to override the rule of law. Some are even demanding a nuclear “holy war” against neighbouring India.