VATICAN CITY, Jan 10, (Agencies): Pope Benedict XVI urged Pakistan to reverse its blasphemy laws, saying Monday they were a pretext for violence against non-Muslims, and demanded that all governments do more so Christians can practice their faith without fear.
Benedict issued one of his most pointed appeals yet for religious freedom in a speech to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican, saying it was a fundamental human right that must be protected in law and in practice.
Benedict has frequently denounced the wave of attacks against Christians in the Middle East and warned of the threat that religious intolerance poses to world security. On Monday, he catalogued a wave of injustices against the faithful from China to Nigeria in pressing governments to take action.
He cited, in particular, recent attacks on Christians attending Mass in Egypt and Iraq, where violence has forced droves of the faithful to flee elsewhere for safety. He said Christians are original members of these societies and deserve to live there in security with full civil rights.

“This succession of attacks is yet another sign of the urgent need for the governments of the region to adopt, in spite of difficulties and dangers, effective measures for the protection of religious minorities,” he said.
He urged governments on the Arabian peninsula to let Christians have churches — in Saudi Arabia worship is only allowed in private. And he cited China while saying the state should never have a “monopoly” over the faith — the Beijing government controls Catholic Churches in China, a source of great tension with the Vatican.
He told Pakistan to reverse its blasphemy laws, which carry a death sentence for insulting Islam, and noted the recent slaying of the Punjab governor who opposed them. The governor, Salman Taseer, had spoken out forcefully for clemency for a Christian woman sentenced to die for allegedly insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Meanwhile, the confessed killer of a liberal Pakistani politician provided a judge Monday with the names of two men whose sermons allegedly sparked him to act, as YouTube footage emerged of the assassin chanting Islamic verses in police custody.
In the meantime, a lawyer for the confessed killer of a prominent Pakistani politician says police brought his client before a judge a day ahead of schedule apparently to avoid attracting crowds of supporters.
The bodyguard behind Pakistan’s most high-profile political assassination in three years has confessed that he acted alone in the shooting of governor Salman Taseer, police said.
Police commando Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, who was led away smiling on Tuesday after gunning down his boss outside an Islamabad coffee shop, appeared in court for a remand hearing following his official confession.
He has said he killed in the name of religion because the governor of Punjab province wanted to reform controversial blasphemy laws.