Enforcing intolerance all around the world
Sometimes I read a story and don’t know whether to snort derisively at the sort of fool who thinks he can enforce his own brand of parochial intolerance internationally, or express concern that someone might actually be taking seriously the sort of fool who thinks he can enforce his own brand of parochial intolerance internationally. Take this one, for example.
Police in Pakistan have registered cases against the editor and publisher of a Danish newspaper and several other European dailies over publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons under a blasphemy law that carries the death penalty, an officer said.
Internet giants Yahoo, Hotmail, the Internet search engine, Google, were also named in the cases for allowing access to the drawings of Muhammad that were considered sacrilegious by many Muslims. The cases were submitted by a Pakistani lawyer who runs a citizens’ no-rights group.
A Pakistani lawyer, Iqbal Haider, who runs Awami Himayat Tehrik or People’s Support Movement, had petitioned the Supreme Court against the publication of the cartoons under a blasphemy law that allows the death penalty for anyone guilty of insulting the Prophet or the Quran.
Cases were registered against Jyllands-Posten, its editor, publisher, a cartoonist, and newspapers in France, Italy, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands at a police station in Karachi.
It is now the government’s job to contact the Interpol and bring the offenders to a court of law in Pakistan, Haider said.
A government prosecutor, who opposed the petition, says Pakistan’s courts have no jurisdiction over a crime committed abroad.
Thursday 27 Apr 2006 | Paul | Pakistan
