Hege Storhaug, HRS
Det er tre dagers landesorg i Pakistan nå etter at Salmaan Taseer ble drept av sine egne sikkerhetsvakter. Drapet ser i all hovedsak ut til å handle om blasfemistandspunktet hans. At Pakistan befolkning er på den ekstreme linjen eksempelvis når det gjelder avgudsdyrkelsen av Muhammed (ironisk nok blasfemi i seg selv), eller frafall fra islam (som jo defineres ganske vidt) levner undersøkelsen til PEW sommeren 2010 ingen tvil om. 76 prosent mener frafall må føre til dødsstraff. Kjenner jeg ekstremistene rett, er opphevelse av blasfemiforbudet i Pakistan ekvivalent med frafall.
Men la oss se nærmere på hva Taseer har uttalt om blasfemilovverket og dødsdommen mot Asia Bibi. I et intervju med det kritiske engelskspråklige magasinet Newsline 23.desember i fjor påpekte han eksempelvis det “spesielle” ved at 50 prosent av blasfemianklagene rettes mot de to prosent kristne i landet:
1. “If you want my personal opinion, I don’t like this law at all.”
2. “Even people who are deeply religious have spoken out against this black law. Ghamdi, for example, has stated clearly that this has nothing to do with Islam – Islam calls on us to protect minorities, the weak and the vulnerable.”
3. “I have showed my solidarity with minority communities who are being targeted by this law and, in doing so, I have sent across a strong message.”
4. “The real problem is that the government is not prepared to face religious fanaticism head on. This also gives us a bad name in the world.”
5. “The thing I find disturbing is that if you examine the cases of the hundreds tried under this law, you have to ask how many of them are well-to-do? Why is it that only the poor and defenceless are targeted? How come over 50 per cent of them are Christians when they form less than 2 per cent of the country’s population. This points clearly to the fact that the law is misused to target minorities.”
6. “What I find particularly distasteful is that when you speak of amendment, people assume you condone the crime. If I am against the death sentence, it does not mean I condone murder.”
På en pressekonferanse i november i fjor sa han dette om Bibi-aken:
“The sentence against Aasia is inhumane. I have been handed over an appeal for a presidential pardon which I will take to the president and soon Aasia will be pardoned.”
Samme måned ble han intervjuet av CNN:
1. “If the High Court does not suspend her sentence we will pardon her.”
2. “The blasphemy law is not a God-made law. It’s a man-made law. It was made by General Zia ul-Haq and the portion about giving a death sentence was put in by Nawaz Sharif. So it’s a law which gives an excuse to extremists and reactionaries to target weak people and minorities.”
På Twitter var dette hans siste melding, timer før han ble drept:
Mera azm itna bulund hae Parae sholon se dar nahin. Mujhe dar hae tu atish e gul se hae Ye kahin chaman ko jala na dein
Min oversettelse: ”Min overbevisning er så sterk at jeg ikke er redd for flammende i omgivelsene. Det jeg frykter er at blomstenes flammende skjønnhet ikke brenner hagen min.”