Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 23:31:04 -0700
Subject: please read and help



From: Feroz Mehdi <ceras-AT-alternatives.ca>
Reply-To: ceras-AT-alternatives.ca
To: feroz mehdi <ceras-AT-alternatives.ca>
Subject: Can You help Save Dr.Shaikh?
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 11:04:54 -0400
Please Give Widest Circulation Possible. Please send to local / national
media. Mail to your MP. Contact the Pakistan Embassy to protest. Send to
Human Rights Groups.
Can You help Save Dr. Shaikh?
Dr. Younus Shaikh is founder-President of 'Enlightenment', a Pakistan
based organization which is a member of the International Humanist and
Ethical Union (www.iheu.org). Dr. Shaikh is a doctor and a teacher at a
medical college in Islamabad. He lived and worked in the UK before
returning to Pakistan. If you were at the IHEU's 1999 World Humanist
Congress in Mumbai you would remember his amusing speech; or you may
have received his numerous e mails about Humanism, about his
collaboration with liberal minded Pakistanis to promote Human Rights, or
about his other passion - the South Asian Peace Movement. On 4 October
2000, Dr. Shaikh was arrested by the Islamabad police and booked under
the dreaded Section 295-C (Blasphemy) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The
police First Information Report was not readily available, but in it he
is alleged to have defiled Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam, by pointing
out that the Prophet did not become a Muslim till the age of 40 (ie.
until he received the first message of God), and that the Prophet's
parents were non-Muslims because they died before Islam was proposed by
the Prophet. It is for stating these facts that Dr. Shaikh will be
killed by the State, if he is found guilty: we should not forget that he
did not abuse, he did not threaten, he did not scorn or sneer.
45 year-old Dr. Shaikh lives alone, has no family, and has been sacked
from his job following his arrest. To build popular pressure, an
Islamabad-based Urdu language newspaper, Khabrain, is carrying a
campaign, demanding the death penalty for him. In Pakistan, Blasphemy is
a non-bailable offence and attracts the mandatory death-penalty. Dr.
Shaikh is currently held in Adyala Jail, Rawalpindi, in judicial remand.
Today, 19 October 2000, Dr. Shaikh was presented before the court, but
he had no lawyer. Frequently lawyers are intimidated by the mob, so they
do not take up blasphemy cases. Even judges are afraid of trying them. A
group of 20 clerics - menacing and aggressive - came to the court, to
pursue their case against Dr. Shaikh. They represent the
Majlis-I-Khatam-I-Nabuwat (Organization on the Finality of the Prophet)
one of the groups responsible for Pakistan's descent into lawlessness.
Dr. Shaikh's reading glasses were broken when he came to court, he was
unable to read well, and was not allowed to speak to anyone.
Fortunately he has not been tortured by the police during 2 weeks of
custody. If we do not act in time, he will be doomed.
Blasphemy in Pakistan Blasphemy in Pakistan is a cognizable offence,
punishable mandatorily by death, but Section 295-C does not even
precisely define the crime it is meant to punish. This law has a history
of abuse : it is a convenient means to settle personal scores. In this
case, it is a disgruntled student Mr. Muhammad Asghar Khan who
complained to the fundamentalists. Even those not present at the time of
the alleged 'offence' can file a complaint - this is the case as regards
Dr. Shaikh. A cleric, Maulana Abdur Rafoof, registered the case in
Islamabad's Margalla police station. Despite the severity of punishment,
Section 295-C empowers a police officer to arrest, without obtaining a
warrant from a judicial magistrate. Dr. Shaikh is in custody since 4
October 2000.
The Blasphemy law in Pakistan is a shameful relic of the British Raj's
1860 Criminal Law. It was modified in 1926 before Pakistan was born, and
again as recently as in 1986 and in 1991 when criminal law was
Islamicised by the then dictatorship.
Now, under the regime of Islamic punishments, the evidence required is
'at least two Muslim adult male witnesses who are supposed to be
truthful persons who abstain from major sins'. It is required at the
trial that the Presiding officer must be a Muslim. Islamic law of
evidence declares that the evidence recorded by minorities and women has
a status inferior to that of Muslim men.
In the case of Blasphemy, very often the accused is murdered either in
police custody or even in the court room itself by blood thirsty
zealots. So few cases are even brought to fruition. General Pervez
Musharraf's recent attempts to improve the law has been met with
vehement opposition from the clerics, and he immediately climbed down,
in deference to the Islamic fundamentalists. The law remains as barbaric
as it was. And so is the mob.
Pakistan's minorities
3% of Pakistan's 140 million citizens are non-Muslims; and there are at
least 20 million Shiites, a minority Islamic sect in Pakistan. The
situation for these minorities is desperate. The main victims of
Pakistan's discriminatory and repressive legislation so far have been
the Ahmadias, the Christians and the Hindus - and the most victimized
are the Christians and Ahmadias. Their evidence is not accepted, their
rights to freedom of religion or belief not protected, they are not
allowed high-positions in the Army or in the bureaucracy, and they are
forced to vote under the separate electorate system, where non-Muslims
vote for non-Muslims.
But the main concern of Pakistan's Human Rights activists are the
Blasphemy laws. Blasphemy of Islam is punished differently and much more
severley than Blasphemy of other religions. There is no Freedom of
Religion or Belief in Pakistan. Bishop John Joseph, Roman Catholic
Bishop of Faizalabad even killed himself in protest in front of the
sessions court of Sahiwal, on May 5, 1998. But even this ultimate
sacrifice did not move the administration or the legislature.
Pressure must mount from all quarters to enable the law to change, and
to protect the victims. Pakistan's theocracy is depriving many honest
citizens of their liberty and their life.
What Can you Do?
- If you live in the UNITED STATES, please write to the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom, and invoke the provisions
of the International Freedom of Religion Act, 1998. Better still, call
them on phone. The law obliges them to take up the case with the US
Ambassador in Islamabad, and to follow it up. If Pakistan's government
fails to protect Freedom of Religion, there will be automatic and
mandatory sanctions imposed on Pakistan.
Write to
Office of International Religious Freedom
(DRL/IRF), Room 4829,
U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520.
Telephone 202 736 7133
Fax 202 647 5283
- If you live in a European Union Member State, ask your own country's
EU Ambassador to explore possibilities of asylum for Dr. Shaikh. Taslima
Nasrin was saved similarly from Bangladeshi fundamentalists. Point out
that Pakistan's present Blasphemy law violates international standards
of justice; point out that to term religious criticism as 'blasphemy' is
primitive; death penalty as punishment for it is terrible; and that
mandatory death penalty is even more savage.
- Write to your Foreign Minister, and demand that the
Minister summon the Pakistani High Commissioner to share concerns about
the state of Freedom of religion or Belief in Pakistan. Ask your
Minister to arrange for an observer at Dr. Shaikh's trial, if he is not
released immediately.
- Wherever you live, Fax your MP and ask him to take up the case of Dr.
Shaikh. Ask your MP to bring pressure on the Pakistani government to
release Dr. Younis Shaikh, and to ensure his physical safety. Ask your
MP to call the Pakistani High Commission / Embassy in your country.
- Write to Amnesty International, asking them to adopt Dr. Shaikh as a
prisoner of conscience.
- Write to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
The Special Rapporteur has the mandate to take the matter up with the
government on a diplomatic level.
Write to
Dr. Abdul Fatteh Amor
The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
8-14 Avenue de la Paix 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland Telephone Number
(41-22) 917-9000 Fax Number (41-22) 917-9016
- Please also write to General Musharraf, with the respect due to a Head
of Government.
- Remind General Musharraf that he had declared that
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder (formal title: Quaid - I- Azam)
was his political hero. The Quaid had declared in his speech to the
Constituent Asembly of Pakistan on 11 August 1947 : "You are free; you
are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to
any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to
any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the
business of the state".
- Ask General Musharraf to take steps to make Pakistan true
to the Quaid's ideals. He can do so by ensuring that Pakistan will no
longer remain a theocracy. Ask for protection to all religious
minorities and non-believers living in Pakistan.
- Demand that the Sections 295-B and 295-C of the Criminal
Code be repealed as soon as possible, and that he should take steps to
prevent their malicious and frivolous abuse meanwhile.
- Remind him that Pakistan, one of the poorest nations in the
world, will be better able to use Dr. Shaikh's services as a doctor
rather than keep him prisoner. Mention specific details: Jail: Adyala
Jail, Rawalpindi; Date of FIR and arrest: 4 October 2000; Police
Station: Margalla.
- Invite Pakistan to ratify the International Covenant on
Civil and political Rights and the International Covenant on Social,
Economic and Cultural Rights.
Please write to
General Pervez Musharraf
Chief Executive of Pakistan Government
E Mail: CE-AT-pak.gov.pk
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF ALL YOUR MESSAGES TO campaign-AT-iheu.org. Please
send Letters of Support to Dr. Shaikh also to this e mail address.
SEND DONATIONS FOR DR.SHAIKH'S LEGAL DEFENCE to
IHEU, 47 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8SP, UK
Cheques payable to IHEU; Credit Card donations preferable, to avoid
international bank charges: Fax us card details (address, card number,
Visa/mastercard, date of issue, date of expiry; name of card holder) to
+44 207 404 8641 or +44 207 4301271.

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