Alleged blasphemy triggers violent Muslim mob attack on Pakistani Christians
By Ayaz Gul May 25, 2024
Violent mob attacks against religious minorities in majority-Muslim Pakistan are not uncommon.
In August 2023, thousands of people in the Jaranwala district of Punjab attacked and burned 21 churches and damaged more than 90 Christian properties after accusing two Christian brothers of blasphemy. Several Christian families fled their homes because of the violence. Police arrested more than 250 persons, including the three Christians accused of desecrating a Quran.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, and mere allegations have led to mobs lynching dozens of suspects — even some in police custody. Insulting the Quran or Islamic beliefs is punishable by death under the country's blasphemy laws, though no one has ever been executed.
Critics have long called for reforming the blasphemy laws, saying they are often misused to settle personal scores. Hundreds of suspects, mostly Muslims, are languishing in jails in Pakistan because external pressures deter judges from moving their trials forward.
"While the majority of those imprisoned for blasphemy were Muslim, religious minorities were disproportionately affected," the U.S. State Department noted in its annual report on human rights practices in Pakistan.
"Lower courts often failed to adhere to basic evidentiary standards in blasphemy cases, which civil society groups and lawyers ascribed to fear of retaliation from religious groups if they acquitted blasphemy defendants, and most convicted persons spent years in jail before higher courts eventually overturned their convictions or ordered their release," the report noted.
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