Dr. Shaikh stands up for freedom.

At a meeting in Geneva of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April, Dr. Younis Shaikh described the blasphemy laws in his home country of Pakistan as a source of national shame. As reported in the previous issue, Dr. Shaikh was imprisoned for three years on charges of blasphemy, which in Pakistan carry the death penalty. He was quietly released last November and promptly left the country. Dr. Shaikh told the commission that the real victims of militant Islamism are Muslims themselves, whose lives and faith are impoverished under the pressure of the archaic Sharia law.

Bill Cooke is international director of the Center for Inquiry-International.