Talking Is Dangerous.(physician charged with blasphemy by Islamic extremists, Pakistan)(Brief Article)

Confined to a small death cell in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, Dr. Shaikh Muhammed Younus's last hope of escaping the gallows lies with his petition to a Pakistani high court. The 45-year-old medical professor was sentenced to death last week on a charge of blasphemy. He's the latest victim of a growing wave of religious bigotry and intolerance ravaging Pakistani society. Even if Younus is freed, which is a possibility, his life is in danger: armed Islamic fanatics have vowed to kill him for his offense.

Last October, Younus was giving a physiology lecture at Islamabad's Capital Homeopathic College. It all seemed innocent enough until the professor starting talking about the prophet Muhammad and certain practices prevalent in pre-Islam seventh-century Arabia. Among other things, the professor stated that Muhammad was a non-Muslim till the age of 40, that he was not circumcised until then and that his parents were non-Muslims. His students and local mullahs accused him of making sacrilegious remarks, and the professor was arrested by Islamabad police under a controversial blasphemy law. Enacted in 1981, it states that whoever "directly or indirectly defiles the sacred name of the prophet is punishable by death." Ostensibly meant to prevent any disrespect to Islam, the law has become a weapon of persecution for religious extremists.

Younus, a respected professor, denied the blasphemy charge at his trial, saying his remarks were twisted. "My students asked me about the shaving of pubic and armpit hair, and I, in describing the glory of Allah's revelations, said that before the arrival of Islam, the Arabs did not have these practices--and truly they did not," he said in a court statement. But the mullahs maintain that the professor's remarks defile the prophet's image and thus the law applies to him.

The trial, held within the prison for security reasons, was tense and emotional. On the day Younus was convicted, Islamic zealots outside the prison said the judge faced serious consequences if he failed to hand down the death penalty. "The judge was visibly harassed," says Muhammed Hussain Chotiya, the lawyer for the doctor. According to Chotiya, the judge admitted to him that the charges were flawed and that he was going to acquit the professor. "We were shocked when he pronounced the death sentence. The order did not even have his signature," claims Chotiya.

Human-rights groups maintain that Younus was framed because of his liberal views. Younus has practiced medicine in Pakistan and Ireland and has been an active member of the South Asia Peace Movement and the International Humanist and Ethical Union. "The clerics generated an atmosphere where it was not possible for the accused to get a fair trial," says I. A. Rehman, director of the ...