Ayaz Nizami
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Ayaz Nizami is a blogger and political prisoner in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
known for his arrest on 24 March 2017 for alleged blasphemy, and is currently facing the death penalty on such charges.


Biography


Early life

Nizami is a religious scholar, who primarily specialises in Islamic law such as "tafsir, Hadiths, Fiqh and their principles"; besides this, he is an expert in Arabic language, grammar, terminology, philosophy and rational thinking. He received his religious education after completing the standard education and was admitted to a religious school.


Activism

Before his arrest, he allegedly translated materials critical of Islam in English to
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Nizami founded the website ''realisticapproach.org'', a website in Urdu about
irreligion Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ...
, and allegedly served as the vice president of the Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan.


Arrest

On 24 March 2017, Nizami was arrested for alleged blasphemy by the FIA, and agencies in Pakistan. Two other bloggers were arrested along with Nizami in a crackdown on social media content deemed blasphemous by the
Pakistani government The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories, ...
. After his arrest, the hashtag ''#hangayaznizami'' and #FreeAyazNizami was trending on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
in Pakistan, and authorities shut down his social media account over material deemed controversial.


See also

* Freedom of religion in Pakistan *
Political repression of cyber-dissidents Political repression of cyber-dissidents is the oppression or persecution of people for expressing their political views on the Internet. Along with development of the Internet, state authorities in many parts of the world carry out mass surv ...


References

People convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan Pakistani bloggers Living people Critics of Islam Pakistani atheists Pakistani former Muslims 21st-century atheists Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Internet censorship in Pakistan {{Pakistan-bio-stub