After all, nothing speaks to the inherent merits of a law quite like having to defend it by threatening anyone who criticizes it with murder. “Taseer’s daughter warned to back off,” from the Telegraph, January 14:
ISLAMABAD: The leader of an Islamic political party in Pakistan has warned the daughter of a murdered politician to ”remember her father’s fate” and to stop supporting his cause.
Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead by Mumtaz Qadri, a police officer, on January 4 because of his campaign to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Many Muslims celebrated the murder and marched in support of Taseer’s confessed killer.
Shadab Qadri, the leader of Sunni Tehreek, said the politician’s daughter, Shehrbano Taseer, 21, must stop speaking out against blasphemy laws.
”We read the statement of the slain governor’s daughter in a newspaper. She should refrain from issuing such statements and must remember her father’s fate,” Shadab Qadri said.
His organisation has also offered legal support to Mumtaz Qadri and financial help to his family ”as he performed a great duty in the name of Islam”.
The killing shocked Pakistan’s small, liberal elite but has found support among its conservative population, who were told by imams that Mr Taseer wanted to open the floodgates to abuse of the Prophet Muhammad.
On Wednesday, Ms Taseer told the BBC Today program: ”My father’s stance has been misrepresented and has been misquoted because he simply said these laws are being misused and they target the poor, the dispossessed and the voiceless.
”He said it’s a man-made law and these things should be debated in parliament. That has been misconstrued into saying that he has been blasphemous.”…