Press Release

Dr. Shaikh's Death Sentence for Blasphemy Shocks and Outrages World

Contact Information
Tony Hileman, Executive Director

(Washington - August 21, 2001) Tony Hileman, executive director of the American Humanist Association (AHA), in letters sent to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State, Colin Powell, denounces the sentencing of Dr. Younus Shaikh to death for blasphemy. Hileman says "The absurdity of condemning Dr. Shaikh to death based on hearsay that he inadvertently "blasphemed" is obvious to the world." This latest development in the trial of Shaikh is "repulsive to the reasoned citizens of the world who shudder at this brutality."

Separately, Edd Doerr, president of the AHA, notes that Shaikh is not the only individual being persecuted by Pakistan's outrageous blasphemy law. "Hundreds have been unjustly convicted of blasphemy and have been held in inhumane conditions while their appeals languish for years." Doerr also explains that Shaikh's guilt was certainly in question. Shaikh has been accused of saying that the Prophet had not become a Muslim until age 40 and that before then, he had not followed Muslim practice of circumcision. According to the New York Times, Shaikh only recalls telling his students that Muhammad's tribe did not follow the practice of circumcision." One of the witnesses in the trial was fully discredited when it was shown that he was not even present on the day Shaikh supposedly made his "blasphemous remarks."

In the letter Hileman goes on to urge Musharraf not to bow to pressure from the extremist fundamentalists within Pakistan, free Shaikh, and lift this barbaric law which unjustly mandates capital punishment for blasphemy. "In our enlightened age, blasphemy itself is at best a dubious concept. We should pursue the death of blasphemy and abandon the unusually cruel practice of death for blasphemy."

The American Humanist Association is the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the nation. The AHA is dedicated to ensuring a voice for those with a positive outlook, based on reason and experience, which embraces all of humanity.

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