ICC Note:

A nine-year old boy and his mother were charged with blasphemy six days ago in Pakistan, but Christians and Muslims united to secure the accused’s freedom. While it is encouraging that Muslims and Christians worked together to protect a young child from a potential death sentence, it is disturbing that the Pakistani government is attacking minors. Nasir Saeed, director of a Christian charity that helps persecuted Christians, noted that there are several other examples of minors being charged blasphemy throughout Pakistan’s history. This is an unacceptable result of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.  

10/26/2016 Pakistan (Christianity Today) – Christians and Muslims in Pakistan worked together to get blasphemy charges dropped against a nine-year-old Pakistani Christian boy. The boy, Izhan and his mother, Shakil, a nurse from Quetta, were accused six days ago of burning pages of the Quran.

The police were called in and the mother and child imprisoned. This led to protests by local Christian and Muslim leaders and politicians, and the charges quashed.

The political party Jamait Ulema Islam, or Assembly of Islamic Clergy, played a key role in freeing the two Christians from jail. Asiya Nasir, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Quetta, William John Barkat, a member of the Provincial Assembly and Shahzad Kundan, an activist and resident of the area, cooperated to secure justice for the two accused.

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