Pakistani Police Step in to Protect Accused in Blasphemy Arrest. Trouble May Be Brewing in the UK

[I]n a new blasphemy case in Pakistan, police successfully protected a blasphemy suspect from being murdered by an angry mob. After being charged and then arrested for insulting the Qur’an, hundreds of protestors blocked a roadway near the police station and demanded the man, named Humayun Ullah, be handed over to them to be lynched. Police did not comply and managed to protect the man by dispersing the crowd. Unfortunately, the larger issue here is the man’s arrest in the first place, enforcing the deeply unjust and backward legal code of Pakistan.

Finally, trouble may be brewing in the UK as one Labour MP has suggested that Parliament pass what would amount to new blasphemy laws. An exchange in the House of Commons appeared to “open the door” to such legislation, as MP Tahir Ali asked Prime Minister Starmer whether he would commit to legislation in Britain that would criminalize the “desecration” of religious texts. 

MP Ali’s suggestion mirrors blasphemy laws from most Muslim and Muslim-majority countries that are frequently used to target religious minorities regardless of whether they actually did what they were accused of. The Prime Minister was fairly non-committal in his answer, condemning the desecration of scripture while leaving ambiguous whether he would support legislation to criminalize “Islamophobia.”

We here at EXMNA [Ex Muslims of North America] hope he will clarify that freedom of expression means the freedom to criticize belief systems—or, failing that, at least remain non-committal indefinitely.