Thousands Demand Pakistan Blasphemy Law Be Repealed After Bishop’s Suicide

Thousands of mourners Thursday demanded repeal of a law that bans blasphemy against Islam, one day after a Roman Catholic bishop killed himself to protest a death sentence against a Christian convicted under the law.

Bishop John Joseph, 65, shot himself in the head Wednesday at the courthouse in Punjab province where fellow Catholic Ayub Masih was tried and sentenced to death April 27.

“We should not call it suicide,” Lahore Archbishop Emmanuel Yousuf Mani said. “He sacrificed his life fighting against injustice.”

Masih, 25, remains in jail pending appeal. He was accused of speaking favorably of Salman Rushdie, who has been in hiding since Iranian religious leaders called for his death for his allegedly blasphemous novel, “The Satanic Verses.”

Several Christians have been sentenced to death previously, but all convictions have been overturned by higher courts.

Joseph’s body was taken to his home village near Faisalabad in preparation for burial today. Thousands in the predominantly Christian village of Khushpur converged on the bishop’s home to grieve.

The United States on Thursday condemned Masih’s sentence and voiced its regret over Joseph’s death.

“We deplore and condemn the imposition of a sentence of death on an individual for the peaceful expression of his beliefs,” State Department spokesman James Foley said at a news briefing. “In the past, we have repeatedly called upon the government of Pakistan to repeal the blasphemy law, which contributes to a climate of religious intolerance. We take this opportunity to do so once again.”

Foley added: “We very much regret the needless death of Bishop Joseph.”

In Los Angeles, visiting Church of Pakistan Bishop Samuel R. Azariah called Joseph’s death the act of a martyr.

“We consider this death not as a suicide but as a martyrdom for a specific cause,” Azariah said.

“He sacrificed his life to protest the blasphemy law because the legal system in Pakistan had driven him to a point of mental torture. This was probably the only option left for him,” said Azariah, whose church is an amalgamation of Protestant denominations.