The following is the text of the October,  2000,  action alert from the IHEU alerting the world to the arrest of the arrest of Dr. Shaikh:

Please Give Widest Circulation Possible. Please send to local / national media. Mail to your MP. Contact the Pakistan Embassy to protest. Send to Human Rights Groups.

Can You help Save Dr. Shaikh?

Dr. Younus Shaikh is founder-President of 'Enlightenment', a Pakistan based organization which is a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (www.iheu.org). Dr. Shaikh is a doctor and a teacher at a medical college in Islamabad. He lived and worked in Ireland before returning to Pakistan. If you were at the IHEU's 1999 World Humanist Congress in Mumbai you would remember his amusing speech; or you may have received his numerous e mails about Humanism, about his collaboration with liberal minded Pakistanis to promote Human Rights, or about his other passion - the South Asian Peace Movement.

On 4 October 2000, Dr. Shaikh was arrested by the Islamabad police and booked under the dreaded Section 295-C (Blasphemy) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The police First Information Report was not readily available, but in it he is alleged to have defiled Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam, by pointing out that the Prophet did not become a Muslim till the age of 40 (ie. until he received the first message of God), and that the Prophet's parents were non-Muslims because they died before Islam was proposed by the Prophet. It is for stating these facts that Dr. Shaikh will be killed by the State, if he is found guilty: we should not forget that he did not abuse, he did not threaten, he did not scorn or sneer. 45 year-old Dr. Shaikh lives alone, has no family, and has been sacked from his job following his arrest. To build popular pressure, an Islamabad-based Urdu language newspaper, Khabrain, is carrying a campaign, demanding the death penalty for him. In Pakistan, Blasphemy is a non-bailable offence and attracts the mandatory death-penalty.

Dr. Shaikh is currently held in Adyala Jail, Rawalpindi, in judicial remand.Today, 19 October 2000, Dr. Shaikh was presented before the court, but he had no lawyer. Frequently lawyers are intimidated by the mob, so they do not take up blasphemy cases. Even judges are afraid of trying them. A group of 20 clerics - menacing and aggressive - came to the court, to pursue their case against Dr. Shaikh. They represent the Majlis-I-Khatam-I-Nabuwat (Organization on the Finality of the Prophet) one of the groups responsible for Pakistan's descent into lawlessness. Dr. Shaikh's reading glasses were broken when he came to court, he was unable to read well, and was not allowed to speak to anyone. Fortunately he has not been tortured by the police during 2 weeks of custody. If we do not act  in time, he will be doomed.
Blasphemy in Pakistan Blasphemy in Pakistan is a cognizable offence, punishable mandatorily by death, but Section 295-C does  not even precisely define the crime it is meant to punish. This law has a history of abuse : it is a convenient means to settle personal scores. In this case, it is a disgruntled student Mr. Muhammad Asghar Khan who complained to the fundamentalists. Even those not present at the time of the alleged 'offence' can file a complaint - this is the case as regards Dr. Shaikh. A cleric, Maulana Abdur Rafoof, registered the case in Islamabad's Margalla police station. Despite the severity of punishment, Section 295-C empowers a police officer to arrest, without obtaining a warrant from a judicial magistrate. Dr. Shaikh is in custody since 4 October 2000.

What Can you Do?
- If you live in the UNITED STATES

please write to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and invoke the provisions of the International Freedom of Religion Act, 1998. Better still, call them on phone. The law obliges them to take up the case with the US Ambassador in Islamabad, and to follow it up. If Pakistan's government fails to protect Freedom of Religion, there will be automatic and mandatory sanctions imposed on Pakistan.

Write to
Mr. Martin, Officer Incharge of Pakistan
Office of International Religious Freedom
(DRL/IRF), Room 4829,
U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520.
Telephone 202 647 4359
Fax 202 647 5283
E mail <mailto:martinpj@state.gov>;

- If you live in a European Union Member State,

ask your own country's EU Ambassador to explore possibilities of asylum for Dr. Shaikh. Taslima Nasrin was saved similarly from Bangladeshi fundamentalists. Point out that Pakistan's present Blasphemy law violates international standards of justice; point out that to
term religious criticism as 'blasphemy' is primitive; death penalty as punishment for it is terrible; and that mandatory death penalty is even more savage.
- Write to your Foreign Minister, and demand that the Minister summon the Pakistani High Commissioner to share concerns about the state of Freedom of religion or Belief in Pakistan. Ask your Minister to arrange for an observer at Dr. Shaikh's trial, if he is not released immediately.

- Wherever you live,

-- Fax your MP and ask him to take up the case of Dr. Shaikh. Ask your MP to bring
pressure on the Pakistani government to release Dr. Younis Shaikh, and to ensure his physical safety. Ask your MP to call the Pakistani High Commission / Embassy in your country.
- Write to Amnesty International, asking them to adopt Dr. Shaikh as a prisoner of conscience.
- Write to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Special Rapporteur has the mandate to take the matter up with the government on a diplomatic level.
--Write to
Dr. Abdul Fatteh Amor
The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Telephone Number (41-22) 917-9000
Fax Number (41-22) 917-9016
- Please also write to General Musharraf, with the respect due to a Head of Government.
- Remind General Musharraf that he had declared that Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder (formal title:
Quaid - I- Azam) was his political hero. The Quaid had declared in his speech to the Constituent Asembly of  Pakistan on 11 August 1947 : "You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the state".
- Ask General Musharraf to take steps to make Pakistan true to the Quaid's ideals. He can do so by ensuring that Pakistan will no longer remain a theocracy. Ask for protection to all religious minorities and non-believers living in Pakistan. - Demand that the Sections 295-B and 295-C of the Criminal Code be repealed as soon as possible, and that he should take steps to prevent their malicious and frivolous abuse meanwhile.
- Remind him that Pakistan, one of the poorest nations in the world, will be better able to use Dr. Shaikh's services as a doctor rather than keep him prisoner. Mention specific details: Jail: Adyala Jail, Rawalpindi;
Date of FIR and arrest: 4 October 2000; Police Station: Margalla.
- Invite Pakistan to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and political Rights and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights.
--Please write to General Pervez Musharraf, Chief Executive of Pakistan Government
E Mail: <mailto:CE@pak.gov.pk>

PLEASE SEND A COPY OF ALL YOUR MESSAGES TO IHEU
Please send Letters of Support to Dr. Shaikh also to this e mail address.
SEND DONATIONS FOR DR.SHAIKH'S LEGAL DEFENCE to IHEU, 47 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8SP, UK

Cheques payable to IHEU; Credit Card donations preferable, to avoid international bank charges:
Fax us card details (address, card number, Visa/Mastercard, date of issue, date of expiry; name of card
holder) to +44 207 404 8641 or +44 207 4301271.