Islamic Leader to Pope on Blasphemy: Mind Your Own Business

An influential Islamic leader says Pope Benedict XVI should mind his own business after the pontiff called on Pakistan to repeal its anti-blasphemy laws.

"The pope has given a statement today that has not only offended the 180 million Muslims in Pakistan, it has also hurt the sentiments of the entire Islamic world," said Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam.

"This is an interference in Pakistan's internal matters. ... We respect the pope, being head of Christians and their religion, but he should also refrain from interfering in Muslims' religious affairs," he said, according to Reuters.

During his annual address Monday to a group of international ambassadors from 170 countries, Benedict singled out the law in Pakistan that can result in a death sentence for anyone who speaks out against the Prophet Muhammad.

His message was part of a larger appeal to the world to protect Christians from attack and bias in countries where they are a minority.

Benedict's remarks came just a week after the assassination of a Pakistani governor, Salman Taseer, who opposed the law. Taseer, who was killed by his bodyguard, wanted the government to reopen the case of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death last year under the legislation.

"The particular influence of a given religion in a nation ought never to mean that citizens of another religion can be subject to discrimination in social life or, even worse, that violence against them can be tolerated," the pope said.

He added that Pakistan's legislation was being used "as a pretext for acts of injustice and violence against religious minorities," The New York Times reported.

However, Hussain Ahmed's party has led several demonstrations in defense of the law in recent days.

"There would be an unprecedented reaction in Pakistan if any attempt was made to amend or repeal the law," Hussain Ahmed said, Reuters reported.

In his address, Benedict also urged Egypt and Iraq, where Christians have been subjected to bomb attacks in recent months, to adopt "more effective measures" to protect them.

A suicide bomber killed at least 23 people and wounded almost 100 at an attack after a New Year's Mass at a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria. In October, a siege at a Baghdad church killed 53 people.

Christians coming under fire in the Middle East, as well as their increasingly frequent exodus from those countries, has been a growing concern for Benedict. Last fall, he met with bishops at the Vatican to discuss the issue.

Monday, he also singled out Saudi Arabia, which outlaws the public preaching and practice of non-Muslim religions although more than a million Christian immigrants live there, as well as China, where Catholics have to join an official church.

But the West did not escape the pope's criticism, either. He scolded Western nations for marginalizing religion by "the banning of religious feasts and symbols from civic life under the guise of respect for members of other religions or those who are not believers," The Guardian reported. 

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