Al-Jazeera has taken a lengthy look at Pakistan’s volatile religious politics through the eyes of two Muslims trying to reform the country’s notorious anti-blasphemy laws. Attorney Saif-ul-Malook, for whom Aasiya Noreen (also known as Asia Bibi) is the latest of several clients he has defended against charges of offending Islam, lives in daily fear of an assassin’s bullet. His unlikely ally, Tahir Ashrafi, chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, tells Al-Jazeera that “in many cases, like the Rimsha Masih case, or in cases where there is a personal dispute over land or money, these blasphemy laws are used to pressure people.” Ashrafi is trying to change the law so that false blasphemy accusations are punishable.
The two men, however, are trying to reform a system that Malook calls “broken.”
