Bollywood star Veena Malik handed 26 year sentence for 'blasphemous' wedding scene

[muriel_volestrangler]

The actor Veena Malik has expressed anger at a 26-year jail term handed down by a Pakistani court after she acted in a scene loosely based on the marriage of the prophet Muhammad’s daughter.

The same sentence was extended to her husband, and to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, owner of the Jang-Geo media group which broadcast the TV show. All three were ordered to surrender their passports and fined 3m rupees (£8,000).
...
On 26 May, the senior vice president of the Gilgit-Baltistan chapter of Muslim religious organisation Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, lodged an official complaint alleging the show had defiled Ahl al-Bayt – the family of the prophet Muhammad – in playing “a contemptuous Qawwali”.
...
The order was enforced in Gilgit, whose control is shared between Pakistan and the India-claimed Kashmir region, and verdicts delivered by its courts tend not apply to the rest of Pakistan.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/27/bollywood-veena-malik-sentenced-26-years-jail-religious-blasphemy-wedding

All of the accused currently seem to be outside Pakistan. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/veena-malik-first-reaction-pakistan-blasphmey-charges-geo-tv/1/403840.html

[still_one]

1. I suggest if they are outside of Pakistan they stay there.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Decades in prison for insulting a character in a fairy tale.

Sounds reasonable to me. After all we can't "know" that this scene did not insult a deity. On the off chance it did, rather than risk the wrath of a vengeful god it probably is safest to punish people.

[Fred Sanders]

4. Mohammed was a real person, not a fairy tale....like Jesus.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Agreed

But the stories involving him still are fairy tales.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. The historicity of Mohammad is just about

As unfounded as Jesus. The Koran is a bunch of fairy tales.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Possible, but not a certainty.

[Fred Sanders]

3. Rural backwards religious lower traditional court, in a small local area, like those in Texas.

[shenmue]

5. :(

[on point]

6. If there are laws against blasphemy, then blasphemy is required.

[cbayer]

8. Great slogan and I agree.

Hopefully they will sin on appeal in a higher court.

[on point]

13. Thanks CB. Basic principle of honest investigation

[mr blur]

10. Seems to me that some Muslims make fundamentalist Christians seem almost rational. nt

[LeftishBrit]

12. At least she's not there to be put in prison; but will have to stay away until her country reverts

to some semblance of sanity.

I never understand the logic of blasphemy laws. Why should God/ Allah need human laws to protect him; if he's that offended, he could just send down a thunderbolt.

[edhopper]

14. Remember this isn't all Muslims

just the majority of am democratic country of almost 200 million.