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On July 29th, a man was shot, and killed, while standing trial for blasphemy in a Pakistan court.
The man, a member of the Ahmadi minority Muslim sect turned out to be a US citizen, the US State Department said.
Tahir Ahmed Naseem, 57, allegedly proclaimed prophethood in 2018 and was fatally shot by a teenager who reportedly justified his action as a defense of Islam.
Indian media lost no time in jumping on the band wagon, reporting that “Pakistan has a new national hero” – Khalid Khan, the new “role model for Pakistan’s youth.”
In a video posted on Facebook, the teenager claimed the Prophet Muhammad “came to me in my dream and told me … to finish [Naseem].”
The US State Department issued a statement urging for justice against Khalid Khan.
The entire statement can be read below. The US also used the chance to urge Pakistan to reform its internal laws since the blasphemy laws were “often abused”:
“We are shocked, saddened, and outraged that American citizen Tahir Naseem was killed yesterday inside a Pakistani courtroom. Mr. Naseem had been lured to Pakistan from his home in Illinois by individuals who then used Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to entrap him. The U.S. Government has been providing consular assistance to Mr. Naseem and his family since his detention in 2018 and has called the attention of senior Pakistani officials to his case to prevent the type of shameful tragedy that eventually occurred. We grieve with the family of Mr. Naseem. We urge Pakistan to immediately reform its often-abused blasphemy laws and its court system, which allow such abuses to occur, and to ensure that the suspect is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Tahir Ahmed Naseem, apparently, was an innocent victim, both to the killing and to the blasphemy trial against him.
He was “lured to Pakistan” from his Illinois home by people who ”then used Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to entrap him”, the statement said.
Pakistani officials said Naseem was charged with blasphemy after he declared himself a prophet.
As Naseem’s arraignment began before the judge, a young man in the room pulled out a handgun and shot him in the head, officials and witnesses said.
Khalid Khan was arrested.
According to a spokesperson for Peshawar police, the alleged killer told Naseem that he was an “enemy of religion” and deserved to be killed before opening fire.
In support of Khan, thousands rallied in Peshawar, carrying signs praising the man for the killing, calling for his immediate release from jail and saying he killed Naseem because the government was too slow in prosecuting blasphemy cases.
Many have been sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, but nobody has actually been executed, so the prisoners are sitting in prison on death row.
In 2010, Christian mother-of-five Asia Bibi was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death. The following year, the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was shot dead by his own bodyguard for voicing support for Bibi and for condemning the country’s stringent blasphemy laws.
His killer, Mumtaz Qadri, immediately surrendered to police and was later executed. He became a martyr to many hardline Islamists.
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Pakistan is the worst Wahhabi fed shithole and like its Zionist clone needs to be dismantled ASAP. Thank the British devious backstabbing cunts to create these cancerous toxic failed states that are a threat to humanity now.
Yes………..the man who make the wahabism a state pollicy was Zia Ul Haq, but at the time with the USSR in Afghanistan, was easy to expand the extremism…..with USA support. If you create monsters……….sooner or later will turn against you.
No doubt Zia was a Wahhabi cunt, but the illiterate Paki shitheads had been Wahhabized long before as the bastards have no history as craved out of British India. They are beggars and Saudis gave them a few billions so they provide the terrorist cannon fodder in Afghanistan and India mostly, as Iran has sealed off its border. The Paki cunts are reaping the blowback though as Baluch and Pashtun oppressed minorities are now waging a full scale war of liberation. Check out the BLA website. The Paki Punjabi cowards are suffering daily casualties at Afghan hands too. India needs to up its game and start a more vigorous supplying and training network from Afghanistan.
Soon India’s patience will run out with this nuisance next door. India just does not want a nuclear war with crazy Wahhabis.
Pakistan and Israel are British imperialist creations to sow havoc in the region. India has suffered the most from Churchill’s secret pact with Muslim League and the pork eating and drinking old fool Jinnah to carve up a united India, ironic this vain and corrupt demagogue represented the Muslims of India and created a moth eaten extremist terror state. It has been a drain on India’s resources to keep a large standing army just to protect itself from this failed terrorist state.
Modi LOVE Israel……….and is NOT a good time for christians in India.
You Shiite bastard posing as some neutral individual. It is Iran that will be dismantled. Warning: This forum is crawling with Shiite agents out to mislead non-Muslims and innocent Sunnis about Iran’s real intention for the Middle East, Muslim World, and the World at large. I promise to expose their lies gradually as time goes by, until everyone understands them. Much about Iran and Shiism is top secret. They are always happy when a Sunni country is having problems. Their creed only thrives when chaos and ignorance prevail. Thankfully, Allah has brought you up against another enemy of Islam – America.
Hush you little crawling Paki stinking cunt kissing Americunt arse. Moron :) Go back to your shithole :)
I am christian………i DON´T see the sunnies defending a church like the Hezbollah in Syria. but i see a LOT of sunnies destroying churchs…………
Iran has the oldest Armenian church. Iran to Restore UNESCO-Designated Churches, including Armenian Monastery Iran has allotted some $427,000 to the restoration of UNESCO-designated churches that are located in northwest of the country. “A sum of 14 billion rials (roughly $427,000 USD) will be channeled into restoration plans for the UNESCO-inscribed churches in Iran,” Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization Deputy Director Mohammad-Hassan Talebian told Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, on Aug. 6.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a2c53dc8d973f7a71a2119df7f49f2378e089c744e931901fdd0397a34edcab.jpg
True, Iran has also hundreds of thousands of Christians, Bahai, Zoroasterians and Jews and each group have their own temple or church which is open and freely operates! In fact there are more Jews in Iran (tens of thousands of them) than the rest of the Islamic world combined!!! Please watch the CNN clip below documenting the Iranian Jews in their many Synagogues:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/03/11/pkg-pleitgen-iran-jews-of-isfahan.cnn
Exactly!
I am Christian too and I can’t express my gratitude to Hezbollah and Iran they way they protect Christians and other minorities like Yazidis and Druze in Syria from the savage Sunni Wahhabi terrorists backed by the US, Saudis, Nato and Israel.
May God bless Iran and Hezbollah forever! Without them millions of Christians and other minorities would have been massacred in Syria by the brutal Sunni jihadists backed by the Saudi Arabia and the West. See the photos of Hezbollah fighters protecting Christian shrines in Syria:
https://thesaker.is/a-very-telling-picture-of-a-hezbollah-fighter/
The civilized world owes Iran, Hezbollah and the Shia a great debt of honour for checking Wahhabi extremism.
Yes indeed! Without Hezbollah and Iran millions of Shiites, Alawites, Druze and Christians would have been slaughtered in Syria! Later on Russia joined in but it was Iran and Hezbollah that kept Syria safe from the head-chopping Sunni terrorists supported by the US, Nato, Turks, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
whabhi cunt go leek your master in israel and Alsaud. You whabhi cunt work for US and zionist and bought destruction on islam and killing mostly pure sunni to justify that whabhi is the main sunni and pure religion. just thank shia muslim hta they have saved many sunni from being mascared by ISIL and Alqaeda. in iraq and syria.
BTW, this Wahhabi cunt posts from a CIA funded college project in the US. It is focused on fanning sectarianism in the Muslim world. Read all his posts, they demonize the Shia and praise Wahhabis and Zionists.
You are exactly right. Hezbollah and Iran saved hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians from the savage Wahhabi terrorists backed by the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey in Syria. Watch the photos of Hezbollah fighters protecting Christian Shrines from the US-backed terrorists in Syria:
https://thesaker.is/a-very-telling-picture-of-a-hezbollah-fighter/
Hezbollah has lot of Christians in its units. The PFLP of the late great Dr. George Habash is closely allied to Hezbollah since the 1980’s.
Exactly! Christian leaders in Lebanon show their love and gratitude to Hezbollah. Please watch the Christian Bishop in Lebanon talking about this on the clip below. Please watch from 5:29 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGkp3pB44Uc&feature=youtu.be
Iranians and Shiites in general are decent people, more humane, more rational and kind-hearted people. God bless them!
Thousand of Lebanese Shiites and Christians come out to honor Hezbollah in Beirut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN2z7jvM4wc
Nice song.
Great song! God Bless The Resistance!
India after Iran has the second largest Shia population and never had a problem with them. They are cultured civilized people.
Very true indeed!
You speak the language of indoctrinated Islamists.
Pakistan is a Wahhabi hellhole! Thousands of girls get killed there every year for simple things like dressing a certain way, watching a video on their phones, etc.
2 Pakistan girls killed for ‘honour’ over leaked mobile video.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/2-pakistan-girls-killed-for-honour-over-leaked-mobile-video-86018
Totally correct., actually I was being nice and did not elaborate too much about the Wahhabi shithole. They are corrupt to the core, the army eats up all the budget and generals send their kids to the west. Keep in mind that just in 1971 the shithole broke up in Bangladesh and now the same is happening. Their nukes, if the morons have any, must be dismantled.
Exactly right! Like their Saudi masters Pakis have a brutal terrorist mentality.
Thats why we should not be there and only contrbut to quagmires by inf.
As written before Pakistan partly with Afghanistan should be divided into about 3 states. By thats things like that could be solves better in 2 of them.
Do have any rational capacity? or know the geography and history of the places you post insane unintelligible comments about?
What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? ? When will Islam move on from blasphemy laws? Isnt there any enlightened philosopher or theologian in Islam that would reform it however slow it takes?
To be honest, Islam or no dogmatic Abrahamic man made hocus pocus has any place in today’s technology based secular world. Organized religion is worse than a pandemic, especially when you see begging bowls like Pakistan and Pisreal use it as a basis of a state. It is absurd.
We all kneel before you, Lazy Gamer. You are the Boss of all the Gods. :)
Religions don’t move to or from laws. Countries do. Whether it is Islam or Christianity, countries choose to live by their books or not. Pakistan is doing what Spain used to do during colonization. Spain didn’t change the bible they changed their own laws. Your comment moves the problem to a direction that will not solve it. But I agree that Pakistan should promote education, common sense and move away from Sharia law.
Good sensible interpretation. Pakistan’s corrupt military eats up 90% of the charity based budget. Pakistan’s HDI is worse than even sub-Saharan Africa.
Good point on the military though. The actual force with the fake face of democracy.
I am sure a good theologian can come up with the rationalization to withold the death penalty.
for Pakistan maybe, but u don’t need a theologian. just educate the people on it and vote in the parliament to abolish it. very simple.
Problem of Pakistan seems to be the regional problem of all south Asia. Poor education, success of populism, use of religious sentiment for political and social goals. India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan all suffer from the same. Invest in education dumbasses.
Sadly, the Sunni Arab world is the worst, whole generations of children and young men are now killing each other for their western masters. I posted a UNICEF report a while ago, and it paints a very sorry picture as millions of kids now nothing but headchopping. Syria was such a nice, peaceful, tolerant society, but the CIA, Zionist cunts and Saudis brought the Wahhabi curse to it. Now look from Iraq to Libya and the same mess.
I tend to disagree. I have been traveling in that part of the world. All the kids are thinking about are videogames, cars, and porn. Which made me nostalgic of my childhood:))) Good times. For Syria I would say a maybe, but other sunni arab countries, that is a no. Its my own account, but maybe someone saw a different story. But of course, Pakistan and Afghanistan is a different story.
Islam is Cancer
If the Planet viewpoint is from Switzerland, Israel/US is the earth purulent Cancer ! ! !
List of Israeli Targets Leaked: Tel Aviv Fears the Worst in ICC Investigation of War Crimes
by RAMZY BAROUD FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
When International Court of Justice (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, confirmed last December that the Court has ample evidence to pursue a war crimes investigation in occupied Palestine, the Israeli government responded with the usual rhetoric, accusing the international community of bias and insisting on Israel’s ‘right to defend itself.’
Beneath the platitudes and typical Israeli discourse, the Israeli government knew too well that an ICC investigation into war crimes in Palestine could be quite costly. An investigation, in itself, represents an indictment of sorts. If Israeli individuals were to be indicted for war crimes, that is a different story, as it becomes a legal obligation of ICC members to apprehend the criminals and hand them over to the Court.
Israel remained publicly composed, even after Bensouda, last April, elaborated on her December decision with a 60-page legal report, titled: “Situation in the State of Palestine: Prosecution Response to the Observations of Amici Curiae, Legal Representatives of Victims, and States.”
In the report, the ICC addressed many of the questions, doubts and reports submitted or raised in the four months that followed her earlier decision. Countries such as Germany and Austria, among others, had used their position as amici curiae – ‘friends of the court’ – to question the ICC jurisdiction and the status of Palestine as a country.
Bensouda insisted that “the Prosecutor is satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to initiate an investigation into the situation in Palestine under article 53(1) of the Rome Statute, and that the scope of the Court’s territorial jurisdiction comprises the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza (“Occupied Palestinian Territory”).”
However, Bensouda did not provide definitive timelines to the investigation; instead, she requested that the ICC’S Pre-Trial Chamber “confirm the scope of the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in Palestine,” an additional step that is hardly required since the State of Palestine, a signatory of the Rome Statute, is the one that actually referred the case directly to the Prosecutor’s office.
The April report, in particular, was the wake-up call for Tel Aviv. Between the initial decision in December till the release of the latter report, Israel lobbied on many fronts, enlisting the help of ICC members and recruiting its greatest benefactor, Washington – which is not an ICC member – to bully the Court so it may reverse its decision.
On May 15, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, warned the ICC against pursuing the investigation, targeting Bensouda, in particular, for her decision to hold war criminals in Palestine accountable.
The US slapped unprecedented sanctions against the ICC on June 11, with President Donald Trump issuing an ‘executive order’ that authorizes the freezing of assets and a travel ban against ICC officials and their families. The order also allows for the punishing of other individuals or entities that assist the ICC in its investigation.
Washington’s decision to carry out punitive measures against the very Court that was established for the sole purpose of holding war criminals accountable is both outrageous and abhorrent. It also exposes Washington’s hypocrisy – the country that claims to defend human rights is attempting to prevent legal accountability by those who have violated human rights.
Upon its failure to halt the ICC legal procedures regarding its investigation of war crimes, Israel began to prepare for the worst. On July 15, Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, reported about a ‘secret list’ that was drawn up by the Israeli government. The list includes “between 200 and 300 officials”, ranging from politicians to military and intelligence officials, who are subject to arrest abroad, should the ICC officially open the war crimes investigation.
Names begin at the top of the Israeli political pyramid, among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his current coalition partner, Benny Gantz.
The sheer number of Israeli officials on the list is indicative of the scope of the ICC’s investigation, and, somehow, is a self-indictment, as the names include former Israeli Defense Ministers – Moshe Ya’alon, Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett; current and former army chiefs of staffs – Aviv Kochavi, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot and current and former heads of internal intelligence, the Shin Bet – Nadav Argaman and Yoram Cohen.
Respected international human rights organizations have already, repeatedly, accused all these individuals of serious human rights abuses during Israel’s lethal wars on the besieged Gaza Strip, starting with the so-called ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in 2008-9.
But the list is far more extensive, as it covers “people in much more junior positions, including lower-ranking military officers and, perhaps, even officials involved in issuing various types of permits to settlements and settlement outposts.”
Israel, thus, fully appreciates the fact that the international community still insists that the construction of illegal colonies in occupied Palestine, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the transfer of Israeli citizens to occupied land are all inadmissible under international law and tantamount to war crimes. Netanyahu must be disappointed to learn that all of Washington’s concessions to Israel under Trump’s presidency have failed to alter the position of the international community and the applicability of international law in any way.
Furthermore, it would not be an exaggeration to argue that Tel Aviv’s postponement of its plan to illegally annex nearly a third of the West Bank is directly linked to the ICC’s investigation, for the annexation would have completely thwarted Israel’s friends’ efforts aimed at preventing the investigation from ever taking place.
While the whole world, especially Palestinians, Arabs and their allies, still anxiously await the final decision by the Pre-Trial Chamber, Israel will continue its overt and covert campaign to intimidate the ICC and any other entity that aims to expose Israeli war crimes and to try Israeli war criminals.
Washington, too, will continue to strive to ensure Netanyahu, Gantz, and the “200 to 300” other Israeli officials never see their day in court.
However, the fact that a “secret list” exists is an indication that Tel Aviv understands that this era is different and that international law, which has failed Palestinians for over 70 years, may, for once, deliver, however a small measure of justice.
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Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is http://www.ramzybaroud.net