Under the shadow of Islam: the plight of the Christian minority in Pakistan

The murders of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti in 2011 shocked Pakistan and the international community, but equally shocking was the widespread support in Pakistan for their killings and their killers. Taseer and Bhatti's ‘crime' in the eyes of many was to have supported the amendment or repeal of Islamic ‘blasphemy laws’ and to have come to the defence of a Pakistani Christian woman, Aasiya Noreen (Bibi), who was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. This article seeks to explain the context to the murders of Taseer and Bhatti and to understand why these violent acts received such widespread national support. These murders highlight the worsening situation for Christians (and other religious minorities) in Pakistan and suggest that Pakistan itself may be moving in an increasingly conservative Islamist direction.