FAISALABAD, Pakistan — A Christian shopkeeper was sentenced to a life term in prison and fined more than $1,000 in January following a dubious conviction of desecrating the Quran, according to Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP).
Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the NCJP, said 22-year-old Imran Masih of the Faisalabad suburb of Hajvairy was convicted Jan. 11 of desecrating the Quran (Section 295-B of Pakistan’s legal code) and thereby outraging religious feelings (Section 295-A) by Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan.
The conviction was based on the accusation of a rival shopkeeper who, as part of an Islamic extremist proselytizing group, allegedly used a mosque loudspeaker system to incite a mob that beat Masih and ransacked his shop.
Neighboring shopkeeper Hajji Liaquat Abdul Ghafoor accused Masih of burning part of the Quran on July 1, 2009.
Denying that he burned any pages of the Quran, Masih told investigators that the papers he burned were a heap of old merchandise records he had gathered while cleaning his store. Nearby shopkeepers said they had seen the two men arguing over business a few days before the incident.
They said when Masih burned the papers, Ghafoor started shouting that he had desecrated the Quran and blasphemed Islam and its prophet, Muhammad.
“Ghafoor spread misconceptions about Imran Masih,” said one of the shopkeepers, “and a mob of angry Muslim men unaware of the facts attacked Masih and viciously beat him, looted his shop and later handed him over to police.” Sources said Masih plans to appeal to a higher court.
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