{"id":6757,"date":"2011-01-28T11:11:05","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T00:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=6757"},"modified":"2011-01-28T11:12:17","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T00:12:17","slug":"islamic-scholar-attacks-pakistans-blasphemy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/01\/28\/islamic-scholar-attacks-pakistans-blasphemy-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic Scholar Attacks Pakistan&#8217;s Blasphemy Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the assassination of Punjab Govenor, Salmaan Taseer, prominent Islamic scholar, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, spoke out against Pakistan&#8217;s blasphemy laws. He claims the Islamic councils are &#8220;telling lies to people&#8221; and that there is no foundation for them from the Qu&#8217;ran or Hadith.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">&#8220;The scholar&#8217;s troubles highlight the shrinking space for debate in Pakistan, where Taseer&#8217;s death has emboldened the religious right, prompting mass street rallies in favour of his killer, Mumtaz Qadri. Liberal voices have been marginalised; many fear to speak out. Mainstream political parties have crumbled, led by the ruling Pakistan People&#8217;s party, which declared it will never amend the blasphemy law.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sherry Rehman, a PPP parliamentarian who proposed changes to the legislation, was herself charged with blasphemy this week. Since Taseer&#8217;s death she has been confined to her Karachi home after numerous death threats, some issued publicly by clerics. Although other Islamic scholars share Ghamidi&#8217;s views on blasphemy, none dared air them so forcefully. &#8220;Ghamidi is a voice of reason in a babble of noises seemingly dedicated to irrationality,&#8221; said Ayaz Amir, an opposition politician and opinion columnist.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The rest of the article here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/jan\/20\/islam-ghamidi-pakistan-blasphemy-laws\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Islamic Scholar Attacks Pakistan&#8217;s Blasphemy Laws&#8221;<\/a> also, <a href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/01\/06\/peace-making-shot-down\/\">Peace making shot down<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the assassination of Punjab Govenor, Salmaan Taseer, prominent Islamic scholar, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, spoke out against Pakistan&#8217;s blasphemy laws. He claims the Islamic councils are &#8220;telling lies to people&#8221; and that there is no foundation for them from the &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/01\/28\/islamic-scholar-attacks-pakistans-blasphemy-laws\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6757"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6757"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6806,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6757\/revisions\/6806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}