Muslim Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy

A Pakistani court has for the first time sentenced a Muslim to death for blasphemy. Ghulam Akbar Khan, a member of Pakistan’s Shiite Muslim minority, was convicted of taking the name of Islam’s prophet Muhammad in vain during a scuffle with a rival Sunni Muslim in 1995. He can appeal the death sentence to a higher court. The blasphemy law, introduced in 1986, allows the death penalty for anyone who profanes Muhammad or Islam. In May, Roman Catholic Bishop John Joseph committed suicide to protest the blasphemy death sentence imposed on a fellow Christian. No one has yet been executed under the law.