Junaid Hafeez: Academic sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan

[EX500rider]

Source: BBC

A university lecturer in Pakistan has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Junaid Hafeez, 33, was arrested in March 2013 and accused of posting derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed on social media.

Allegations of blasphemy are taken very seriously in Pakistan, and even an accusation is often enough to make someone a target for hardliners. Mr Hafeez's first lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in 2014 after agreeing to take on the case.
The lecturer has also spent years in solitary confinement, after repeated attacks by other prisoners.

The sentence was delivered by a court in the Central Jail in Multan, where Mr Hafeez was being held.
Mr Hafeez had studied a Master's degree in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, specialising in American literature, photography and theatre. After returning to Pakistan he took up a lecturer position at Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Multan, where he worked until his arrest.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50878432

---

One more reason to not visit Pakistan.

[Canoe52]

1. And guess what western country is moving in that direction?

Like god would give a rats ass as to anything a mere mortal would have to say about him.

I just don’t understand why people think they need to speak for god, or to kill for him, while saying god is all powerful...

[EX500rider]

3. None?

The only countries with the death penalty for blasphemy on the books or even proposed are all Muslim majority countries.
Feel free to show me any examples of US politicians proposing legislation for the death penalty for blasphemy or apostasy, which also has the death penalty in some Muslim countries. Apostasy is a crime in 16 out of 49 Muslim majority countries.

[Canoe52]

4. ..

[spike jones]

5. I guess some people don't get out much, eh.

[EX500rider]

12. I asked for examples of western politicians trying to pass death penalty blasphemy laws...

...I assume there aren't any are there?

[PatSeg]

13. I think the point is

we could be moving in that direction - extremist religious views interfering with our judicial system. There are many who do not believe in the separation of church and state. Pakistan is a good example why we can never let it happen here.

[Canoe52]

17. Funny how two little dots can evoke such a response from certain people here.

sensitive much?

[PatSeg]

18. Yeah

You are such a troublemaker!!! Next time try three dots!!!

[JackintheGreen]

30. Matt Shea in Washington comes close

“Shea last year lost a House leadership position after acknowledging he distributed the ‘biblical basis for war’ document that also calls for killing non-Christian males who refuse to follow fundamentalist biblical law.” From CBS News on Friday

[link:http://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-shea-washington-state-lawmaker-who-engaged-in-domestic-terrorism-refuses-to-resign/|

[PatSeg]

31. Oh yes

That comes pretty darn close. There really are people who believe this sort of thing and if they have any power, they could be very dangerous.

[blugbox]

37. They didn't say any western country has taken a giant leap

and tried to enable the exact laws described here.

They said "moving in that direction", in which republicans wanting to integrate church and state falls into.

[BirdandSquirrel]

19. When Your Religious Beliefs

Have even the tiniest affect on me, my family, or my lifestyle, that is precisely the definition of a Western Country headed in the wrong direction when it comes to religion.

I would also refer you to the Xstian Crusades and the Inquisition before proclaiming your religion to be based upon anything besides hatred and intolerance.

[Jake Stern]

21. The old Whaboutist go-tos: What about the Crusades?! What about the Inquisition?!

This is happening NOW not 1000 years ago,

And you should be scared as Muslim nations are really pushing for other countries to adopt what are, in effect, blasphemy laws. They want laws that prohibit "defaming" a religion or it's prophets, So not only would the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo shootings have to deal with the trauma of watching their colleagues die but also would have to worry about being prosecuted under the bullshit laws Muslims are proposing.

Read more: https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2009/1027/p08s01-comv.html This is from 2009 but countries like Pakistan are still at it.

[BirdandSquirrel]

23. Yes

This is happening now. 1 State is enacting legislation to ban all abortions. Dozens of others are making it impractical, if not impossible. Several States now have classes in public schools teaching that cults and fairy tales are more important than science and fact. Many people live in fear of being bullied, beaten, and killed, for their sexual preferences.

As an Atheist, I can say that all organized religion is vile, evil, hateful, and intolerant. But in this country, Muslims pose very little in the way of harm to 99.9% of the population. However, the xstians in this country are being emboldened by our top political leaders to lash out at those who choose to be different. Emboldened to organize and terrorize the masses. Emboldened to blame everything bad in society on those who refuse to bow to the false and fake realities embedded in their minds through years upon years of cult rituals and lies.

As an American citizen, I fear a xstian 1000 times more than I fear a Muslim. That is the reality of this nation.

[Jake Stern]

25. World of difference between passing go nowhere laws on abortion

and judicially executing someone because they're gay or they dare to chose which faith they want to follow.

Do LGBT Americans fear violence? Absolutely. However they do not have to fear being executed by the state for being gay.

Americans do not fear the government putting them on trial at risk of their life for saying "I'm not a Christian".

I don't fear Christians or Buddhists or Jews or Hindus.

I'm not afraid that Nahendra Modi is going to put a bounty on my head because I drew a caricature of Lord Krishna.

I don't worry that a fanatical Jew is going to pump me full of bullets because I defaced a copy of the Torah.

I'm not afraid that a Christian is going to slit my throat in a rage because I threw a crucifix in the toilet.

I do, however, self-censor because I fear that a Muslim could take what I say as an attack on their religion and try to harm me.

[BirdandSquirrel]

26. If You Choose To Ignore

All of the warning signs of this nation becoming a Theocracy, then so be it. I, for one, do not choose to ignore the harm than is being inflicted upon the average citizen of this nation by the xstian religion. Muslims have no chance of being in a position of power that could affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, but the xstian Taliban is already there. And the steps that they are taking to make this a Theocracy are real. Small at first, but one by one, they are starting to fall lock, stock, and goose step, into line.

[EX500rider]

32. I'd say we are headed the other way, less people go to church every year.

[Lionel Mandrake]

36. The trend is encouraging,

especially when you consider that younger people (Millennials) are the least likely to be religious.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/millennials-are-leaving-religion-and-not-coming-back/

[blugbox]

38. This is a very good point.

While the people currently in power may want to tie church and state together... the church is losing followers in droves.

[CloudWatcher]

27. Not worried about a Christian killing you?

Tell that to Dr. George Tiller.

[JonLP24]

29. Muslims in India fear Hindu nationalists & Modi

Last edited Sun Dec 22, 2019, 06:23 AM - Edit history (2)

I see Muslims facing abuse on social media all the time & most of the time they are liberal facing abuse from conservatives and nothing happens to them so I wouldn't worry about it.

Saudi Arabia recruited Twitter employees to spy on critics well guess what I criticize Saudi Arabia on Twitter.

Look at the Omar death threats. She even asked the judge to go easy on him.

Aren't you aware there are different sects of Islam and not just Sunni or Shia just like Christianity?

US has a White Nationalist Terrorism Problem

At the beginning of the decade, American law enforcement received repeated warnings of how the improvised explosive devices (IED) employed by al Qaeda affiliates might soon make their way to the United States. The IED warnings proved correct. On January 17, 2011, police officers in Spokane, Washington, narrowly averted a disaster by re-directing a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. march away from a remote detonated, shape charge loaded with “shrapnel coated with a substance meant to keep blood from clotting in wounds.” It wasn’t al Qaeda or even an al Qaeda supporter that planted the most sophisticated IED to then appear in the United States. Instead of finding an international terrorism connection, the FBI, on March 9, 2011, arrested Kevin Harpham, a former member of the U.S. Army who was affiliated with a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance.

Not long after the election of President Barack Obama, all indicators pointed to a dramatic rise in domestic terrorism in the U.S. White supremacist threats mounted after America elected its first African-American president. Online conspiracy theories regarding the president’s citizenship and religion (I bet some of those conspiracies involved Islam) helped fuel a rise in racism intertwined with domestic politics. Alongside race-based groups, anti-government groups rose as well, powered by erroneous beliefs about abortion, repealing of the Second Amendment, or declaration of martial law.

Still, the U.S. focused its counter-terrorism efforts on al Qaeda and its spawn, the Islamic State. Homegrown extremists inspired by the groups were a more vexing problem at that moment. The Obama administration crafted policy and programs “to develop community-oriented approaches to counter hateful extremist ideologies . . . including domestic terrorists and homegrown violent extremists in the United States.” Years of conferences and outreach sessions commenced, but the focus remained on preventing jihadist terrorism and not domestic terrorism. Muslim communities saw law enforcement-led interventions, and I’d spoil these discussions by asking, “Where is the outreach to domestic extremists?” I’d point out that Kevin Harpham arose from Eastern Washington, not far from where FBI Agents in 1992 became embroiled in a disastrous standoff at Ruby Ridge with an alleged, anti-government group. “Why don’t we send some teams out to northern Idaho and eastern Washington to counter domestic terrorism?” I’d ask. No one responded, and the conversation would die because we all knew the answers. Domestic extremists have guns; al Qaeda wannabes generally don’t. Domestic terrorists vote; international terrorists don’t.

A decade of neglect and turning a blind eye to the rising current of white supremacist movements, combined with the rise of political divisiveness built on racial, religious, and ethnic divides, has brought an unprecedented modern wave of domestic terrorism. An African-American church became the scene of a horrible atrocity in South Carolina, and others recently burned in Louisiana. Mosques are attacked abroad and desecrated in the States. American synagogues in Pittsburgh and San Diego have become the site of mass shootings. White nationalist terrorism has long been on the rise. Why doesn’t America do something about it?

https://www.fpri.org/article/2019/05/america-has-a-white-nationalist-terrorism-problem-what-should-we-do/

[EX500rider]

22. Not my religion, I am a atheist. But the US is nowhere near heading towards..

...the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy. And going back 500+ years to put down Christianity doesn't hold much water with me.

[BirdandSquirrel]

24. I Also Am An Atheist

And I am all too aware of the dangers presented by xstians and Muslims. The difference is stark. Muslims pose very little dander to any of us. Xstians, on the other hand, should scare the crap out of everyone in this country.

[EX500rider]

33. Burn a Bible on Youtube then burn a Koran and then get back to us on how that works out for you.

[bitterross]

2. This is where Pence and others would like to take the US

The Christian Extremists in the US would love to have the courts be religious courts. They've made great inroads to this with the set of judges McConnell has had approved to the courts. I say McConnell rather than Trump because Moscow Mitch is the real driving force behind packing the courts.

[LastDemocratInSC]

7. Pence et. al. would be happy to see us speaking a sanctioned prayer before buying stamps at the USPS

[Jake Stern]

6. Ah the Religion of Peace

Be nice to our prophet or we'll kill you.

Funny, I don't see Christians shooting up magazines because they mocked Jesus or Jews threatening to behead cartoonists because they drew a caricature of Moses.

When's the last time a Buddhist nation sentenced someone to death because they made a joke about Shakyamuni Buddha?

What are the current stats on people awaiting a date with the hangman in India for defacing a copy of the Bhagavad Gita?

[LastDemocratInSC]

8. I think the reason for that is respect for our secular laws

Even the right wing nut jobs seem to feel restraint, at least for the time being.

[bitterross]

9. Chrsitanity is hardly a religion of peace either

Last edited Sat Dec 21, 2019, 02:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Christian Extremists blow up federal buildings. They exterminate indigenous peoples. They run over Latina girls going to school just because they're Latina. They support racism, bigotry, misogyny and other cruel -isms. Just because the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the witch trials were quite a while ago doesn't exclude Christianity from harboring whack-job extremists in the present day. People like Pompeo, Pence and Barr are all trying to bring about the Rapture. In case you hadn't noticed.

Christian Extremists are no better than Muslim ones. Christianity is no better than Islam as a "religion of peace."

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not defending Islam. Not at all. I'm just pointing out Christianity is no better. I think we'd be a lot better off in this world without either of those religions. I abhor both of them equally.

[SunSeeker]

11. This is a government doing this. That's the truly scary part. nt

[oldsoftie]

20. Thank you.

[JonLP24]

28. I see the US & UK selling weapons to Saudi Arabia

Also giving them petrol dollars to spread their wahabbi ideology in places such as Pakistan.

There are so many white supremacist Christians it is not even funny. You should see what Christians did to Muslims in Central Africa Republic or what Modi & China are doing to Muslims.

I'm an atheist but I don't blame all Muslims for the actions of a right wing fundamentalist cult with their idolatry views or in their mind they commit terrorism to prevent idolatry. Especially since it is Christians(every President is a Christian even though our bombs are "secular&quot in the US & the UK allying with the wahabbi cult The House of Saud.

The religion of peace line comes from Bush. Do you prefer Trump's rhetoric even though like other stupid Islamaphobes he sells Saudi Arabia weapons & defends them. Bush also slipped up and said "This crusade could take awhile". Like Trump he also sold the House of Saud weapons & covered up their role in 9/11.

[EX500rider]

34. "I don't blame all Muslims for the actions of a right wing fundamentalist cult..."

Apostasy is a crime in 16 out of 49 Muslim majority countries. Not in any Christian majority countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy#Islam

[SunSeeker]

10. I can't believe countries do this shit. The US should press for his release.

This man is at least as deserving of our attention as the rapper Trump championed who was being held for assaulting a guy in Sweden.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/20/743788583/trump-says-hed-vouch-for-a-ap-rocky-amid-growing-demands-for-the-rapper-s-releas

[Bradical79]

14. Fuck Theocracy

We need to stop supporting these awful governments.

[LiberalLovinLug]

15. It took a bit of digging to find what he actually DID to be charged

I finaly found this link which explained it. More preposterous than I first imagined.

https://www.newsweekpakistan.com/blasphemy-accused-junaid-hafeez-sentenced-to-death/

“According to the First Information Report registered by the police, Junaid Hafeez had a Facebook page with a group of people as its members of which he was the admin,” said Jamal. “One member of the group posted an allegedly blasphemous post in the group… the case [against Hafeez] is built on the frivolous charge that he did not remove the blasphemous posting when it was posted and as such committed blasphemy,” he added.

[Sneederbunk]

16. Not comforting knowing this country has the BOMB.

[hunter]

35. Our own U.S. military is full of twisted Christian Evangelicals...

... and they have the BOMB as well.

The Christian Takeover of the U.S. Military

For years, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has noted the growing efforts by evangelicals to turn the U.S. military into an instrument of their ideology and worldview. While not all evangelicals believe the same, the far more radicalized tend toward a belief called dominionism — a wish to turn America into a nation perhaps not run as a theocratic state but at least run by extreme Christian beliefs, the military included. Hence the reason Pence, with the help of the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation, produced a report full of bad anti-transgender science and myths in order to justify the ban. This is not the first time military policy and leadership have been guided not by military regulations and the law but by evangelical proselytizing and beliefs.

For instance, in 2005 it emerged that evangelical cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy were being urged to proselytize their fellows, warning them they would burn in hell without Jesus. Other allegations included prayers during mandatory meetings, public shaming, and leaders teaching witness classes to cadets. At one point, 41 percent of non-Christian Air Force cadets reported unwanted proselytizing. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation discovered a video in 2006 used to promote Christian groups that was filmed inside the Pentagon and featured uniformed generals. An investigation found the film’s purpose was misrepresented by an Army chaplain and listed numerous violations of DOD policy. The Army has come under extensive criticism for the inclusion of a spiritual aspect in its Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, which evaluates soldier readiness, and has been accused of veiling the religious element with ambiguous language. Reports continually surface of soldiers being denied or threatened with a ban on reenlistment if they do not include references to God (which by regulation are optional).

--more--

https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2018/3/29/christian-takeover-us-military

Pence's "Space Force" is likely to be especially toxic.

I don't respect anyone who worships and violently defends pathetically powerless asshole gods.

[jpak]

39. A Pakistani colleague of mine was murdered in a revenge killing whilst visiting family in Pakistan

It

Was

Shocking

He was a funny, good guy and a world-class researcher.

My girlfriend had to find a new major professor - which was difficult given her research topic.

RIP