Pakistan and Blasphemy

“My observation on minorities: A man/nation is judged by how they support those weaker than them not how they lean on those stronger.”

Salman Taseer
December 24, 2010

That’s a great quote, I’ll be sure to use it again. I’m sure you can all guess in what contexts.

Pakistan, like most of the Muslim world, as well as a handful of western nations such as Ireland, has a blasphemy law. Pakistan’s law calls for death. That’s right, death for something you say. There’s rarely punishment for vigilantes who enforce the law themselves, so the only victims end up being religious minorities.

Since I do occasionally get readers from Muslim countries, if any of you are reading this, you have my deepest sympathies.

One of the few prominent voices of reason, Salman Taseer, who thought the law should be repealed, was killed by one of his body guards on January 4, 2011. You would think that the assassination of the governor of the most populous state of Pakistan would have brought quite the public out cry, but instead the people responded this way:

On top of it, the government has refused to make any changes.

So how does the US respond? We’re giving them more money.

Money is power. It would seem like US foreign aid would be contingent on things like FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Obama needs to wake up.

(Videos via Atheist Media Blog)