Christian Man sentenced to death in Pakistan for an offensive TikTok video

Muslims in Pakistan. Photo: vaticannews.va

A court in Pakistan has sentenced a Christian man to death for a TikTok post deemed by the judge to contain hateful content, offensive to Muslims.

This occurred following one of the largest mob attacks on Christians in the eastern province of Punjab last year, said the Christian man's lawyer, Ehsan Shan, adding that he would appeal the sentence.

In August 2023, groups of Muslims burned dozens of homes and churches in the city of Jaranwala after some local residents claimed to have seen two Christian men tearing pages from the Quran, throwing them on the ground, and writing offensive remarks on other pages. The two men were later arrested.

No casualties were reported, as terrified Christians fled their homes and moved to safer areas. Although police arrested over 100 suspects after the attacks, it is unclear if any of them have been convicted.

Ehsan Shan, though not party to the desecration, was accused of reposting the defaced pages of the Quran on his TikTok account, his lawyer Khurram Shahzad told The Associated Press on Monday.

He also said he would appeal the death sentence issued on July 6 by the court in Sahiwal, Punjab province.

Amir Farooq, the police officer who arrested Shan, said that the man shared “the hateful content at a sensitive time when authorities were already struggling to contain the violence.”

Naveed Kashif, a local Christian church pastor in Sahiwal, said that while he didn’t excuse what Shan posted, he wondered “why the court ordered such an extreme verdict when those linked to the attacks are yet to be punished.”

As reported earlier, Pakistan called on Muslims to unite against blasphemy in the West.

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