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read this http://themalay-chronicle.blogspot.com/2011/01/can-mca-leadership-stop-burning-quran.html
Those behind the drive say
(The Star) - The DAP has been invited to the forum on hudud and its implications on non-Muslims in Malaysia.
“The purpose of the forum is not to challenge anybody. Rather, we just want to explore the law and what implementing it would mean to a multi-racial society like Malaysia,” said Institite of Stategic Analysis and Policy Research (Insap) deputy director Kat Wong.
She added that the opposition party has yet to confirm its attendance.
Among those who will be speaking are lawyer Edmund Bon, Terengganu mentri besar’s religious advisor Ustaz Kamal Saidi, Umno’s Young Ulamas working committee chairman Ustaz Fathul Bari Mat Jahaya and International Movement for a Just World president Prof Dr Chandra Muzaffar.
Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee and Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs founding chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan will moderate the event.
The forum, organised by MCA think-tank Insap, is free and open to all. It will be held at Wisma MCA, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday from 9.30am to 2.30pm.
To register, email: info.insap@gmail.com , fax 03-2161 3701 or call 03-2161 5621/6201.
Muslims, Islam and its symbols and prophets need protection, the blasphemy laws – which Islamist parties regard as sacrosanct – remain in force.
the Muslims had refused to accept water offered by Asia Bibi, saying that coming from a non-Muslim it was “unclean.”
The laws in question are contained in section 295 of the Pakistan penal code, dating back to 19th century British rule, which prohibits “injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class.”
Sub-sections were added in the 1980s, including one that prohibits “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs,” another that specifically deals with insults targeting the Qur’an, and another focusing on insults directed at Mohammed. The death penalty was also introduced as a possible sentence for the “offenses.”
(Another provision, section 298, forbids uttering remarks intended to “wound religious feelings.”)
“The Islamization of Pakistan’s constitution has had devastating consequences for the country’s religious minorities, not least because they exacerbate religious intolerance and fuel unnecessary tension between members of different religions,” says the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), an organization that provides free legal aid to Pakistani Christians.
“Blasphemy charges can be brought against any individual with nothing more than a ‘reliable’ testimony and once made, can lead to immediate and indefinite detention without bail for the accused,” it says.
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman and mother of five, has been sentenced to death for "blasphemy" in Pakistan, the first conviction of its kind for a woman, the AFP is reporting.
The case originated in Pakistan's Punjab province when a group of female Muslim laborers complained that Bibi had made derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed. According to CNN, the women alleged that Bibi said, "the Quran is fake and your prophet remained in bed for one month before his death because he had worms in his ears and mouth. He married Khadija just for money and after looting her kicked her out of the house." A police investigation was opened, which led to a trial and guilty verdict for Bibi. The AFP reports:
Sentencing her to hang, Judge Naveed Iqbal "totally ruled out" any chance that Asia was falsely implicated and said there were "no mitigating circumstances", according to a copy of the verdict seen by AFP.
Bibi is proclaiming her innocence and says that she is being persecuted for her Christian beliefs in a Muslim majority nation, says the Telegraph.
Human rights groups are condemning the verdict, and her husband, Ashiq Masih, told the AFP that he would appeal the verdict.
Last July, two Christian brothers were shot dead after being convicted of blasphemy, the BBC reported.
Last March a Christian couple in Punjab named as Munir Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi were sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment under the blasphemy laws, in their case after being accused of touching a copy of the Qur’an “without washing their hands,” according to CLAAS.
(Many Christians in South Asia use the name “Masih,” which means “Messiah” in Arabic. “Bibi” is an Urdu term meaning “Miss.”)
According to a report by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, a Catholic body, a total of 964 people were charged under the blasphemy laws between 1986 and 2009. Christians, Muslims, Hindus and members of the Ahmadi sect of Islam have been targeted.
While no executions had been carried out, 32 people charged with blasphemy were killed by mobs or individuals angered by the supposed blasphemy, the report said.
A few such cases in Punjab province cited by the Pakistan Christian Congress include:
-- Bantu Masih, stabbed to death in Lahore while in police custody in 1992
-- Naimat Ahmar, a Christian teacher stabbed and killed in front of students in Faisalabad in 1992
-- Manzoor Masih, shot dead in a Lahore court room in 1994
-- Lahore High Court Iqbal Bhatti, murdered in 1997 after acquitting two Christians accused of blasphemy
-- Robert Danish, a Christian youth who died in police custody in Sialkot in 2009 after being arrested for alleged blasphemy
-- Rashid Emmanuel, a pastor, and his brother Sajid Emmanuel, both gunned down last July as they left a Faisalabad court where they faced accusations of distributing pamphlets “disrespectful” to Islam
CLAAS says that people convicted of blasphemy who have had their death sentences overturned often spend years in prison. Even in cases of acquittals, victims have been unable to return to normal lives and frequently go into hiding.
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