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Muslims are Islamism’s first victims, says Dr Younus Sheikh

WASHINGTON: Dr Muhammdd Younus Sheikh, who spent several years in the death cell in Rawalpindi on a trumped up blasphemy charge, has told the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights which is meeting in Geneva, that the first victims of Islamism are Muslims.

Dr Sheikh, who was freed after intense international pressure and a growing lobby for his release at home, and who has since been given political refuge in Switzerland, said “in a novel and unethical way, Pakistani Mullahs have started abusing the dreadful Islamic blasphemy laws to terrorise liberal and moderate Muslims.” He said he was a Pakistani doctor, a physiologist, a patriotic and law-abiding citizen, and a Muslim by birth. He trained as a surgeon and worked for some years in the United Kingdom but gave up his job in the UK to return to Pakistan to serve the people of his country.

He shared with the Commission his experience, providing a detailed account of how he was set up, and the manner in which after some summary court hearings he was sentenced to death. He said after his death sentence, for the next two years, he was held in solitary confinement in a very small death cell in the Central Jail, Rawalpindi, “a dark and dirty death cell with unbearable, stinking and distasteful food. There was no facility for walking or exercise, and I was without books, newspapers, medication or treatment for my worsening diabetes. I remained constantly under threat of murder by Islamic fundamentalist inmates in jail for murder and gang rape, and by some religiously-minded prison warders.”

DR Sheikh told the Commission, “I feel I have been a victim of Islamic Mullah terrorism through he abuse of the state apparatus and the civil law. My first trial was a show trial almost reminiscent of the trials and tortures of the infamous Spanish inquisition, and the trials and burning of European women as witches. After my acquittal and release, I wanted to stay in my country with my family and friends but instead I found myself under a fatwa by the same mullahs that I should be killed. I had to say goodbye to my loved ones and flee to Europe for my safety. “ He expressed his thanks to those international organisations and foreign legislators that had helped him obtain his release.

Dr Sheikh pointed out that “unfortunately” the Pakistani Penal Code provides little guidance as to what constitutes blasphemy. The law is vague and the term is undefined. In view of the mandatory death penalty for the offence this would seem to be an important oversight. The law is a relic of 1860 British colonial criminal law, but was modified in 1926 again under the British, then in 1986 by General Zia-ul-Haq to bring it more strictly in line with the Sharia, and finally in 1992 when the death penalty was made mandatory “under the democratically-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.” Whereas the original law had been even-handed and applied equally to all religions, under the revised law the death penalty applies only to blasphemy against Islam. More than 100 victims are currently in jail awaiting trial, 15 of whom face the death penalty under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Dr Sheikh told the Commission, “The blasphemy law has brought shame on Pakistan. The law itself is unjust and inequitable, the offence it treats is poorly defined and open to abuse, and its operation has been widely misused and abused. Since the introduction of Sharia law in Pakistan in 1986, the blasphemy law has been used on hundreds of occasions by fundamentalists to silence moderate opponents, to intimidate non-Muslims and to settle personal scores. While praising President General Pervez Musharraf for his liberal and secular steps, and for his courageous fight against Islamic jihadi terrorism, I appeal to him to curb this menace of Islamic Mullah terrorism and the abuse of Pakistani Islamic blasphemy laws.”

He urged the Commission to press the Pakistan government to urgently review the cases of all those currently charged or convicted of blasphemy and awaiting execution, including an urgent judicial review of all cases currently sub-judice; immediately review the application of the blasphemy law and to introduce safeguards against its abuse; to replace the blasphemy law by laws which respect the human rights of individuals in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Pakistan is a signatory; and to compensate the victims of these unjust and iniquitous laws and to punish the false accusers and untruthful witnesses. —Khalid Hasan

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