Green Energy
Allah is Humiliated
The Australian:
Pope insults Muslims, say MPs
PAKISTANI politicians have accused the Pope of interfering in state matters after he called for controversial blasphemy laws to be scrapped.
Benedict XVI urged the Islamic nation to repeal the legislation -- which carries the death penalty for insulting Islam -- a week after the shooting of the governor of Punjab, who had criticised the laws.
"I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law," the Pope said.
"The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction."
He added that the legislation had been used as a pretext for violence against non-Muslims.
The laws have come under scrutiny after the sentencing to death of Aasia Bibi, a Christian, for insulting Islam, in a case that has divided the country further.
Islamic party leaders condemned the Pope's comments.
"Pakistan is an Islamic ideological state and the Pope cannot tell us to change our laws, which are in conformity to our belief," said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam, one of the country's largest Islamic groups supporting the blasphemy laws.
Farid Paracha, the leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, the most powerful Islamic party in the nation, said: "The Pope's statement is an insult to Muslims across the world."
Critics say the laws, enacted under military rule in the 1980s, discriminate against minority groups.
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri has admitted shooting Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who had campaigned to reform the laws and sought a presidential pardon for Ms Bibi.
Hundreds gathered at the court and showered petals on the bodyguard when he attended last week, and more than 50,000 people from religious groups rallied in Karachi on Sunday in support of Qadri, calling him a hero and demanding that any effort to reform the blasphemy law be dropped.
The governor's shooting outside an Islamabad coffee shop was the most high-profile assassination in Pakistan since ex-PPP prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in December 2007.
Her son, and the son of President Asif Ali Zardari, condemned Qadri's supporters yesterday, saying they were "the real blasphemers".
"Because of you (who praise Qadri), the message of Islam is distorted in the eyes of the world," Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, speaking to mourners yesterday at the Pakistan high commission in London.
"Those who attack my religion, especially those who corrupt its peaceful message, you are what I call covert blasphemers and you will be defeated. This will be our jihad."
Mr Bhutto Zardari further pledged to defend Christians and other minorities in the country.
"We will defend you. For those who wish to harm you for a crime you did not commit, they will have to go through me first," he said.
He compared the killing of Taseer to that of his mother, saying they had both died defending the real message of Islam.
"My mother embraced martyrdom while defending our faith. She was martyred doing her jihad against those who had hijacked our religion," said Mr Bhutto Zardari.
"On January 4, Shaheed Salman Taseer was assassinated because he, too, refused to be silenced. He, too, was assassinated in defence of our religion. He died defending the message of Islam."
- Pakistan - Moderate?
Five years ago I came across an article in the WSJ that reported fundamentalist Islam was taught in the public schools. It wasn't just a few madrassas or an isolated few who "hijacked Islam" as Mr. Bush tried to tell us. It was virtually the whole...
-
Asia News: Extremist group announces suicide attack to kill Asia Bibi by Jibran Khan Pakistani intelligence says Moaviya group is planning a suicide attack against Sheikhupura Prison, where the woman has been held since 2009. In Lahore, the first hearing...
- Pakistan: Taliban-linked Cleric Offers $5,800 Reward For Anyone Who Kills Asia Bibi
Asia Bibi A hardline, pro-Taliban Pakistani Muslim cleric Friday offered a reward for anyone who kills a Christian woman sentenced to death by a court on charges of insulting Islam.The sentence against Asia Bibi has renewed debate about Pakistan’s...
-
AP h/t Gateway Pundit: Pakistani Islamists Threaten Attacks If Christian Woman Is Set Free & Not Hanged Around 250 hard-line Muslims staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, warning the president not to pardon a...
- Pakistan's Let Issues Fatwah To Kill The Pope
From SAAG (Paper no. 1974) Acting on behalf of the International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People, which is headed by Osama bin Laden, the Markaz-ud-Dawa (MUD) of Pakistan, which is the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba...
Green Energy
Calling For End To Death Penalty for Apostates Is An Insult To Islam, Says Pakistani Government
Allah is Humiliated
The Australian:
Pope insults Muslims, say MPs
PAKISTANI politicians have accused the Pope of interfering in state matters after he called for controversial blasphemy laws to be scrapped.
Benedict XVI urged the Islamic nation to repeal the legislation -- which carries the death penalty for insulting Islam -- a week after the shooting of the governor of Punjab, who had criticised the laws.
"I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law," the Pope said.
"The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction."
He added that the legislation had been used as a pretext for violence against non-Muslims.
The laws have come under scrutiny after the sentencing to death of Aasia Bibi, a Christian, for insulting Islam, in a case that has divided the country further.
Islamic party leaders condemned the Pope's comments.
"Pakistan is an Islamic ideological state and the Pope cannot tell us to change our laws, which are in conformity to our belief," said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam, one of the country's largest Islamic groups supporting the blasphemy laws.
Farid Paracha, the leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, the most powerful Islamic party in the nation, said: "The Pope's statement is an insult to Muslims across the world."
Critics say the laws, enacted under military rule in the 1980s, discriminate against minority groups.
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri has admitted shooting Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who had campaigned to reform the laws and sought a presidential pardon for Ms Bibi.
Hundreds gathered at the court and showered petals on the bodyguard when he attended last week, and more than 50,000 people from religious groups rallied in Karachi on Sunday in support of Qadri, calling him a hero and demanding that any effort to reform the blasphemy law be dropped.
The governor's shooting outside an Islamabad coffee shop was the most high-profile assassination in Pakistan since ex-PPP prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in December 2007.
Her son, and the son of President Asif Ali Zardari, condemned Qadri's supporters yesterday, saying they were "the real blasphemers".
"Because of you (who praise Qadri), the message of Islam is distorted in the eyes of the world," Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, speaking to mourners yesterday at the Pakistan high commission in London.
"Those who attack my religion, especially those who corrupt its peaceful message, you are what I call covert blasphemers and you will be defeated. This will be our jihad."
Mr Bhutto Zardari further pledged to defend Christians and other minorities in the country.
"We will defend you. For those who wish to harm you for a crime you did not commit, they will have to go through me first," he said.
He compared the killing of Taseer to that of his mother, saying they had both died defending the real message of Islam.
"My mother embraced martyrdom while defending our faith. She was martyred doing her jihad against those who had hijacked our religion," said Mr Bhutto Zardari.
"On January 4, Shaheed Salman Taseer was assassinated because he, too, refused to be silenced. He, too, was assassinated in defence of our religion. He died defending the message of Islam."
- Pakistan - Moderate?
Five years ago I came across an article in the WSJ that reported fundamentalist Islam was taught in the public schools. It wasn't just a few madrassas or an isolated few who "hijacked Islam" as Mr. Bush tried to tell us. It was virtually the whole...
-
Asia News: Extremist group announces suicide attack to kill Asia Bibi by Jibran Khan Pakistani intelligence says Moaviya group is planning a suicide attack against Sheikhupura Prison, where the woman has been held since 2009. In Lahore, the first hearing...
- Pakistan: Taliban-linked Cleric Offers $5,800 Reward For Anyone Who Kills Asia Bibi
Asia Bibi A hardline, pro-Taliban Pakistani Muslim cleric Friday offered a reward for anyone who kills a Christian woman sentenced to death by a court on charges of insulting Islam.The sentence against Asia Bibi has renewed debate about Pakistan’s...
-
AP h/t Gateway Pundit: Pakistani Islamists Threaten Attacks If Christian Woman Is Set Free & Not Hanged Around 250 hard-line Muslims staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, warning the president not to pardon a...
- Pakistan's Let Issues Fatwah To Kill The Pope
From SAAG (Paper no. 1974) Acting on behalf of the International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People, which is headed by Osama bin Laden, the Markaz-ud-Dawa (MUD) of Pakistan, which is the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba...