Christians and Religious Minorities in Pakistan Face Persecution at the Hands of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law

Over the past few years, turmoil and assassinations have place in Pakistan, over the country's blasphemy law.  The law creates a possible death sentence to anyone who desecrates the name of Allah or the Prophet.  But, desecration can be broad.  It can include the mishandling of papers that happen to have the name of Allah or Mohamed printed on them.

The blasphemy law has been used as a tool by Islamic extremists in Pakistan to terrorize Christians and other religious minorities.  Politicians who oppose the law have been assassinated.  The murderer of one of the politicians, his own police body guard, was sentenced to death.  However, because the Muslim extremists considered the murderer a "hero or Islam," the judge was passed the sentence had to be whisked away to Saudi Arabia for his own protection.

I go into more detail on the situation of Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan in this article:

Religious Minorities in Pakistan Charged with Blasphemy Face Possible Death Sentences.

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com

Asylum Granted Based on Inter-Faith Marriage

On September 1, 2010, Immigration Judge Paul Schmidt of the Arlington Immigration Court granted asylum to a woman from Nepal who entered into an inter-faith marriage. The woman was raised a Hindu, and her family had arranged a marriage with a Hindu man. Before the marriage occurred, the woman came to the United States, met a Muslim, fell in love, married him, and converted to Islam.

The woman offered evidence that her father had threatened her life for marrying a Muslim. She demonstrated that her father was a violent man, who had beaten her, her mother and her sister in the past. The father had gone so far as to arrange for a fraudulent marriage certificate. State Department Human Rights Reports on Nepal indicated that the police tend not to take domestic violence in Nepal seriously.

Based on this evidence, Judge Schmidt found that the woman showed a fear of persecution based on her religion, and that the Nepali Government was unwilling to protect her.

A redacted copy of the decision can be found here.