Shemeem Burney Abbas

Yesterday's deadly attack on a school in Pakistan by the Taliban has left at least 145 dead. Shemeem Burney Abbas and Jehangir Khattak discuss the ongoing tragedy of the attack.

Having been their victim, Shemeem Burney Abbas, associate professor of political science and gender studies at the State University of New York at Purchase College, and the author of Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws: From Islamic Empires to the Taliban (University of Texas Press, 2013) argues that blasphemy laws in Pakistan and other Islamic countries are politically motivated, not religious.