There is no 'blasphemy law' officially in the books in Bangladesh. We make do with the British designed "hurt religious sentiment" in Section 293-4 of the 1860 Penal Code.
<< Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. Many Pakistanis who question the purpose of such a law believe that since the imposition of the blasphemy law in 1982, reformulated in 1986, violence and brutality against non-Muslims increased exponentially (see Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed’s column inwww.thetimes.com.pk, 4/26/2008). No one seems to have been officially sentenced by the law thus far giving further evidence of its uselessness in real-world juridical matters. A vague knowledge of its existence is enough to engage in illegal summary justice. But then again, for some perpetrators of communal crimes, it matters little whether a law is in the books or not. The frenzy of doing something in honor of “religion” is boosted by the pretension that such behavior must be so ‘good’ in the eyes of God that it does not need accountability to any man-made law. Indeed, law enforcement agencies are effectively paralyzed by the pseudo-religious aspect of the frenzy. The police have either remained inactive spectators or got beaten up themselves by the rioters in these eruptions of communal violence throughout the Indian subcontinent. >>
See my article, 1st published in New Age then blogged by this site . . .
__._,_.___
