Pakistan: man sentenced to death for blasphemy on Facebook Read moreNadeem James, 35, was arrested in July 2016, accused by a friend of sharing material ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad on the WhatsApp messaging service. Blasphemy is a criminal offence in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and insults against the Prophet are punishable by death. There was widespread outrage across Pakistan in April last year when student Mashal Khan was beaten to death at his university in Mardan following a dormitory debate about religion. Since then, parliament has considered adding safeguards to blasphemy laws, a groundbreaking move given the emotive nature of the issue. In 2011, a bodyguard assassinated Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer after he called for the blasphemy laws to be reformed.

Source: The Guardian September 16, 2017 03:22 UTC