A market vendor sold Christian brothers Saleem and Rasheed Masih ice cream, then told them they had to pay for the bowls because he couldn’t again serve a Muslim from the now-defiled utensils.
The brothers refused. Days later, the vendor accused the brothers of verbally insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Under Pakistani law, Section 295-C, that’s blasphemy, which can be punishable by life in prison, a stiff fine or death.
The Masihs were sentenced to 35 years. They spent four years in Sahiwal Central Jail before a Lahore High Court judge acquitted them in April 2003.
Fundamentalist Muslims who refused to believe their innocence immediately began pursuing them.
A year after their acquittal the brothers remain in hiding as they seek asylum in the West.
“We can’t go home to our village. In Islamabad, people are looking for us. Our lives are in danger,” Rasheed Masih said. “In Pakistan, there isn’t any safe place (for us).”
The Masihs are among a growing number of Pakistanis, both Christian and Muslim, whose lives have been thrown into turmoil because of false allegations of blasphemy.
“The law is so severely put into practice — that makes it even more wicked and unfair,” said Tony Cupit, director of study and research, Baptist World Alliance (BWA).
Cupit believes the law does not reflect the feeling of all Pakistanis because there are many moderates who oppose the law. “I think a lot of Muslims are embarrassed by the law,” he said.
He believes the enforcement of the law is not widespread over the whole country but in locations where fanatical groups rebel.
“The BWA is well aware of what is happening and is outraged about the lack of religious freedoms in Pakistan,” Cupit said.
An accusation by a single person is all that’s needed to put the alleged blasphemer behind bars, where he must prove his innocence, said Elizabeth Kendal, the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission’s main researcher and writer.
The charge of blasphemy itself inflames Muslim sensibilities so much that even before an arrest is made, irreparable damage has been done.
“The amount of suffering a charge of blasphemy produces is so great that the blasphemy law must be considered a serious problem,” she said. “The accusation virtually turns the victim into a ‘dead man walking.’”
Cupit said if the law is rescinded it would certainly help Christians as they struggle to exist. “Christians would breathe a great sigh of relief,” he said.
But simply abolishing that law today isn’t so easy. In the early 1990s, the Pakistani Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality. Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, sought to repeal it, but a violent public outcry and general strike forced an end to his efforts.
The presence of militant mobs can pressure judges to rule against defendants in even the most absurd of accusations. Fundamentalists often threaten courts that find accused blasphemers innocent.
Joseph Francis, director of the Lahore-based Christian organization Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) said lower courts punish all blasphemy cases “but higher courts acquit them after investigations.” CLAAS lawyers defended the Masih brothers.
In response to the rising numbers of blasphemy cases, CLAAS has joined Christian lawyers and political leaders in preparing a bill that will criminalize filing false blasphemy charges. Christian lawmaker Akram Gill aims to introduce the bill in the current session of Parliament.
Because the blasphemy law is used more against Muslims than those of minority faiths, Muslim opposition to the law is rising. “But it will take time,” Francis said.
After the new bill is drawn up, lawmakers will need at least six months to process it. And it, too, may be met by extremist violence.
Blasphemy cases are rising in numbers, according to Karachi-based Christian attorney M.L. Shahani. From 1948 until 1986, 14 blasphemy cases were registered, but in 2000 alone, 52 cases were registered — 43 against Muslims and nine against Christians.
Pakistan’s Christian community claims to be some 4 million strong in a country of 150 million.
During colonial rule, the British enacted the blasphemy law to protect the religious sentiments of minority Muslims against majority Hindus. The law should have been abolished after Pakistan’s creation as a state for Muslims, Shahani said.
Christian groups around the world and Amnesty International denounced the Masih blasphemy case.
Throughout Ayub Masih’s hearings, Islamic extremists packed the courtroom, Christian Solidarity Worldwide noted, and threatened to kill Ayub, his lawyers and the judge if he was not convicted and hanged. At least five other prisoners accused of blasphemy have been killed. In 1997 a judge was also killed after acquitting two Christians accused of blasphemy.
“We are much in prayer for [Pakistani] Christians that they will be able to maintain their witness for Jesus Christ despite the attacks they encounter,” Cupit said. “Life in the general environment in Pakistan reduces them to second class citizens in their own nation.”
Meanwhile, as Saleem and Rasheed Masih feel pressed to leave Pakistan and begin new lives in a safer place, Saleem said that his faith sustains him in the interim.
“We are optimistic that God has plans for us,” he said. “We are witnesses of God, and He will help us preach the gospel.” (RNS)
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