[angkor]

"Generally when a person is getting executed there is a certain amount of sympathy for them. But it's more human and national than political," Mr. Sadiq said.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
8 July 2002

"Amnesty International today urged the Pakistani authorities to bring to justice the local religious leader who ordered the stoning to death of a mentally ill man in Punjab province last Thursday and all those who participated in the killing."

"Zahid Mahmood Akhtar, 48, was stoned to death by hundreds of villagers after the cleric used a loud hailer to issue a fatwa, a religious decree, ordering his execution. The mentally disturbed man had claimed to be the "last prophet of Islam".

"On 21 April 1994, a Muslim practitioner of indigenous medicine, Hafiz Farooq Sajjad, was stoned to death by an angry mob in Gujranwala, Punjab province, after the rumour that he had blasphemed was spread by a cleric from the mosque. Despite police promises to investigate, no one has been held to account. Sectarian killings of members of religious minorities, including Shia, Ahmadis and Christians often go unpunished."

[SNIP]

"The blasphemy law contained in section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code proscribes the mandatory death penalty for anyone found to have "by words ... or visible representation ... or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiled the name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad". It neither defines the terms used such as 'defilement' nor looks into the criminal intent of the alleged offender. "

[colorado tanker]

You are right on target!!! Those barbarians insist on strict "sharia" to execute women for having sex and men for "blasphemy" and have the gall to ask for clemency for a murderer! And when has Amnesty International taken the Pali Authority to task for summary execution of "collaborators" or other muslim countries for their stonings and beheadings???