Two Ahmadiyya Muslims in the U.S., Amjad Mahmood Khan and Harris Zafar, are being threatened by the government of Pakistan with prison sentences of up to a decade if they fail to remove what the Pakistani government calls a “blasphemous” website, TrueIslam.com, which is based in the U.S. Khan and Zafar are the spokesmen for TrueIslam.com.
Ironically, years ago Robert Spencer exposed Zafar as “a sly and cunning advocate for authoritarianism and Sharia restrictions on the freedom of speech.” See also here and here. Now Zafar has run afoul of what he subtly advocated.
The question at hand now, however, is that of what business Pakistan has in America. The vision that Islamic supremacists have for America is clear: subjugation, and not just of America, but of the entire infidel world. Pakistan seeks to impose upon the West its infamous blasphemy laws, which are infamous for being used to abuse religious minorities, especially Christians. A Muslim villager can target a Christian neighbor in a minor dispute and falsely accuse the Christian of blasphemy, and then the Christian will face lynching by a mob, and/or prison.
Back in December 2018, FrontPage Magazine Managing Editor Jamie Glazov actually received a warning notice from Twitter:
We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received official correspondence regarding your Twitter account, @JamieGlazov.
The correspondence claims that the following content is in violation of Pakistan law: Section 37 of PECA-2016, Section 295 B and Section 295 C of the Pakistan penal code…Twitter has not taken any action on the reported content at this time. We are only writing to inform you that content posted to your account has been mentioned in a complaint.
Then only three months ago, Twitter sent a notice to Robert Spencer, saying that his tweet violated the laws of Pakistan, to which he rightly responded:
In sending out these notices, Twitter is behaving as if Islamic blasphemy law applied to people outside of Sharia domains. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has been working for years at the UN to compel Western countries to criminalize criticism of Islam (under the guise of prohibiting ‘incitement to religious hatred’).
These outrageous messages are the responsibility of Barack Obama, who surrendered American control of the Internet to an international organization.
Now Pakistan’s threats to Americans have increased, as it has warned that Khan and Zafar face prison time, amid “repeated vows from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that he would endeavor to criminalize speech that offends Muslims globally.”
Recently Pakistan saw a surge in jihad murders of members of the Ahmadiyya community, because Ahmadis are deemed to be apostates in mainstream Islam. Human Rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Pakistani authorities of downplaying or otherwise encouraging violence against Ahmadis. Now Ahmadis may begin to be hunted abroad as well.
In late December, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority warned Google and Wikipedia about “disseminating sacrilegious content” through two Ahmadi platforms. In a press release, the Authority said that it was receiving complaints regarding “misleading search results associated with ‘present khalifa of Islam’ and an unauthentic version of the Holy Quran uploaded by the Ahmedi community on Google Play Store.”
Now Harris Zafar, reversing his anti-free speech stance that Spencer exposed years ago, has issued a warning that applies not just to Ahmadis, but to all Americans, and, in fact, to all free people:
This overreaching censorship effort seeking to criminalize online speech speaks volumes to how far Pakistan’s authoritarian government is willing to go to target and persecute a religious community that it has persecuted for decades.
Of course, Zafar and Khan will face no consequences unless they decide to visit Pakistan, which is unlikely. Ahmadis face persecution there and elsewhere. Four months ago in Bangladesh, Muslims dug up a three-day-old baby girl’s body from a cemetery and left it by the roadside because she was Ahmadi. Not long after that, a Pakistani Muslim who was on trial for blasphemy was shot dead in a courtroom and the perpetrator said that “Muhammad ordered him to do it,” because the victim was Ahmadi.
According to the Economic Times in India: “Ahmadis from Pakistan have steadily moved to the West, fleeing persecution, seeking refuge in countries such as the UK, Germany and Canada.” Given the pattern unfolding in countries ruled by globalists, their freedoms are threatened, along with those of infidels.
The greater warning that stems from this case is the confident advance of the stealth jihad worldwide, perpetrated not only by countries such as Pakistan, but also by Muslim Brotherhood operatives, who are also working to erode the freedom of speech via the “Islamophobia” subterfuge.
As the world saw when French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded for showing his class a cartoon of Muhammad, the death penalty for blasphemy can, in the view of many Muslims, be carried out by an individual, or by a mob via lynching, or by government authority. Western countries should not be encouraging any further erosion of the freedom of speech, despite the persistent whining by Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups, screaming “Islamophobia” at every turn. But the freedom of speech is under severe assault from the Left today as well.
The freedom of speech, including criticizing and even offending Islam, is a constitutional right. The more politicians surrender this right on the altar of identity politics, the more countries such as Pakistan will be empowered, and the more anyone who offends Islam is endangered. The jihad is progressive, aggressive, and highly responsive to advancement through appeasement.
mortimer says
Pakistan has an official definition of blasphemy and it comes from a group of one-sided Islamic fanatics: the Council of Islamic Ideology
They decide how much the populace should be terrorized and deprived of the freedom of speech.
It’s tyranny to have only one voice approved by a government.
The American Left wants only one voice in the whole country, so they are also tyrants.
william carr says
People do not seem to understand that social media is international, so whatever one says there lays one open to attack by any Islamic authority legal or otherwise, in the world. The US saying ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ does not stand on SM.
Frank Anderson says
w.c., if that is the case you are allowing Pakistan to enforce its law worldwide when no other civilized country is allowed to enforce its law outside its territory, which includes its flagged vessels and embassies. There may be some other extensions where US law is enforced under the rule of “extraterritorial jurisdiction”. But granting Pakistan worldwide jurisdiction over anyone who offends it is way too much.
Any country which wishes to enforce its laws in the US MUST come to the US, SUBMIT to US law and jurisdiction, and ASK US courts to hand over the accused, but not guilty, person by a warrant. Just because a sharia (muslim law) is to be enforced DOES not make it superior to US law; and almost certainly when it violates the rights afforded to all US citizens, all legally present and even to those illegally present in the US, sharia will NOT be enforced in US courts to hand over the accused.
If what you have written is true, the we are all subjects of Pakistan. “An armed person is a citizen; an unarmed person is a subject.” Just one small short step from being an inmate.
Michael Copeland says
“… the death penalty for blasphemy can, in the view of many Muslims, be carried out by an individual,…”
It is more than a matter of ” in the view of many Muslims”. It is set out in Sharia law:
Manual of Islamic Law, “Reliance of the Traveller”:
o8.1 when a person ….apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.
o8.4 There is no indemnity [blood money] for killing an apostate …since it is killing someone who deserves to die.
Pakistan classifies Ahmadis as apostates: they are not muslims in the state’s view. Anyone can kill them, penalty-free.
PRCS says
“… the death penalty for blasphemy can, in the view of many Muslims, be carried out by an individual,…”
It is more than a matter of ” in the view of many Muslims”. It is set out in Sharia law:
As you note: that many (most?) of the world’s Muslims either don’t know that–or ignore it–doesn’t negate it.
If ‘real’ Muslims have not yet acted that out in the West, it remains a possibility.
gravenimage says
Actually, Muslims slaughtering people–including in the West–for “blasphemy” is not at all uncommon. Have you heard about Salman Rushdie’s translator and publisher, Theo van Gogh, and the staff of Charlie Hebdo? There are many others.
Frank Anderson says
G.I. muslims in 1400 years have slaughtered between 250 and 1000 million people in their conquest depending on who is estimating and the area they consider. That is at least one person every three minutes every hour, day, week, year for 1400 years. There may be no penalty under muslim law, but there certainly is under US and other countries’ law. islam is a criminal conspiracy of conquest, death, slavery and theft.
gravenimage says
True, Frank.
Frank Anderson says
I have pondered this question about as long as I have been writing here, because I am certain that many of my comments are blasphemous somewhere to someone. Can a foreign country issue a warrant for the arrest of a US citizen and then come to the US and demand extradition for conduct that is entirely within the protection of US law, that is, Free Speech?
At this point, I still think by coming to the US, the representatives of the foreign country submit totally to the jurisdiction and law of the US court. By doing so, they become subject to all US law including conspiracy to violate US civil rights under color of law, a felony for which there is no immunity for foreign officials who are breaking US law by asking the court to join in their conspiracy. I would LOVE to see the Pakistani attorney general (Minster of Justice?) and any of his deputies in US federal prison. I assure you, if I had the opportunity, I would try this case, retirement and health notwithstanding.
Please consult a currently licensed and practicing attorney in your jurisdiction for any legal advice.
PRCS says
Maybe not in prison, but–in order that our friends and neighbors can learn from it– at least on trial.
Frank Anderson says
PRCS, after all that I have been trough at the hands of corrupt and powerful evil people I never fight to fight again. Mercy has no place for those who have never once shown justice or mercy in their lives. Hurt them so bad not only will they never repeat their crime, but neither will anyone else who knows what it cost the last time. If others think they can teach mercy to the unmerciful, I don’t. It has already been tried and failed every time.
Frank Anderson says
My “self operating” keyboard did not spell correctly the word “through”. I hope nobody suffered great disturbance.
gravenimage says
I think most of us can handle minor typos without too much mental anguish, Frank. 🙂
notnolib says
Proud atheists Penn and Teller make fun of all faiths…..except one. When asked why, they responded “we have families”.
The terrorists at the terror group CAIR (and its terrorist members, officers, and supporters) are fine with that explanation.
somehistory says
Since their laws do not apply in the U.S., will they send someone to target, to assassinate, these two moslims…perhaps someone already living in America?
Assassins is a word long applied to moslims…long knife up a sleeve to be used in the “assassination” of an enemy.
Infidel says
Actually, Pakistan has been assassinating Baloch dissidents in other countries – namely Norway and Canada. Now that Joe is in power, it’s not beyond them to do it in the US as well, w/ impunity
gravenimage says
Pakistan threatens to imprison two US-based Ahmadi Muslims for 10 years for ‘blasphemy’ on US-based website
……………..
Horrifying but no surprise.
William Snow Hume says
The US invaded Afghanistan because its government not only had hosted Al-Qaeda, but had also sheltered OSAMA BIN LADIN and refused to turn him over. The US spent trillions of dollars and endured several thousand military casualties to punish Afghanistan for not ejecting its OLB-hosting emirate. OK. About ten years later, the US finds that OBL is supposedly living in Abbottabad, and we assassinated “him” there. Then, the military official who helped to expose the whereabouts of the man whom everyone thought was OBL was punished by the government of Pakistan. Clearly, that is recognition of an official Pakistani purpose to shelter the man whom it thought to be OBL. (And it certainly was a “BIN LADIN” family member.) Now, the US has had both OBAMA and TRUMP administrations since a BIN LADIN was killed in 2011, yet it still has never invaded Pakistan, in order to punish its people for not ejecting its OBL-hosting government. If the new President BIDEN is a principled man, he will cause an invasion of Pakistan and a subjugation of the Pakistani people. He will force it to adopt a Western-style government, with due American-style respect for the rights of minorities, just as he says he wants to do in Afghanistan. Someone please tell me where my reasoning is at fault. WSH
Frank Anderson says
“If the new President BIDEN is a principled man. . .”
W.S.H. in all his years in public life, sucking on the government dole, he has shown repeatedly and reliably
that his is anything but what you imagine. He is a liar, a plagiarist a coward and a thief. He is ready to steal from American people lawfully present who work, save and invest to buy votes from freeloaders. He supports actively the invasion of the United States by foreigners looking to either enjoy his generosity at our expense or destroy the American labor force. Please do some reading and find out for yourself.
gravenimage says
William, your implication that bin Laden was never taken out is baseless.