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Pakistan rallies to preserve Blasphemy law after Salmaan Taseer assassination

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Humanist Examiner

 Sunday, in the Pakistan city of Karachi, tens of thousands of Muslims marched in support of current blasphemy laws. The protests come after the January 4th assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, who favored amending the draconian and controversial blasphemy laws used to persecute and intimidate the non-Islam minority.

The protesters are Islamic extremists, desperate to protect the existing blasphemy law, and reinforce the notion that for all intents and purposes Pakistan is an Islamic theocracy. Adding insult to injury, numerous Islamic clerics have threatened to kill anyone who challenges the protesters or attempts to amend the blasphemy law.
Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was assasinated in Islamabad by Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, one of his own bodyguards. Qadri fired 27 bullets at the sitting governor and then surrendered himself to the police. Reports indicate that Qadri had shared his plan to murder Taseer with some of his colleagues. He had even requested them not to fire at him while he assassinated Taseer; a request that was honoured. Not a single shot was fired at Qadri by the other security guards on duty that day. 
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Taseer had recently waged a very public campaign to save the life of a Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law and his assassin was reportedly angered by the governor’s outspoken support for changing that law, despite the objections of Islamist leaders.

Taseer is a hero, a martyr to the global cause of freedom from religious persecution.

Before his assassination Taseer tweeted:

Covered in the righteous cloak of religion and even a puny dwarf imagines himself a monster. Important to face. And call their bluff

Taseer had the courage to challenge the monster's bluff, and reject the "black law' of Islamic extremists, the draconian blasphemy law. In so doing Taseer lost his life. Yet Taseer’s martyrdom must not be in vain, and all good people must stand up and reject religious tyranny in all its forms, be it sublime or petty.
 
Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer - secular martyr
Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer - secular martyr
Photo credit: 
commons.wikimedia

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Michael Stone is a progressive freethinker and freelance writer residing in Portland, Oregon. Informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion, Michael’s task is to question the world in pursuit of the good. You can reach Michael at stonemichael@hotmail.com.

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