What is the penalty for it in Islam. I know there is death penalty for it in Pakistan but can someone give some historical reference ?
Re: Blasphemy
Muslims regard heresy and blasphemy (ilhad in Arabic) as very serious transgressions, tantamount to religious treason. Rejecting or defaming Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, other prophets, and the Quran fall into this category.
Some Muslim nations -- Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, for example -- have criminal laws dictating the death penalty for apostates, heretics and blasphemers, despite the Quran’s statements “let there be no compulsion in religion” (Surah 2:256) and “let him who will, believe, and let him who will, reject [God’s truth]” (Surah 18:29).
Citing shari’a, or Islamic law, Muslim religious courts have sentenced those considered guilty of blasphemy or heresy to death. Two well-publicized recent cases in which death penalties were levied, but not carried out, involved the novelists Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasareen.
In Rushdie’s case, the former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemned the author to death in absentia on Feb. 14, 1989, for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran in his novel, “The Satanic Verses.” Though the ruling was never formally rescinded, Rushdie has continued to publish books and novels, and make frequent public appearances.
Re: Blasphemy
Once again zealots in-charge have proved that they know better than Allah.
Re: Blasphemy
Quran 4:140
*He hath already revealed unto you in the Scripture that, when ye hear the revelations of Allah rejected and derided, (ye) sit not with them (who disbelieve and mock) until they engage in some other conversation. Lo! in that case (if ye stayed) ye would be like unto them. Lo! Allah will gather hypocrites and disbelievers, all together, into hell; *