THE SOCIETY FOR SECULAR PAKISTAN
Press Release
The Society for Secular Pakistan (SfSP) strongly condemns the killings of Shazad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama by the crowd incited by the clerics of three mosques of the villages in Kasur.
We demand that these clerics should be arrested and punished for inciting people’s religious feeling to kill the kiln worker who had reportedly some dispute with the kiln owner. Unfortunately this is not the first time that the sacred place of worship was used to incite and entice people to kill with impunity. There have been instances when some fanatics had announced hefty head money for killing so-called blasphemers and the state did not take any action although it’s a crime.
While the Society for Secular Pakistan stands for freedom expression, we demand that the state should register all mosques and the religious leader to keep a close check that nobody makes hate speeches from the pulpits. They should be free to preach their faith but not hatred. At present there is no check of the state on over 250,000 mosques and 20,000 madrassahs in the country.
The brutal Kasur incident is once again a rude reminder to the peace loving people of Pakistan that ever since perfidious General Zia amended the blasphemy law many more people have been killed by the fundamentalist vigilantes than before. Such killings in the name of religion are encouraged by the inappropriate blasphemy law in the country which needs amendments.
The recent judgment confirming the death sentence of Asiya Bibi creates an environment in which tolerance and civility are victims. We appeal to all democratic forces to protest against these killings and build public opinion against bigoted laws.
Dr Syed Haroon Ahmed, President
Released by: Babar Ayaz (SFSP spokesperson)
(November 9, 2014: secularpakistan47@gmail.com)
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