"Only out of respect because he was our teacher, did we not beat him to death on the spot."

New York Times News service
May 13, 2001 Islamabad, Pakistan (snipped) Blasphemy is a capital crime in this volatile Islamic nation, so Dr. Younus shaik, while teaching at a medical college, might have wisely avoided any disucssion of the personal hygiene of the holy Phrophet Muhammed.

But the topic came up during a morning physiology class. And the doctor talked briefly about the 7th Century Arabia and its practices regarding circumcision and the4 removal of underarm hair. Some students found his remarks deeply offensive.

"Only out of respect because he is our teacher, did we not beat him to death on the spot, " said Syed Bilal, 17.

Instead they informed a group of powerful mullahs, who filed a criminal complaint.

Precisely what Shaik said in class last October is now a matter of mortal dispute, but he has been jailed ever since, awaiting trial and pondering the noose. Defending himself presents a conumdrum. What can he safely say?

Shaik is charged under Provision 295-C of the law: the use of derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet Muhammed. Whether such an offense is intentional, the mandatory punishment is death.

Shaik said, "My students asked me about the shaving of pubic and armpit hair and I, in describing the glory of Allah's revelations said that before the arrival of Islam, the Arabs did not have these practices." and they did not.

The offended students tell a different version. Eleven students signed a letter listing Sheiks possible crimes. they claimed he said that the prophet was not a Muslim until age 40; that before then, he did not remove his underarm hair or undergo circumcision; that he first wed, at 25, without an Islamic marriage contract; that his parents were not Muslims.

The letter was delivered to the Movement for the Finality of the Prophet, a group well-known for pursuing blasphemers. "For Dr. Shaik's own protection we sought his arrest," "otherwise he might have been killed in the streets."

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