Blasphemy case: Briton in Pakistan sentenced to death

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

24 January 2014 Last updated at 10:36 GMT

Blasphemy case: Briton in Pakistan sentenced to death

A court in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi has sentenced a 65-year-old British man to death after convicting him of blasphemy.

Mohammad Asghar was arrested in 2010 after writing letters to various people claiming to be a prophet, reports say.

His lawyers argued for leniency saying he has a history of mental illness, but this was rejected by a medical panel.

Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws carry a potential death sentence for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25874580

[get the red out]

1. Extremism is a death sentence

I don't even know how this can be discussed? I can only hope the British Government can find a way to save this man. But dealing with extremism is like getting on a time machine and going way back in centuries and trying to get the people you encounter to understand a better way of seeing things.

[trotsky]

3. Well, there are even some progressives...

who feel religious beliefs deserve special treatment - that they should not be criticized or mocked like other ideas. When such notions enjoy support even among those who claim to oppose religious extremism, what can we expect?

[cbayer]

5. The only possible good news here is that they have a moratorium on the death penalty.

Though I'm not sure whether spending you life in one of their prisons might not be worse.

[edhopper]

2. This has nothing to do with religion

or so I've been told here.

[cbayer]

6. Who told you that?

[trotsky]

7. That would be a call out, cbayer.

You know that's against the rules.

I'm sure they will be along sometime soon with the results of multiple Google searches though. Just sit tight.

[edhopper]

10. I have been told in other threads

that the evil done in the name of religion and by religious institutions and leaders are not about religion but other cultural/economic causes.

[cbayer]

12. And sometimes they are about cultural/economic issues.

And more often than not, it's a combination of things.

In this case, and others, I think it's wrong to place the blame on any one single thing, but I doubt that anyone is going to tell you that this has nothing to do with religion.

[edhopper]

14. Oh

I think some would. But to deny that religious belief is the overwhelming component here seems misdirected to me.

[cbayer]

15. But no one said that, did they?

[edhopper]

16. In this particular case?

No.

[cbayer]

17. Well, I must have misunderstood post #2 then.

Just because someone may have made a point previously about case where religion really didn't have anything to do with it, that doesn't mean that the person making that point says it never does.

So, I guess I don't get the point of your post. Unless it was just snark.

[edhopper]

18. "here"

was in reference to the Religion Forum, not this thread.
And yes, it was snarky.

[cbayer]

19. I tire of all this finger pointing, us vs. them stuff.

And I'm really irritable right now, so I'm sorry if I overstepped.

We really all have so much more in common than we have differences.

[edhopper]

20. I hear you

[trotsky]

30. Not when you posted this, but yeah, it happened. n/t

[edhopper]

11. And what do you call the people

who think they are doing God's will by putting him to death?

[cbayer]

4. This is particularly egregious since he apparently suffers from a psychiatric illness

and is actually and technically delusional.

[trotsky]

8. As opposed to all other people claiming to be a prophet of god?

[rug]

9. Yes.

BTW, personality disorders are far more common than delusions. Unfortunately they are persistent and do not respond well to treatment.

[hrmjustin]

13. Blasphemy laws are horrible!

[struggle4progress]

21. ... Mohammed Asghar was arrested in 2010 in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan's capital of Islamabad,

for claiming to be the Prophet Mohammed in letters that were later produced at his trial, prosecutor Javed Gul said. But a lawyer that previously defended Asghar said the case was really a property dispute ... Asghar returned to Pakistan in 2010 after being treated for paranoid schizophrenia in Edinburgh, the lawyer said. The defendant later fell into a dispute with a tenant who brought the blasphemy complaint against him to police. The doctor treating Asghar in Edinburgh said in a letter dated June 2011 that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed that the Pakistani and British governments were attempting to control him. The letter was provided to The Associated Press by his lawyer ...

Pakistan Briton sentenced to death
24 January 2014

[struggle4progress]

22. ... Shortly before his arrest in Rawalpindi in 2010, he was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital

suffering from paranoid delusions of a "grandiose" nature, including beliefs that Tony Blair and George Bush had deployed secret service agents to watch him because of his opposition to the Iraq war. He also believed his home was bugged by Pakistani and international media organisations. He was released from hospital in March on heavy medication ... A Pakistan medical board however pronounced Mr Asghar to be of sound mind, clearing the way for the death penalty. He is expected to remain in jail for five years before an appeal is heard. Mr Asghar was first arrested .. after a tenant renting one of his properties handed police several unmailed letters in which he claimed to be the Prophet Mohammed. It was understood that Mr Asghar had sought to evict the tenant who had kept the letters for more than a month before giving them to the police. Pakistan's blasphemy law is regarded as controversial among the country's educated elite because it is often misused against Christians and other religious minorities to settle personal and property disputes ...

British schizophrenic sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan
By Faizan Fiaz in Islamabad, and Dean Nelson in New Delhi
3:56PM GMT 24 Jan 2014

[struggle4progress]

23. ... The charges are hard to fight because the law does not define what is blasphemous

and presenting the evidence can sometimes be considered a new infringement. Many analysts see the allegations as score-settling or a front for property grabs ... Asghar was arrested in 2010 after writing letters to a lawyer and politician who said he was a prophet. Though Asghar did not post the letters, a disgruntled tenant whom he was in the process of evicting took them to police, the law firm said ... The firm said after it was removed Asghar was given a state counsel, who did not put his medical history in evidence or call witnesses in his defence, and did not question a state-appointed board that declared him sane ...

Pakistani court sentences mentally ill Briton to death for blasphemy
By Katharine Houreld
ISLAMABAD Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:14pm GMT

[struggle4progress]

24. ... the country has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008. Only

one person has been executed since then - a soldier convicted by court martial ...

Pakistan court sentences British man to death for claiming to be prophet of Islam
Updated January 25, 2014 01:22:09

[trotsky]

28. Right on cue.

What took you so long?

[struggle4progress]

29. How are you today?

[Iggo]

25. It's their deeply held religious beliefs, people!

Respect!

[cbayer]

26. Wow, snark in the face of a tragedy.

How….. common.

[skepticscott]

27. The irony of your post

is deep and rich, though probably completely unappreciated by you. Sad, but true.