Faith and Reason: Blasphemy Laws Have No Basis in the Koran

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On 20 February, Joe Shea, an American journalist, issued a press release threatening to burn the Koran if Pakistan went ahead and executed a teenage Christian boy accused of blasphemy. On the Internet, the world- wide computer network, he asked other Americans to follow his example. He wanted, he said, to "give Islam the choice of a dead boy or . . . hundreds of thousands of Americans burning copies of the Koran".

This week, however, Shea apologised for "giving offence to Islam". Shea's apology is only partly due to the fact that the boy was acquitted and is now safely in Germany. What surprised Shea was the vast quantity of post he received through the Internet and …