Man Sentenced to Death For Blasphemous Facebook Comments In Pakistan (gizmodo.com)

In what is believed to be "the first time the death penalty had been awarded in a case related to social media," a 30-year-old man in Pakistan has been sentenced to death for blasphemy in comments made on Facebook. Gizmodo reports: The prosecutor told The Times of India that Taimoor Raza was arrested "after playing blasphemous and hate speech material on his phone on a bus stop in Bahawalpur, where a counter-terrorism officer arrested him and confiscated his phone." It was the material on Raza's phone that led to his arrest. The Guardian reports that the accused's brother said Raza "indulged in a sectarian debate on Facebook with a person, who we later come to know, was a [counter-terrorism department] official with the name of Muhammad Usman." Raza's defense attorney told The Guardian the initial charges were limited to "insulting remarks on sectarian grounds," which carries a maximum two-year jail sentence, but that "derogatory acts against prophet Muhammad," which carry a death sentence, were added later. According to The Times of India, Raza will be able to appeal the ruling to the Pakistani High Court and the Supreme Court. Facebook said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened and concerned by the death sentence served in Pakistan for a Facebook post. Facebook uses powerful systems to keep people's information secure and tools to keep their accounts safe, and we do not provide any government with direct access to people's data. We will continue to protect our community from unnecessary or overreaching government intervention."

Comments

Re: When religion makes laws

[alexgieg]

Governments are religions?

As a non-American, it strikes me as quite... interesting... how worshipful Americans are of their politicians and institutions. The US constitution, its amendments, and the declaration of independence, are quoted as if they were scripture. The Founding Fathers get this Very Important Uppercased Title of Utter Respect and are quoted all around by all sides as if they were some kind of prophets or sages possessing of final wisdom. A mountain was carved so that the faces of the tetrany (?) of the Greatest Presidents Ever is forever remembered. And so on and so forth.

The US government might be secular, but secularism alone isn't enough to nullify religious impulses. They just shift around and resettle in a different shape and form.