A 70-year-old Briton suffering from paranoid schizophrenia is facing a death sentence in Pakistan. This is no joke
t is part of my job description to be offensive. I can, if I wish, make a joke hoping that Alex Salmond, now he is at the end of his political life, lays 20,000 fish eggs and dies. I can make a joke pointing out that David Cameron told off Sri Lanka for human rights abuses committed with weapons Britain sold it – like Ronald McDonald calling you a fat bastard.
The most I risk from saying such things is alienating a stranger. The same cannot be said of Mohammed Asghar. He is 70, and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
[A TOP RATED COMMENT 460 votes] "If we don’t protest against the sentence faced by the mentally-ill Briton we condone killing people for what they say, says Frankie Boyle"
Yes indeed and things in Pakistan are awful.
But don't let us pretend it cannot happen here: it can and it has.
For what Rushdie said, a few lines in a book, we had thousands in the streets openly inciting his murder and, in an appalling failure to apply law and order for this serious criminality, there were no prosecutions.
Hell, one guy who said that death was too good for Rushdie was given a knighthood. Just a tiny minority having these attitudes? Absolutely not!!!
In a poll at the time 30% of UK Muslims agreed with the proposal that the Fatwa should be enacted.
[ANOTHER 339v] Islam may excuse the insane from punishment on blasphemy charges but it's the sane blasphemers we need to worry about as well. They are not protected in Islam.
68% of adherants to a particular religion in the UK support the arrest and prosecution of anyone who insults Islam according to NOP Research. [Guardian Cif] Read more
