THE good news this week is that Pakistan is to ditch its notorious blasphemy law; the bad is that another journalist in Afghanistan has been arrested for suggesting that Islam and other religions had come about through channels other than “divine revelation”.
According to this report, Pakistan’s decision to scrap its blasphemy law was announced by the Federal Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, who said:
Religious minorities have been neglected, victimised and oppressed in Pakistan. They have faced constitutional and institutionalised discrimination and inequality, but our government is committed to address the long-standing issues of minorities. We are making all-out efforts to uplift and empower minorities.
Meanwhile, in the same week that the unnamed Afghan journalist was arrested, Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for press freedom, said that press freedom in Afganistan had become worse in that country, with threats against journalists rising in steadily.
These were mostly in the form of attacks or kidnappings by Taliban insurgents and criminal gangs, the group told a news conference in Kabul.
Jean-Francois Julliard, the head of Reporters Without Borders, said:
Press freedom in Afghanistan is getting worse in recent years and it is the government’s responsibility … to reverse this worrying trend .
Pervez Kambakhsh, serving 20 years for 'blasphemy'
Two Afghan journalists were killed and some 50 were either threatened or attacked in 2008 alone, Julliard said.
During its meetings with government officials, the group pushed for the freedom of Pervez Kambakhsh who was jailed for 20 years for talking about women’s role in Islam and for printing an article from the internet that was seen as blasphemous, Julliard said.
The latest journalist to be arrested in Afghanistan is the news editor of a small Kabul newspaper, Payman Daily, who was picked up days after the allegedly blasphemous article was printed, the deputy Attorney General, Fazel Ahmad Faqiryar, revealed.
He was arrested for publishing an article in which he has rejected revelation. This is an insult to Islam and the rest of the religions.
The journalist, whom Faqiryar would not name, was being investigated. If found guilty under Afghanistan’s law, which is based on Islamic Sharia law, he could face a sentence ranging from a reprimand to the death penalty, the official said.
He was arrested after a council of Islamic clerics and a government media disciplinary commission found that the article was “an insult to Islam,” the official said.
The paper had earlier apologised for publishing the article.
Razaq Mamoon, a former editor-in-chief said that the article had been taken from an Afghan website and was not written by the newspaper’s staff.
Last year, Pervez Kambakhsh, a young Afghan journalism student and reporter, was sentenced to death for distributing an article, downloaded from the Internet, that questioned aspects of Islam. The sentence was later reduced to 20 years in jail.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 18th, 2009 at 11:41 am
HELLS TEETH!! These people ARE savages!
January 18th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Freedom of speech will never exist as long as there is religion.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I am pleased that Pakistan is abolishing this law. A number of Christians have been hit by the blasphemy law simply for disagreeing with Muhammed’s teachings. This whole business of a state religion is something I disagree with. I believe in seperation of church and state while guaranteeing freedom for believers to have, and peacefully spread, their beliefs.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Further to my last post; I note that your founder, Mr Foote, was imprisoned in the 1880s for blasphemy. I strongly disapprove of putting people into prison for speaking against God because it is counter-productive. I would rather present Gospel truths to such people and pray that God would open their eyes and convert them.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Bob, your bible isn’t going to convert anybody with an ounce of sense here. If you really want us to convert to your religion, here’s a hint: pray, really pray, to your gods to come to each of us and convince us themselves. It shouldn’t be too hard, they did create the entire universe, supposedly, which I guess is no small feat.
So, keep praying. Don’t do anything else but pray until this happens. You never know, your gods might listen to you and actually do something. And perhaps it’ll get you to shut up here.
You might as well be quoting a Harry Potter book to us for all the “truth” that christian scripture holds for us.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Ravi Zacharias was a militant atheist but became a Christian and now travels the world preaching the Gospel; if it happened to him it can happen to you – the alternative, Hell for all eternity, does not bear thinking about.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
nullfidian – i should keep off thinking about hell if I were you.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
The religionists just don’t want their daft ideas challanged so they imprison people – can’t have people talking sense, too dangerous.
Bob. Er…. so what about Daniel Everett who went out to the Amazon to indoctrinate the tribes with xtaininsanity but came back an atheist?
January 18th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Daniel Everett was a trained Christian missionary who ditched his delusional beliefs in favour of atheism.
See: http://freethinker.co.uk/2008/.....n-atheist/
Win some, lose some.
Now fuck off Bob
January 18th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Oh, and let’s not forget the uber-religious British athlete Jonathan Edwards, who discovered in 2007 that religion was a load of ballcocks.
See: http://freethinker.co.uk/2007/.....rom-faith/
Bob will of course respond by claiming he was never a “true” Christian, and we in return can of course claim that Ravi Zacharias (whoever the fuck he is) was never a “true” atheist.
Surely Bob must realise by now that that he is no intellectual match for any of the posters on this blog.
The man is a twat, as many have pointed out before.
January 18th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Like the new look btw.
WOW does that mean they will no longer push the UN on the blasphemy law. one thing “equal rights of religious minorities of Pakistan” what about the rights of the non-religious? could we now go to Pakistan and burn a picture of MR.MO ? (I don’t think so)
I really hope they do but politics change, Pakistan was once secular for a while.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Reply to Angela K, Barry Duke and Marcus: of course it is very sad when people fall away but Jesus did warn that it would happen (Mark 4v 1-20). Also we read in 1st Corinthians 9 v 27 Paul stating that it was possible, after having preached to others, to fall away and be “a castaway”. Only those who “endure to the end” will be saved Matthew 10 v 22.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Reply to Barry Duke: I may well not be an “intellectual match” for you but when a person becomes a Christian it is a spiritual miracle of grace that the Holy Spirit does in the heart of an elect person. If God is drawing you to faith in Christ you will be saved, you will not have any choice in the matter. I notice you are the editor. When I looked through the list of editors I noticed the name of Bill McIllroy. I wonder if this is the person who has a daughter and son in law named Ruth and Stephen who are both Christians. If so, I wonder how it affected him when his daughter (raised in an atheist home) got saved.
January 18th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Bob!
This is my favourite quotation and I’d like to share it with you.
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
- Sir Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-1971)
January 18th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Bob, should you not be out in the street giving people ear-ache, rather than continuing to obsess over the contents of this blog?
Anyway, as you’ve had your snout in Freethinker history, and uprooted the fact (no secret, I should add) that Bill McIlroy was a past editor, let me assure you that Bill is pretty much sanguine over the fact that one of his daughters became a Christian (his other daughter, he informs me is contemptuous of Christianity). Bill brought his children up in a freethinking household and believes in freedom of choice.
I wonder how many children raised in an evangelical household are given the same freedom? Very few I would think, and if they are, by the time they reach an age when they can make informed choices, the rot will have set in, and their ability to recognise the advantages of living without religion will have been severely impaired.
January 18th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
This is not Pakistan or any other country; this is the direct teachings of islam. No believer can fail to follow the direct unabrogated teachings of the koran and mohammed in the hadith. islam is the enemy of free speech and will always be. Not to mention they want and not stop until islam rules the world, through whatever means necessary. “islam is a religion of peace” is the biggest lie ever perpitrated on mankind and the sooner the West realizes it the sooner the World War that will eventually be required to stope it will start. No one wants this WAR except the islamist who by their own faith can do nothing else and still claim to be a TRUE believer.
January 18th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Bob, you are so much of a dickhead that I believe you have a foreskin for a neck.
I think this jesus and mo kinda sums up why you’re so wrong…
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2008/11/21/think/
January 18th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Reply to chrsbol: a-theist means no god. I do not believe in no god but one God eternally existing in 3 persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Reply to Barry Duke: I do not give people ear ache as I do not actually preach out loud on the streets. I simply hold out leaflets as they walk past, (I never stand right in front of them) and I simply offer the leaflets. They are free to make a choice, to take one or ignore me. As you believe in freedom to choose and free expression I would think you have no objection to this. My boys were brought up in a Christian home but they were not forced to believe. They accepted Christ because God opened their eyes and granted them the desire to believe in Christ as Lord and Saviour.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Reply to wileysnakeskins: excellent post. You have underlined the no. 1 problem in the middle east, it is not Israel that is the problem but Islamic fundamentalism.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Bob,
I noted the phrase ‘and peacefully spread, their beliefs’ in an earlier blog. Why? Why do you have to spread your nonsense.
THERE IS NO GOD! YOU TWAT!!
I challenged you a couple of days ago to f”k off if you did not get any converts – so did the power of you flimsy belief’s get any, despite your avoiding answering the challange, thought not. Does it not sink into your fuddled brain that despite all your prayers that nobody will change. We are happy with reality. Good to see your God working for you.
THERE IS NO GOD! YOU TWAT!!
January 18th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
How do you know that nobody will change? God is powerful and He will ensure that everyone single one of God’s elect will be saved by repenting of their sins and accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour. Oh, and by the way if you try to block my coming on to this site and expressing my belief I will simply inform my Evangelical friends and you will have lots of people posting Christian truth on here, not just one. You continue to let me post and I will keep the knowledge of this site to myself and not inform all my evangelical friends about it.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Bob,
That’s close to being a threat.
January 18th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
No, I do not treaten anyone, I am peaceable. However, I take issue with the hypocrisy of you people. You claim you believe in allowing free expression and yet you tell me to go away because you cannot cope with my posts. That is hardly in the spirit of allowing people to express their beliefs.
January 18th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Bob, amusing though your ripostes may be, your continued, rather moronic and tedious quotations from your favourite ‘novel’ are wearing a bit thin; most of the people on this forum probably know your book better than you, including the very nasty bits that you xtains try to keep quiet about. Furthermore, your constant dipping into your book for what you believe is the ‘killer’ line that will suddenly convince us atheists that you are right, show how intellectually bankrupt you are. We are happy to have an intelligent debate with you, but clearly you are unable to return the same courtesy without recourse to filling this forum with other people’s words. Come on Bob, let’s hear something original from you for a change.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Bob,
Taken from your blog ‘if you try to block my coming on to this site and expressing my belief I will simply inform my Evangelical friends and you will have lots of people posting Christian truth on here, not just one’
Well, well, it didn’t take long to see the usual christian attitude sneak through. Classic case of ‘do as I want or else’.
That’s why sane people do not want to discourse with your lot.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Angela K: I will never convince you but God will if you are one of the elect. Every one of God’s elect will believe in Jesus – John 6 v 37. The evangelist simply tells people to repent and believe, God does the converting.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Bob, are you saying that your ‘Evangelical friends’ don’t know of the existance of this site? Frankly, I think you are probably telling porkies. This is a site for atheists, and your absent friends are probably aware of this and stay away for fear of being contaminated with the truth about their invisible friends.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:03 am
I am not telling porkies at all. Many evangelicals have probably heard vaguely about the National Secular Society but don’t pay too much attention to it. It is unlikely that many know about your magazine and web site.
January 19th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Quote Bob “I will never convince you but God will if you are one of the elect. Every one of God’s elect will believe in Jesus – John 6 v 37. The evangelist simply tells people to repent and believe, God does the converting.”
Can’t help yourself with the quotations can you? Take your precious book away and your brain would go with it.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Bob splurged:
They believe because the thing they believe in gave them a desire to believe?
If this is what counts for your logic in your head, no wonder you’re such a wingnut.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Bob griped:
Nonono, you’ve got it wrong. We’re not not coping with your posts, we’re just incredibly bored by them: the constant need to quote your favourite book (we’ve read it—it’s rubbish; the need to proselytise (we’ve heard it all before—also rubbish); the constant referencing of your supposedly all-powerful yet completely absent, invisible and impotent gods as actually existing with their supposed prognostications, with no evidence whatsoever.
Your “magic” book is nothing more than a heavily edited collection of superstitions, wishful thinking and pseudo-history written from the perspective of bronze age middle eastern desert goat herders; if you have something to show us, then do. Otherwise my advice to you would be to shut the hell up, but somehow I don’t think you’ll take it.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
deedyi wrote:
As I have no idea what “hell” is supposed to be (although, for some reason the wonderfully vague description of a ‘lake of fire’ pops up now and again, whatever that’s supposed to mean) and as a consequence I don’t think about it at all.
Thanks for the advice though. If I knew what to do with it, I might take it.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:35 am
I think it’s time we started ignoring this bob berk; he is a monumental bore. he can’t say anything original cos he just can’t. there’s nothing there in his head to inspire original thought, so it’s just all the same old tripe that all xians repeat endlessly from their robot ‘brains.’ ignore him, don’t reply to his posts. he’s a creature who can only think in two dimensions; if it’s not good, it must be bad. if it’s not white, it must be black; if it’s not on, it must be off. nothing in between or beyond or anywhere else. His brain, like that of most believers is rooted. I have a book here written by an x-Christian, a woman brought up as a Lutheran and after reading the bible from end to end, come out the other side, so horrified by what she read, that she became an atheist (bob; did you hear that? Reading the BIBLE turned her into an atheist!).
I quote from her book ‘In God we trust; by which one?’ by Judith Hayes: “Religion renders a brain useless.”
Thus, it is useless to try and talk to a person who has a useless brain.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am
I have read the Bible (OT at least 21 times, NT about 40)right through and my faith is strengthened, not weakened. How do you know that this lady was ever a true Christian believer? There are many who were raised in a church/denomination but never truly believed in their hearts.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
#I would rather present Gospel truths to such people and pray that God would open their eyes and convert them.#
Bob, doesn’t the fact that your god doesn’t convert us, tell you anything? Like maybe she’s just in your head.
January 20th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
As yet you have not been converted, but there is still time. Atheists have been converted before now.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
True atheists?
February 9th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Good evening.
Sorry to be so rude but I have been reading information on this thread and wondered if I could pose a question? I have failed to find another forum where I feel I am likely to get a balanced response.
Whilst at work I was doing my usual grumping and groaning when yet another ridiculous email landed! My response was ‘oh Jesus ‘. A colleague of mine jokingly (I think) sighed and said ‘oh such blasphemy’. This led to a short friendly debate on whether a comment such as mine is really blasphemy if you don’t not believe in the in target, in this case Jesus.
I have been doing some research (because I’m a bit geeky and these things interest me) which is when I came across your website.
I would be really interested in your views.
Kind regards
C