Younus Shaikh
Mohammed Younus Shaikh (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد یونس شیخ, born 30 May 1952) is a Pakistani medical doctor, human rights activist and freethinker.
When he was a teacher at a medical college in Islamabad, Shaikh was an active member of the South Asia Peace Movement and of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). He took part in the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, and was a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. A free-thinker, he founded Enlightenment, an organization associated with the IHEU.
In October 2000, Pakistani authorities charged Shaikh with blasphemy. A judge ordered that he pay a fine of 100,000 rupees, and sentenced him to death by hanging. On 20 November 2003, a court acquitted Shaikh, who fled Pakistan for Europe soon thereafter.
Read more about Younus Shaikh: Background, Alleged Blasphemy, Trial