LAHORE, Pakistan: Late one night, the imam Shabir Ahmad looked up from prayers at his mosque to see a 15-year-old boy approaching with a plate in his outstretched left hand. On it was the boy's freshly severed right hand. Ahmad did not hesitate. He fled the mosque and left the village, in eastern Punjab province. Earlier that night, January 10, he had denounced the boy as a blasphemer, an accusation that in Pakistan can get a person killed - even when the accusation is false, as it was in this case. The boy, Anwar Ali, the devout son of a poor labourer, had been attending an evening prayer gathering at the mosque...
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