A whole Christian family in Pakistan has been forced to flee their home and move to a private location, after their daughter received numerous death threats by people claiming that she had desecrated the Qu’ran. The Justice and Peace Commission of Pakistan’s Bishops’ Conference reported that the family was told of “terrible consequences” from Muslim extremists in Wah Cantt, near Islamabad.

The alleged incident occurred last July, when 16-year old Safad Tasneem Dean was accused of throwing a copy of the Qu’ran into a rubbish bin.

It was reported, “They tried to kill her but a group of local elders was able to save her by getting the police to arrest her.”

What followed, were a series of heated discussions between the local Christian and Muslim communities, and the outcome was that the girl’s father was to replace his daughter in prison. He was, however, released again soon after this.

Since that though, there has been no further evidence given over regarding the alleged blasphemy, although Safad has reportedly received a continuous flow of death threats, and her family told of “terrible consequences” awaiting them. For this reason the family have been forced to relocate to an undisclosed premise.

The blasphemy laws have, for more than 20 years, been widely misused, and have caused much fear and suffering to Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim-led country. Over the years it has become clear that the blasphemy laws have been abused, since it only currently requires the testimony of one Muslim to bring charges against another for blasphemy.

The purpose of the law was to prevent the defamation of Islam and the prophet Mohammed, however, the laws have been twisted so as to be used in disputes and nowadays have very little to do with religion.

One of the major complaints about the law is that it is often misused to settle personal vendettas and arguments which arise over physical things such as property or money. This has been the case in particular against the minority Christian community, who have been subject to endless persecutions from Islamic extremists.

A large number of non-Muslims, principally Christians, have been indicted and convicted, and even a small number of Muslims have been affected by the ineffective legislation.