The legal profession this week lost one of our best and bravest. Pretending to be potential clients in a matrimonial case, two people entered the law firm of Rashid Rehman Khan and shot him to death. Rashid Rehman, a coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), had faced death threats for years after he courageously represented a university professor accused of blasphemy. Unable to kill the accused, Islamic extremists appear to have now killed the lawyer. Rehman never flinched in his commitment to the rule of law and to this country.
Pakistan’s continued prosecution of people for expressing their views of faith remains one of the great outrages of our generation. Pakistan is one of our allies that has worked with the Obama Administration to create a new international blasphemy standard. The continued crackdown of anti-religious speech is part of its long-standing blasphemy abuses. For many years, I have been writing about the threat of an international blasphemy standard and the continuing rollback on free speech in the West. For recent columns, click here and here and here.
We have been following the rise of anti-blasphemy laws around the world, including the increase in prosecutions in the West and the support of the Obama Administration for the prosecution of some anti-religious speech under the controversial Brandenburg standard.
The case involving Rehman is typical and disgraceful. Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at Multan’s Bahauddin Zakariya University was accused of defaming the prophet Mohammed on social media last year. No one would represent the professor until Rehman stepped forward. He was greeted at court with threats against his life. Three lawyers representing the complainant confronted him and reportedly one told him “You will not come to court next time because you will not exist anymore.” Notably, these threats were reportedly made in front of a judge who took no action against those making the threats — an outrageous violation of every principle under the rule of law.
Pakistan (one of our largest recipients of aid) continues to jail people who simply express their faith or views on religion.
There are at least 16 people in Pakistan are on death row for blasphemy and in 2012 the Center for Research and Security Studies found that more than 50 people accused of blasphemy have been lynched since 1990.
This brave lawyer is now dead and the judge who took no action on the threats continues to sit on cases and those lawyers who allegedly threatened him continue to practice law. Putting aside our earlier work on an international blasphemy standard, the question is why we continue to send billions to countries that aggressively fight the core civil liberties that defines not just this country but the rule of law. The death of this extraordinary man is a disgrace not just to Pakistan but those who dismiss blasphemy prosecutions as simply some local or domestic concern. It is not just the denial of due process but the denial of free speech and free exercise — rights that should be guaranteed to all as a basic matter of human rights.
Source: ABA Journal
Dredd, stop blaspheming.
Nick,
I thank you for your persistence. You have shown the way to the future with your quick and witty comments devoid of substance.
Back to the Benghazi blasphemy trials … where there are plenty of He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken folks who are without sin because they can’t remember any
thingpersonal sins.Dredd – first of all, do you believe in Jesus? If you do, then continue on, if not, pick another topic.
Hillary’s problem with Monica is that she was responsible for the ‘bimbo eruptions’ during the Clinton campaigns and Clinton WH years. She is behind any smears on Monica. Hillary is the leader of the War on Women.
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone …”
Is there a psychopath in the crowd?
The big problem with blasphemy punishment according to Jesus, is that the one to cast the first stone must be free of sin.
Oops … back to Benghazi …
Gee, was Monica sleeping with Hillary?
Typo in my last comment: Not “beheaded” … “stoned”.
We could all stop losing our heads and become hippies from Colorado.
For your reading enjoyment, the Chair of the House committee on the 1000th investigation into Benghazi speaks to Joe Scarborough and admits things you are not supposed to say in public…
Asked by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough about the possibility that his panel’s work would continue into the 2016 election campaign, Gowdy replied that “if an administration is slow-walking document production, I can’t end a trial simply because the defense won’t cooperate.”
Note the word TRIAL
Joe McCarthy would feel right at home.
…
You read to much into people’s statements. You must be reading Dredd’s stuff again.
Islam – Christianity – Judaism are all People of the Book for Islam. Not sure if you are for or against this.
“Pakistan is one of our allies that has worked with the Obama Administration to create a new international blasphemy standard.” – JT
The koran accepts the pentateuch as scripture, as does the new testament.
So we have Judeo-Christian-Islamic scripture in agreement on blasphemy:
(Lev. 24:13-16). The
If we get enough people to realize, as Homer Simpson does, that “DOH we all believe this already”, and stop fighting over oil, we could all be properly beheaded without all of this extremism.
As has been discussed here several times, Think Progress is a blatantly biased source. Now, people are certainly free to use it as I am equally free to laugh @ it. Gotta love this country.
Monice = Monica
Jonathan is certainly earning those millions of dollars he makes off this thread, today!!
Karen, You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill. Just because a Tea Party group is 1000% more likely to be audited doesn’t mean a damn thing!! What are you, some kinda conspiracy nut?
Nick Spinelli
“If only Hillary had put these obvious terrorists on the international terrorist list this may not have happened.”
I provided a link that directly deals with this. You ignored it. It seems you’re not interested in the truth.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/05/08/3435588/hillary-and-boko-haram/
> Clinton didn’t act in a vacuum to determine not to designate Boko Haram back in 2011. Scholars on Twitter who focus on the region, terrorism broadly, and Islamist groups in particular were quick to point out that not only were there few benefits and many possible costs to designation, many of them had argued against listing Boko Haram several years ago. In a letter to the State Department dated May 2012, twenty prominent African studies scholars wrote Clinton to implore her to hold off on placing Boko Haram on the FTO list. Acknowledging the violence Boko Haram had perpetrated, the academics argued that “an FTO designation would internationalize Boko Haram, legitimize abuses by Nigeria’s security services, limit the State Department’s latitude in shaping a long term strategy, and undermine the U.S. Government’s ability to receive effective independent analysis from the region.”
> The Nigerian government also wasn’t exactly clamoring for U.S. assistance against Boko Haram back in 2011. At the time, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad — the actual full name of the group commonly called Boko Haram — was a threat only within Nigeria. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson described the group in 2012 testimony to the Senate as “not monolithic or homogenous” and “composed of several groups that remain primarily focused on discrediting the Nigerian government.”
Again, people who care about facts should go read the whole thing.
“She was urged to by many people but for reasons known only to her, refused to do so.”
Actually, had you read the story to which I linked, you’d see that many other people were urging her not to put them on the list.
“Maybe she should have “Stayed home and baked cookies.””
Your attacks on Ms Clinton sound so desperate… almost as if you’ve seen the polls and know she’ll be the next President.
Supak – I am sure Hillary will be pleased with your defense, but she has a lot to answer for to the American people. I think the Benghazi hearing will do her some harm and then their is Monice, et al.
Thanks for checking, Professor Turley.
It’s rather predictable when Islamic extremists rape and murder, the apologists bring out the Old Testament, and Judeo-Christian norms from hundreds of years ago. Like it’s Christians who kidnapped 300 girls studying for a physics exam and sold them into slavery. They bring up the tired “Christians are the real enemies, or at least just as bad” with every bombing, kidnapping, beheading, stoning, genital mutilation, forced marriage, murder . . . and yet, they can’t compare the figures side by side.
Let’s compare the statistics today, shall we? When the pedophile Yearning For Zion leader was arrested, I didn’t say, well, but other Christians are just as bad.
“I could have stayed home and baked cookies” was a mocking, smug comment uttered by Princess Hillary during her husband’s campaign in 1992. It did provide a moment of truth of how she and her ilk look down upon women who choose to stay @ home and raise their children. She had to eat those words and obviously they were quite caloric, she has gained about 30lbs. since then. Actually, the Princess apparently loves pizza, even frozen. Those were the reports from her failed 2008 prez run.
Scott – we have been giving aid to nations that do not share our views on human rights and religious freedoms for many years. Heck, very few nations do share our views. We are moved by the plight of the people, but unfortunately much of the funding ends up in the wrong hands.
And this is the first blog I believe I have ever contributed to, so, sorry, no public comments posted from the Bush era.
Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy is a joke. The only oil development increases have been in the private sector. He has blocked domestic development whenever he could. He’s also played venture capitalist, but not a very good one, with the solar panel industry, and waived fines that should be imposed on wind farms for killing birds.
He is a truly excellent speaker. But it’s his track record I care about. If Bush pulled a fraction of the shenanigans that have gone on recently, IRS, NSA, drones targeting Americans, there would have been riots in the streets.