Pakistan Reinstates Death Penalty For Terrorists

I'm a little confused over Pakistan's stance on the death penalty after reading an article on Al Arabiya.

Pakistan announced Wednesday it will end its moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases, the prime minister’s office said a day after Taliban militants killed 141 students and school staff in the country's bloodiest ever terror attack.

“The prime minister has approved abolishment of moratorium on the execution of death penalty in terrorism-related cases,” an official from Sharif’s office said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Hanging remains on the Pakistani statute book and judges continue to pass the death sentence, but a de facto moratorium on civilian executions has been in place since 2008.

So, people who have been sentenced to death for blasphemy and adultery won't actually be executed? Just rot away in prison, or executed by radical Islamist vigilantes?

Apparently, the moratorium was also applicable to terrorists, until now. It took the revenge massacre of a bunch of innocent kids by the Pakistani Taliban to change that.

And it seems the Afghan Taliban are taking the moral high ground regarding the school massacre by their Pakistani brethren Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has always condemned the killing of children and innocent people at every juncture," the Afghan Taliban, which often target civilians, said in a statement released late Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse.

"The intentional killing of innocent people, women and children goes against the principles of Islam and every Islamic government and movement must adhere to this fundamental essence,” the statement read.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the official name of the Taliban) expresses its condolences over the incident and mourns with the families of killed children," it added.

Muslims condemn the killing of school kids and innocent people, any yet it happens all the time.

Pakistan Ambassador To U.S. Faces Blasphemy Charges

Here's a good one. Some man in Pakistan is trying to get the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States- Sherry Rehman- charged with blasphemy because she wants the death penalty removed from the blasphemy laws. Faheem Akhtar Gill took his petition all the way to the Supreme Court where he has finally gotten some traction. The Asian Human Rights Commission has a petition and the following information regarding the case:

The Supreme Court of Pakistan, in its effort to gain popularity with the fundamentalists, has admitted a petition filed against Islamabad's ambassador to the United States of America for committing blasphemy by demanding the withdrawal of the death sentence from the blasphemy laws. The petition was filed by a business man from Multan, Punjab province. Mr. Faheem Akhtar Gill was infuriated after watching an interview of Mrs. Rehman and tried to lodge a case against her for committing blasphemy with the police. When, initially the police refused to accept the case he filed cases on different occasions in a session court and then finally in the High Court of Punjab where the honourable judges also rejected his plea to book Rehman. However the Supreme Court (SC) has taken up Gill's petition against Rehman for regular hearing and asked the police to conduct enquiries into the charges of her having committing blasphemy and report back to the Supreme Court. This creates doubts that the Supreme Court is, in fact, trying to influence the police to 'find' something against another ambassador to the USA.

There was no outcry within the country against Ambassador Rehman with regard to her comments but the Supreme Court without any concrete evidence has taken up the petition for hearing and again transferred it to the police for enquiry. In the initial stage the police already rejected the application of the petitioner as they did not find any concrete evidence of her having committed blasphemy. The question begs to be asked that if the police did not find any evidence before how it might be possible that it suddenly exists now.

Read the rest here, with a link to the petition.

Saudis Consider New Laws To Combat Insulting Islam

I was under the impression that Saudi Arabia already had serious blasphemy laws. After all, the Kingdom is ruled by Sharia, and blasphemy in Islam is considered apostasy, and the sentence for apostasy is death. But according to a recent Reuters article, Saudis are only now considering criminalizing insulting Islam. I assume they just want to bring social media (like Twitter and Facebook) into the mix, possibly in response to the blaspheming 23-year-old journalist/blogger Hamza Kashgari's posts on Twitter in February of this year.
Kashgari wrote on Twitter:

"I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you." [then added] "I will not pray for you."

There were calls for his head by top Islamic clerics (and others), and he was eventually tracked down by Interpol (yes, Interpol!) in Malaysia and sent back to Saudi Arabia.  In some countries, repenting (which Kashgari did) can save your hide, but he was still extradited, and is awaiting trial.

But with these new regulations  it won't just be criticism of Mohammed that could get you in to major trouble,  it will also include other Muslim notables and clerics from way back when, and punishment could be very "severe."

"Within the next two months the Shura Council will reveal the outcome of study on the regulations to combat the criticism of the basic tenets of Islamic sharia."

"The (regulations) are important at the present time because violations over social networks on the Internet have been observed in the past months,"

Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi-style Islam is one of the stricter versions of Islam and the sentence for blasphemy is death.

Although Saudi Arabia every once in while takes a tiny, positive step towards reform, it then takes  giant steps backwards. The youth in that country (and apparently there are many) will need to take things into their own hands before the Kingdom turns into another Iran.

Analyst Jamal Khashoggi says it best:

"I would rather have this law discussed by the public first. It should not only be debated by the Shura, it should be debated in newspapers first because it can be misused."

"I don't want anything to affect my freedom and we don't want Saudi Arabia to be another Iran."

Kuwait Parliament Approves Death Penalty For 'Cursing God'

Jail time for insulting Islam isn't enough for the Kuwaiti government, they now want your head, so the parliament just passed a provisional amendment that mandates the death penalty for blasphemy. Now if you curse God, Mohammad or his wives you'll pay with your life.

Forty-six MPs, including cabinet ministers, voted for the key amendments that will come into effect only after another round of voting and government approval. The second and final vote will take place in two weeks.

Four Shiite MPs voted against the law, a pro-Shiite Sunni lawmaker abstained, while two MPs refused to vote.

Shiite MPs have demanded that the new amendments also enforce the death penalty for anyone who curses their sect’s 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni- dominated parliament rejected their requests.

Apparently, they want to take major steps backwards by joining their Saudi and Pakistani brothers in instituting the death penalty.  The move was prompted by the arrest of a Shiite man, Hamad al-Naqi, who allegedly cursed Mohammad (and others) on his twitter account, although he denies it. Al-Naqi has yet to go to trial, but I'm sure those MPs would be pretty darn happy to get this law in place before he gets his day in court.