April 25, 2012 – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic…Amireh Al-Haddad/IRLA
Shaherya Gill, one of the more than 800 people from around the world who have traveled to Punta Cana to attend the 7th World Congress, understands the challenges to religious freedom in Pakistan-he grew up there. Now working as an associate counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, an advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, he helps to oversee religious freedom cases in the country of his birth.
Among the biggest challenges to religious liberty in Pakistan are the so-called Blasphemy Laws. These laws prohibit any action or words against Islam, including defiling a place of worship or a sacred object, defiling the Quran or demeaning the prophet Mohammad. Punishment for such offenses includes fines, imprisonment and even the death penalty.
Gill notes that since these laws were passed about 30 years ago there have been about 1,000 charges against Christians in Pakistan. Worse still, says Gill,
“Most cases are filed because one person wants another person’s property.”
One of Gill’s current cases involves a bookstore owner who was falsely accused of violating the blasphemy laws, apparently in an attempt to gain his property. Cases like these, the law dictates, must go not only go before the court, but also before a Muslim judge. Unfortunately, says Gill, the question now has become how to discern true blasphemers from covetous accusers.
Other recent cases, such as that of Asia Bibi-the young Christian woman sentenced to death in the Pakistan’s Punjab Provence-have focused international attention on the impact of the Blasphemy Laws on members of Pakistan’s minority faiths. Last year, both Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer were assassinated after publicly supporting re-examination of the Blasphemy Laws.
For now, the outlook for many Christians and members of minority faiths in Pakistan remains grim. And religious liberty advocates, such as Gill, will continue their efforts to fight for the right of every person to worship according to the dictates of conscience.
