Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Pakistan’s profane blasphemy laws

Islamists are using the country's sharia laws to persecute minorities

A poster depicting Asia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy in Pakistan (Photo by ARIF ALI/AFP via Getty Images)

An eight-year-old Hindu boy is currently in custody in the southern Punjab. He is the youngest person in Pakistan to be charged with blasphemy. The boy, accused of urinating in a local madrassa, was released last week on bail — in retaliation, a Muslim mob vandalised a local Hindu temple. Meanwhile, on Thursday, a day after the temple attack, a transgender person was arrested on blasphemy charges in Abbottabad, around 100 miles north of the capital Islamabad, for allegedly burning the Quran.

These are but the latest in an unrelenting spree of blasphemy cases, a victimless crime that carries the death penalty in Pakistan. Indeed, this punishment is reserved solely for offending Islam, with sacrilege against Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and other religions carried out with impunity. These latest cases underline how the blasphemy law continues to be used to hunt down the most vulnerable, which could range from women demanding basic human rights to religious minorities.

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