To execute or not?

International | Pakistan faces that question on two fronts: its nuclear program and ongoing persecution of Christians | Mindy Belz

After Pakistan responded in kind to India's nuclear tests with five underground blasts of its own, speculation around the world focused on the specter of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. The tension led to reports of renewed clashes between Indian and Pakistani soldiers at the disputed border in Kashmir. These in turn prompted think-tankers in Washington to ponder not just another Indian-Pakistani conventional war, which would be the fourth since the 1940s, but an even bigger issue: Would such a war go nuclear?

That question has received enormous coverage over the past week. What's been overlooked is another explosion, the internal strife in Pakistan involving its own Christian population. On May 15, nearly 700 Christians were arrested by Punjab police forces. The Christians were taken into custody after they called for a repeal of Pakistan's anti-blasphemy laws. Those laws invoke the death penalty or life imprisonment for words or actions against the Koran or Mohammed. They are used with regularity to victimize non-Muslims.