One of the Bravest Individuals I Know: Meet the Muslim Lawyer Defending Christians and Minorities on Death Row for “Blasphemy” in Pakistan
holliesmckay.substack.com
Junaid Hafeez, a charismatic and philosophical young poet who received his Master’s as a Fulbright scholar in the United States, has languished for years behind bars in the bowels of a Pakistani prison faced with execution. His crime? Well, there is no hard evidence of a crime. Yet Junaid, who was teaching in the English department at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, a city in Punjab Province near his childhood home, is accused of blasphemy, perhaps the most egregious crime in the eyes of Pakistani law. One day in 2013, a student member of Islami Jamiat Talaba, a branch of the extremist Jamaat-i-Islami party, suddenly accused – without proof – the popular and esteemed teacher of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook, igniting violent protests calling for Junaid’s killing across campus.
One of the Bravest Individuals I Know: Meet the Muslim Lawyer Defending Christians and Minorities on Death Row for “Blasphemy” in Pakistan
One of the Bravest Individuals I Know: Meet…
One of the Bravest Individuals I Know: Meet the Muslim Lawyer Defending Christians and Minorities on Death Row for “Blasphemy” in Pakistan
Junaid Hafeez, a charismatic and philosophical young poet who received his Master’s as a Fulbright scholar in the United States, has languished for years behind bars in the bowels of a Pakistani prison faced with execution. His crime? Well, there is no hard evidence of a crime. Yet Junaid, who was teaching in the English department at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, a city in Punjab Province near his childhood home, is accused of blasphemy, perhaps the most egregious crime in the eyes of Pakistani law. One day in 2013, a student member of Islami Jamiat Talaba, a branch of the extremist Jamaat-i-Islami party, suddenly accused – without proof – the popular and esteemed teacher of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook, igniting violent protests calling for Junaid’s killing across campus.