Protests intensify in Pakistan against MP Chitrali's remarks

On March 28, Chitrali kicked a row of a heated parliamentary debate about the practice of many Pakistani universities to reward credits to the students who were able to memorise the Quran or the Bible. He distinguished between the Quran and other religious texts.

In the second week of protests against MP Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali in Pakistan, Bishops and clergy of different Christian denominations and activists for freedom of religion took to the streets demanding his resignation, reported Bitter Winter. On March 28, Chitrali kicked a row of a heated parliamentary debate about the practice of many Pakistani universities to reward credits to the students who were able to memorise the Quran or the Bible. He distinguished between the Quran and other religious texts, according to a report in Bitter Winter.

He said, "The Gospel, the Torah, and the Psalms are cancelled scriptures. We believe in all of them and don't reject them but Quran is permanent and will remain till the judgement day." Chitrali is a member of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party and was of opinion that, while respectable and pre-Muslim times, the Torah and the New Testament were superseded and even "cancelled" when the Quran appeared, according to a report in Bitter Winter.

However, in Pakistan, nothing happened to Chitrali. A Christian member of parliament, Naveed Aamir Jeeva requested that Chitrali be censored, but his request was denied. Religious minorities protesting pointed out that whereas blasphemy against other religions is openly practised and even protected at the National Assembly, blasphemy against Islam in Pakistan is punishable by death. They underlined that as long as this condition exists, the world community should disregard Pakistan's claims to be a democracy that upholds human rights as mere propaganda, reported Bitter Winter. (ANI)

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