Today is a rather shameful anniversary for Pakistan

Today marks the date on which Pakistan made it illegal to hold the wrong Islamic belief. Thirty years ago today, on 26th April 1984, Pakistan amended its penal code to target Ahmadiyya Muslims and made it a criminal offence, punishable by three years imprisonment, for an Ahmadi to call himself a Muslim. Today’s Times has … Read more

Child accused of planning a murder, threatening police and interfering in state affairs

Sometimes the degree of stupidity exceeds all expectations. In Pakistan, Mosa Khan, a child, has been accused along with 30 other people of planning  murder, threatening police and also interfering in state affairs. So is this some teen who has gone rogue? Nope, here he is in court … Yes, the accused is 9 months old. … Read more

Pakistan court sentences man to death for blasphemy

The Guardian reports … A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Christian man to death for blasphemy, his lawyer said, over an incident that triggered a riot in the country’s second-largest city. Sawan Masih was convicted of insulting the prophet Muhammad during the course of a conversation with a Muslim friend in the Joseph Colony neighbourhood of … Read more

How many non-religious people are there in Pakistan?

Pakistan is generally perceived to be a nation populated with rather a lot of religious lunatics, and I do not mean just your average culturally religious individual, but rather people who embrace the medieval idea that murdering those of a different belief is a really good idea, so much so that they act upon that … Read more

The rise of atheism in Pakistan

It might sound strange, but Atheism really does exist in Pakistan. In fact, Hazrat Nakhuda is the founder of the ‘Pakistani Atheists and Agnostics‘ Facebook group. So given the hostility there to non-belief, or for that matter simply the wrong belief, I can only salute those that dare to be open about this and join. … Read more

Malala Yousafzai

There is a rather interesting posting by a chap called Omar who describes himself thus … “I used to be a run of the mill upper middle class Pakistani destined to the standard humdrum fate. This blog is about escaping that fate.” … and escape he truly does, because he dishes out a few home … Read more