Pastor shot, imam kidnapped

On the evening of 30th September, two Muslim extremists shot and wounded a Presbyterian pastor in Faisalabad, while hurling abuse at the Christian faith.  As the pastor was walking with a young man from church, Nabeel Hussain and another unknown person, shoved Pastor Babar Bhatti to the ground and then shot him while shouting abusive and crude words about Jesus and Christians.  Pastor Bhatti has received several threats over the last while from Muslim extremists who are unhappy about his working in non-Christian areas.  He has also had a false blasphemy case made against him by an Imam several years ago, but the local administration defended him against the malicious attack.

Source

In a separate development, Tahir Ashrafi, a very senior and somewhat extremist Islamic cleric who nevertheless has spoken up for Rimsha Masih to some degree, was kidnapped on Thursday evening, apparently after visiting the German embassy.  Security forces and police quickly reacted and recovered him, but unconscious after apparently being drugged.  Sources say that his kidnappers were arrested.  Reasons for the kidnap are so far unknown - or at least not made public.

Source 1 and 2

On the tactics of blasphemy - Ashrafi's deceptive charm offensive

Tahir Ashrafi (left) with other Muslim extremist leaders

Three articles were brought to BPCA's attention recently.  The first two were articles in the New Pakistan online newspaper by Mahmood Adeel, and ably express why we should be very sceptical about the words of Tahir Ashrafi, the Islam(icist) spokesperson and leader who is widely quoted as being in support of Rimsha.  Basically, it says the case against Rimsha was a PR disaster for the Muslim extremist movement and the blasphemy law, and they have recognized this.  So they are making supportive noises about the Rimsha case, talking of justice, of prosecutions on those making false charges, on the need for full and free investigations by the law and order forces, and the need to curb abuses.  This is a PR tactic to try and blunt our and other calls for the blasphemy laws to be massively reformed or abolished.  It is, in short a manipulative charm offensive.