Change of Pakistan's blasphemy laws unlikely

[struggle4progress]

ISLAMABAD — The apparent collapse of a case against a Christian girl accused of burning pages of a Quran has given a dim ray of hope to critics of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, some of the harshest in the Muslim world.

The girl was believed to be mentally impaired, and a Muslim cleric from her neighborhood was eventually arrested for planting evidence to incriminate her. As the tables turned on her accusers, the girl was recently released on bail and whisked away in a military helicopter with her family to safety.

It was a remarkable turn of events in a country where people accused in even the flimsiest of cases of defiling Islam's holy book or the Prophet Muhammad have few defenders. Those accused of blasphemy can be sentenced to death if convicted — assuming they are not killed first by vigilantes.

Human rights activists and others hope the girl's case will, at the very least, help prevent further abuses of laws designed to punish people for maligning Islam. Some Islamic religious figures came to her defense, bail was granted and an accuser arrested. All steps are extremely rare, but the question is whether that will translate into deeper change ...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501712_162-57512809/change-of-pakistans-blasphemy-laws-unlikely/

[cbayer]

1. This is disturbing. Pakistan seems progressive in so many other ways.