ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The mullahs of Islamabad want Younis Sheikh dead. They say the medical lecturer defamed the prophet Mohammed when he told students the prophet's parents weren't Muslim because they died before God revealed Islam to their son.
At the urging of hard-line clerics, police arrested Sheikh under Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws, and last August, an Islamabad judge sentenced him to be hanged. Sheikh, himself a moderate Muslim, languishes in a jail in nearby Rawalpindi, waiting for Pakistan's High Court to hear his appeal. Despite an international outcry over the Younis Sheikh case and his own campaign to rid Pakistan of Islamic extremism, President Pervez Musharraf has shown little stomach so far for a showdown with Muslim militants over the country's blasphemy laws.
Two years ago, he attempted to overhaul legal procedures to prevent abuses of the law -- but retreated when extremist religious groups threatened to take to the streets in protest. The blasphemy laws have considerable backing among mainstream Muslims here, and fundamentalist mullahs who have little popular support on most issues could rally the public if Musharraf tried to repeal them.
As a result, extremists don't have to commit crimes -- such as the grenade attack this month at an Islamabad church that killed an American woman, her daughter and three others (possibly including the attacker) -- to terrorize those they consider infidels. They can use the law of the land instead. Human rights groups here and international observers say the laws are harsh, easily abused and a fundamental threat to freedom of religion and expression. The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights around the world, released this month, said Pakistan's blasphemy laws have been used to ''threaten, punish or intimidate'' Christians and other non-Muslims. In Pakistan, anyone convicted of defiling the prophet Mohammed's name ''by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly'' must die. Until a court decision in 1991 made executions mandatory, life imprisonment was an option. Lesser offenses, such as desecrating the Koran, Islam's holy book, carry jail terms and fines.
So far, no one has been executed under the laws. But last year, in the first such ruling, courts upheld death sentences imposed on Sheikh and on Ayub Masih, a Christian in Punjab province accused of insulting Mohammed. In the past, death sentences had been overturned in the courts.
To many, including some Islamic scholars, Sheikh's comment that the prophet's parents couldn't have been Muslims reflects common sense. Hard-line clerics disagree.
Does Sheikh deserve to die? ''Yes,'' says Abdul Waheed Qasmi of the Movement for the Protection of the Finality of the Prophet, the fundamentalist group that brought the charges. ''It's not just Dr. Younis. Even if I uttered those words, I should be punished.''
Sheikh's High Court hearing has not yet been scheduled, and even if he loses there, he can seek a final appeal before Pakistan's Supreme Court.
The blasphemy laws date back to when Great Britain ruled India and what is now Pakistan. The laws were designed to keep Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs from using inflammatory religious slurs that could trigger communal violence. But in 1986, Pakistan's military strongman, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, in a bid to win support from fundamentalists, changed the laws to protect Islam alone.
In a country that is 97% Muslim, Christians and other minorities say the laws are used against them. ''It's like a sword hanging over their heads,'' says Cecil Chaudhry, a Christian human rights activist.
Islamic activist Qasmi says the laws don't prevent Christians from practicing their faith, if they do so inside churches and not in public. Nor do blasphemy laws prevent people from questioning their faith and searching for truth, says Islamic scholar Anis Ahmad of International Islamic University here. Ahmad says blasphemy must be intentional to merit punishment.
Some Islamic leaders say the laws help keep the peace. Without them, mobs would deliver rough justice to blasphemers, they say.
Truth is, legal procedures have not stopped mob violence. In 1997, hundreds of Muslims destroyed a Christian community in Punjab province, killing one man and burning 300 homes, after rumors surfaced that Christians had desecrated the Koran.
Extremists pack into courthouses during blasphemy cases and ''make public threats about the consequences of an acquittal,'' the U.S. State Department says. The threats are real: In 1997, a judge was murdered after he acquitted two Christians of blasphemy.
Blasphemy laws also are used to settle personal grudges, family feuds and business rivalries. Last year, a private school owner was charged with blasphemy in a case the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says was probably orchestrated by the owner of a rival school with a third as many students as the accused's. In Peshawar, blasphemy charges were brought against an activist helping poor people in a dispute with Pakistan Railways.
To curb abuses, Musharraf tried in 2000 to change procedures to stop police from arresting blasphemy suspects before examining the evidence. He backed down after extremists threatened protests.
Militants warn Musharraf against another attempt to change the laws. ''This is above politics,'' Qasmi says. ''If the government tries to finish it, the government itself will be finished.''