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Ayaz Nizami is a blogger and political prisoner in Pakistan known for his arrest on 24 March 2017 for alleged blasphemy, [1] with a possible death penalty for such charges. [2] [3]
He was given the death sentence in January 2021. [4]
Ayaz Nizami is a pseudonym for Abdul Waheed. [4] Waheed is a religious scholar, [5] who primarily specialises in Islamic law such as "tafsir, Hadiths, Fiqh and their principles"; [5] besides this, he is an expert in Arabic language, grammar, terminology, philosophy and rational thinking. [5] He received his religious education after completing the standard education and was admitted to a religious school. [5] [6]
Before his arrest, he allegedly translated materials critical of Islam in English to Urdu for publishing, and was first exposed by Alyan Khan, a Pakistani political author. [3] Nizami founded the website realisticapproach.org, a website in Urdu about irreligion, [7] and allegedly served as the vice president of the Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan. [8]
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. [9] After his arrest, the hashtag #hangayaznizami and #FreeAyazNizami was trending on Twitter in Pakistan, [10] and authorities shut down his social media account over material deemed controversial. [8] [11]
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