Thursday, October 19, 2017

USCIRF Condemns Pakistan's Blasphemy Convictions of Ahmadis

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release yesterday condemning Pakistan for sentencing three Ahmadis to death for blasphemy.  Voice of America reports that the three were sentenced Wednesday by a court in Pakistan's Punjab province.  The men were arrested in 2014 after village residents claimed they were tearing down a religious poster-- apparently an anti-Ahmadi poster.  Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, but Pakistan does not recognize them as such and considers them heretics. USCIRF called on Pakistan to repeal their blasphemy laws and to release those in prison on blasphemy charges.