On God and the Prophet: Free Speech, International Law & the Christians of Pakistan

This book discusses the legislative, sociological and political aspects of the human rights to expression in Pakistan, with specific regard to Pakistan's blasphemy legislation.
This book explores the violation of international human rights norms inherent in Pakistan's blasphemy laws, in particular, norms found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Weaving in the personal narratives of ordinary people, priests, pastors, layers and human rights organisations, this book examines the impact and pernicious use of blasphemy laws on the Christians of Pakistan.

Dr Mark Morley is a trade and investment specialist, senior diplomat, and an authority on the political, religious and social context of the Middle East and South Asia.
Mark holds undergraduate degrees in Arts (Arabic) and Commerce, and a masters degree on the political-economy of water in Punjab, India. His doctoral thesis on Islamism, Christianity and the Law in Pakistan was supervised by the Faculty of Law at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Mark has had significant diplomatic, business and educational experience across Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan and India as well as his native Australia.
Mark is married and has had four children and currently lives in Delhi, India.

The establishment of the modern state of Pakistan, and its history since, has been marked by a series of military dictatorships, precarious democracies and sectarian strife. The political instability of a nation built as a homeland for the minority Muslim community of India has resulted in a sixty-year battle between the forces of encroaching Islamism on one hand, and secular democracy on the other, with much of Pakistan's short history as a modern nation under the rule of successive military dictatorships. Within this evolving context, the religious minorities of Pakistan have been forced to negotiate, and continually re-negotiate, the increasingly ideological bases of citizenship and the Islamisation of legislature, economy and society.
One of the key areas of contestation has been in the area of expression, against a backdrop of increasingly state-enforced piery, and the dominance of explicitly Islamist parties on the political scene of Pakistan. The social space for critique of the military, of political leaders, of religious leaders or of religions themselves, is increasingly narrowing. The continued pernicious use of the Zia-era blasphemy laws, a series of laws which specifically weaponise expression related to Islam and Mohamed (and related Islamic symbols and personages) in Pakistan, is now world famous. As is Pakistan's attempts at internationalising its blasphemy laws through international fora such as the United Nations.
As an expert on Pakistan's business environment, its law and its constitution, and with a background in business and diplomacy, I felt compelled to write a book which would examine the law itself, and then those under the law. This, then, is a socio-legal book, in that although its primary focus is on blasphemy legislation, case law and practice in Pakistan in light of the rights enunciated under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCP), particularly Article 19 and the right to freedom of expression, it also seeks to bring critical. marginalised voices into the conversation.
This book uses the ICCPR as a kind of yardstick - to judge whether civil and political rights norms are being upheld, or violated, in Pakistan.

It is a chilly Saturday night when we rendezvous with a man sitting on a motorbike outside of an amusement park on the road between the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Following him in an ageing taxi, we enter the tightly-packed rabbit warren of Rawalpindi's old city. We make our way past rubbish strewn lanes, green-turreted mosques and blind alleys, far away from the relative safety of the main road. Entering a non-descript house, and then into a small dedicated chapel attached, we sit down and wait for the service to begin. As congregants begin to arrive, we pass the peace to one another, and make small talk. Women and children sit barefoot on the thinly carpeted floor, whilst men sit upright and solemn on rattan chairs behind them. A lone woman wails and the other women take up the geer in Punjabi. The church service has begun.
Hymns are sung from memory, psalms are read from a well-worn Urdu Bible, and a passage is expounded upon from a makeshift pulpit. As the clapping and singing dies down and the church service finishes, people warmly welcome us into their community. It will be a long night. One man starts the conversation:
This place in which we are sitting is a special place. I am a Christian with a Muslim background. Under the law, this is acceptable. Socially this is unacceptable. So, I must sit secretly within this church, and worship with my brothers. In the outside world - I am a Muslim.
He is a doctor from a devout Muslim family, claiming descent from Arab and Persian tribes that invaded Pakistan and spread Islam amongst the indigenous population many centuries ago. He and his family are Christians at home and Muslims in the outside world. He constantly ponders his family's future. His concerns of his children's future employment, marriage partners, and livelihoods are overlaid with the particular difficulties inherent in occupying an ambiguous legal and social position with regards to his religious belief. A position that many would view as blasphemous.