Pakistani lawyers accused of blasphemy after protesting against police

Police say 68 lawyers criticised senior officer whose name is the same as that of one of prophet Muhammad's companions

theguardian.com, Agencies in Islamabad, Tuesday 13 May 2014

A woman mourns the death of Rashid Rehman, a lawyer killed last week after
 defending a blasphemy case. Analysts say accusations are getting more common.
Photograph: Reuters

Pakistani police have registered a case of blasphemy against 68 lawyers who took part in a protest after a police officer detained one of their colleagues, officials say, the latest in a wave of such accusations flooding the country.

Analysts say the surge in accusations is a worrying sign that the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people is becoming less tolerant as militant ideas enter mainstream politics.

The colonial-era law does not define blasphemy, but the charge carries the death penalty. Presenting evidence can be considered a new infringement, so judges are reluctant to hear cases.

Judges who free those accused of blasphemy have been attacked and two politicians who suggested reforming the law were shot dead. Those acquitted have often been lynched.

Monday's charges followed a protest in which lawyers shouted slogans against the senior police officer Umar Daraz for allegedly illegally detaining a lawyer in the Jhang district of central Pakistan.

"Lawyers were protesting against police, using foul language and the name of the inspector," the district's police officer, Zeeshan Asghar, told Reuters.

One of the companions of the prophet Muhammad, founder of the Islamic religion, was called Hazrat Umar.

A member of a far-right sectarian party complained that his religious feelings had been offended because the lawyers used the name "Umar" in their protest, and lodged charges with police.

Mushtaq Chaudhry, a local lawyer, said his colleagues were not shouting slogans against the caliph Umar, but his police namesake.

"Our Bar Association has also passed a resolution that slogans were not raised against any sacred personality of Islam," Chaudhry said.

Blasphemy accusations have spiked in Pakistan recently, according to a 2012 study by the Islamabad-based thinktank the Center for Research and Security Studies, with 80 complaints in 2011, up from a single case in 2001. More recent figures are not available.

Analysts say blasphemy allegations are increasingly used to settle feuds or grab property. There is no penalty for false accusations.

Pakistan has not yet executed anyone for blasphemy, but members of religious minorities say they are often threatened with such accusations.

Last week a respected human rights lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was killed after facing threats in court for defending a university professor whose students had accused him of blasphemy. It had taken the jailed professor a year to find a lawyer ready to defend him.

Police said the man who lodged Monday's case was a member of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat, a front for a banned Sunni sectarian group linked to the deaths of hundreds of minority Shia Muslims and led by the politician Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi.

Pakistan is a mostly Sunni Muslim country but Shia Muslims, who make up about a fifth of its people, have been targeted in violence recently.

The president of the Jhang Bar Association said the body hoped Ludhianvi, who had expressed displeasure at the protest, would ask his supporter to withdraw the case.

"The issue has been settled now," said Meher Afzal Khan. "We have assured Mr Ludhianvi that there was no mischief on our part. It was all a misunderstanding."

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“… Hearing the Whole Song

I wish to give you a metaphor. Consider there's a broadcast station that you wish to tune into on your radio to hear a song that is playing. However, your antennas are very short. The signal comes and goes, and you don't really get to hear the full tune. Instead, you get snippets, just enough to know there is something there, and it's a song. Because of this incomplete message, you feel the need to trust others to tell you what the snippets mean and interpret the song. Now, in this metaphor, the antennas are the sensors picking up awareness of spiritual truth, a higher consciousness and the way things work.

Suddenly, you are aware that in this new energy, your antennas are getting longer, and you are beginning to hear much more of the entire signal. You no longer have snippets, but instead you are hearing the whole song! You now hear the entire thing, including the lyrics. But it's difficult to then turn to a Human Being who has interpreted the snippets in the past and tell them the song is different from the one they have been reporting on for ages.

This new awareness is starting to change the entire planet, and some of the changes are not all spiritual. Even though the antennas are about awareness, it becomes awareness of many principles, not just the ones about the attributes of God. This awareness shift will even change an atheist who would never believe in God. So let me itemize for you some of the changes that are potentially in store for you. For, as spiritual awareness starts to shift on the planet, systems awareness will also shift. More than systems, but the actual ways of creating systems and the reasons you used to create them will shift. Awareness changes everything.

If you can hear the song and you know what it tells you through the lyrics, then you are complete. It explains why today there are those in the chairs [seminar attendees] who don't need a building and don't need a leader or an organization. Although this is a metaphor, I'll tell you, dear ones, that all over the world you're singing the same tune and you don't need anybody to tell you what it sounds like or what the lyrics are. The song is beautiful and it is sung about the love of God, respect for humanity and the potential for peace on Earth. ..”

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."