Veena Malik sentenced to 26 years in jail for blasphemy after appearing in mock TV wedding scene

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/p...pearing-in-mock-tv-wedding-scene-9884985.html

Veena Malik has expressed her anger and disbelief after she was handed a 26-year jail term by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court for ‘malicious acts’ of blasphemy.

Her crime? Appearing in a pretend wedding scene, staged on a daytime show broadcast by Geo TV and based on the marriage of the Prophet Mohamed’s daughter.

The programme sparked a wave of controversy in the Islamic country when it aired in May, despite the fact similar scenes had been aired in the past to little or no such public outrage. Some even apparently suspected that Pakistan’s military were behind the mock wedding, and that it was put on in a bid to wage a blasphemy war against the broadcaster.

Malik’s husband, Asad Bashir Khan, and Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, the chief executive of the biggest media group in the Asian country, were further sentenced to 26 years behind bars for the apparent religious offence. The host of the show Shaista Wahidi was also punished.

“26 years! Come on. 26 years is a lifetime... But I have faith in higher courts in Pakistan,” Malik said in a recent interview quoted by Gulf News.

“When the final verdict comes, it will do justice to me. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

The court order will be enforced in the Pakistan-controlled city of Gilgit, which is also part of the India-claimed Kashmir regions.

“The malicious acts of the proclaimed offenders ignited the sentiments of all the Muslims of the country and hurt the feelings, which cannot be taken lightly and there is need to strictly curb such tendency,” the court order, issued by the judge, reads.

However, Malik may not actually end up serving her sentence.

The court order will be enforced in the city of Gilgit, of which control is shared between Pakistan and also sits in the India-claimed Kashmir region. As such, it is not considered a proper province by Pakistan, meaning that any verdicts delivered by its courts do not apply to the rest of the county.

“I have always been a person who faced troubles by looking it in the eye,” Malik, currently in Dubai, said of her decision to return to Pakistan in the next two weeks and challenge the court order.

“I have faced highs and lows in my life. But I am sure I haven't done anything wrong.”

As well as a hefty jail term, the convicted parties were also ordered to pay a fine of 3million rupees (£8,000), surrender their passports and even sell up their properties.

The court case marks the latest in a string of controversies for the Bollywood actress.

She sparked outrage in 2011 after posing for a series of risqué pictures for Indian FHM.

She was depicted on the front cover of the men’s magazine with her arms and legs positioned to cover her private parts.

The letters ‘ISI’ – the acronym for Pakistani spy service the Inter-Services Intelligence agency – were scrawled on her arm.

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In another thread, we just saw that someone got sentenced to death in Iran for "insulting the prophet" with some Facebook posts.

The common thread with what is happening in Pakistan to Veena Malik (and many others)? Islam (we even have two different brands of Islam at work here - Shiites in Iran and Sunnis in Pakistan - however, there is a common theme)

Will Northside Storm argue that the problem is solely a generic "overarching abuse of power states grant themselves when it comes to civil liberties" or will he recognize that these people actually got sentenced because of Islam (or whatever the respective version of it is in these two very populous countries)?

P.S.: It's even more of a travesty to treat Veena Malik this way because she is actually quite attractive:

 

Blasphemy in Pakistan
Bad-mouthing

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws legitimise intolerance

THE killing and incarceration of people on flimsy accusations of insulting Islam has long shamed Pakistan. Hundreds, often members of religious minorities, have been ensnared by blasphemy laws that leave victims with little chance of defending themselves against malicious claims. Cowed judges are unwilling to examine evidence for fear of profanities being repeated in their courtrooms. Outside the courts, mobs can be quickly incited to acts of murder by fire-breathing mullahs.

Accusations of blasphemy soar: just one in 2011; over 100 in 2014. More than half of the 62 people murdered in the wake of blasphemy allegations since 1990 were killed in the past five years, according to figures collated by a Pakistani human-rights group that fears even to be identified. “Blasphemy” can now include spelling errors by children or throwing away a visiting-card bearing the name “Muhammad”.

On November 25th a judge in Gilgit-Baltistan sentenced the owner of Geo, Pakistan’s biggest private television channel, to 26 years in jail for broadcasting a popular Sufi song about the prophet during a light-entertainment show. (The court does not have nationwide jurisdiction, so the mogul is unlikely to ever be thrown behind bars.) The law encourages depraved vigilante attacks. In the latest, a pregnant Christian woman was beaten to death by an enraged mob.

Liberal Pakistanis blame the country’s blasphemy craze on Zia ul-Haq, an Islamist dictator who died in a plane crash in 1988. He hardened British-era blasphemy laws. Derogatory remarks about the prophet Muhammad became a capital offence. But it was his “secular” predecessor, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who amended the constitution to declare members of the Ahmedi minority non-Muslims even though they consider themselves such. Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, once served as the defence lawyer for a carpenter who had murdered the publisher of a book said to be blasphemous.

No politician has been prepared to confront blasphemy since Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, was killed by one of his own bodyguards in 2011. He had sparked outrage by calling for mercy for a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had fallen foul of what he called a “black law”. Blasphemy cases are often thrown out by higher courts, but it can take years, during which time the accused is at great risk. On November 24th Ms Bibi filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The police are also prey to the radicalising forces that are eating away at Pakistan. In November a man arrested for alleged blasphemy was killed by an axe-wielding policeman. The legal profession is also tainted. Lawyers greeted Taseer’s assassin at court with a shower of rose petals. It takes considerable bravery to defend someone accused of blasphemy. In May a lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in the city of Multan for representing a man who was accused of insulting the prophet.

The country’s clerics are united in defending the existing laws. The most vociferous opponents of reform are not the Saudi-style extremists empowered during the Zia era, but Barelvis, a school of Islam that some once looked to as a moderate bulwark against extremism.

Unsurprisingly, many conclude they can cry blasphemy with impunity. In poor villages and urban slums countless vendettas can be settled in a blasphemy allegation. Almost two years after mobs burned down 100 Christian homes in Lahore the only person behind bars is the man whose alleged blasphemy triggered the riots.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...bad-mouthing?fsrc=scn/fb/te/pe/ed/badmouthing

 

I didn't read the article that way. Can you explain why you think that?

 

What does your uncle (or you) think about those blasphemy laws?

 

I have to ask - if it's the vast majority...why are they not repealing it? I don't see anyone having the courage to stand up and fight for it to be repealed? Salman Taseer got killed for his courage...