Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Persecution Index 10: Pakistan

Some extremists in Pakistan are calling for a Christian doctor to be hanged publicly for blasphemy, according to a news story on Persecution.org. Dr Robin Sarder was charged ten days ago with violating Pakistan's blasphemy laws. A Muslim who he had been friends with for many years, but who according to the story became jealous of his professional success, told police he had made derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed's beard and about the Koran. After the complaint was lodged against him, a crowd of 200 Muslims wearing green turbans, a sign of orthodoxy, attacked his clinic and home. Observers say that if the police hat not intervened, he would have been killed. He is currently being held in jail. The Roman Catholic Church, through its organisation the National Commission for Justice and Peace, has taken up his case. You can email the embassy here on his behalf. Fifteen people have been accused of blasphemy in Pakistan so far this year. Dr Sardar is the only Christian to be so accused. In 1998, Bishop John Joseph , the Catholic bishop of Faisalabad, committed suicide in a protest against Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws, introduced in 1986. The pic here comes from a BBC report of Christians demonstrating against the laws.

Persecution Index 2: Saudi

The Becket Fund reports today: 'Officials in Saudi Arabia have sentenced a Turkish citizen to death for blasphemy, after the man was accused of using 'obscene language' to refer to God Today's Zaman reported on April 19.  Sabri Boğday, a Turk who has resided in the Saudi Arabian province of Jeddah for the past ten years, allegedly used the offending terms in the course of an argument with his neighbor. Turkish officials fear that Boğday has been falsely accused, according to Today's Zaman, and worry that because he is a foreigner, he will be dealt with in a particularly harsh manner. Immigrants are said to be at greater risk for convictions in Saudi Arabia; in the last year alone, 76 foreigners were executed in the country.'

Damian, Disestablishment and the Number of the Beast

Have just filed a story I enjoyed writing on how the Labour MP John Austin's latest attempt to get the CofE disestablished has been assigned the Early Day Motion number 666. This is believed by many to be the Number of the Beast as described in Revelation, although many scholars now believe the translation should be 616. Both can be taken to refer to the Emperor Nero. But despite the evidence from man who chopped off and microwaved his own hand because he believed it bore the Mark of the Beast, and there can be little doubt about who wears the Number as far as some clerics from the 'other' church in this land are concerned.

Persecution in Pakistan

Pakistan's Christians are facing renewed persecution in the country. This month Christians in the North West Frontier Province region of the country were sent threats of "dire consequences and bomb attacks" if they didn't "embrace" Islam within 10 days. An 84-year old Christian was the latest to be imprisoned under the blasphemy laws, his house was seized to be turned into a Madrassah and his wife forced to convert to Islam by saying the Sunni Islamic creed.