GENEVA (RNS/ENI) The World Council of Churches is calling on Pakistan to repeal the mandatory death penalty for blasphemy in the country’s penal code.

The WCC’s governing body, which met in Geneva Aug. 26-Sept. 2, issued a statement Tuesday (Sept. 1) urging Pakistan to “guarantee the rights of all religious minorities in the country.”

The church council said the law has become “a major source of victimization and persecution” of religious minorities who are living “in a state of fear and terror.”

Since the penal code of Pakistan was amended in 1986, “Christians in particular have become targets of harassments and persecutions,” according to the WCC, which also noted that human rights organizations say blasphemy accusations are often used to have people imprisoned over business or land disputes.

From 1988 to 2005, 647 people have been accused of violating this law, but cases have increased in recent years.

Blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad is punishable by death under Pakistani law, although nobody has been executed for it. Courts have acquitted those accused of blasphemy in more than 100 cases after overruling lower tribunals. However some lawyers have said that non-Muslims they defended, including Christians, had been killed while awaiting trial.

Christian leaders in Pakistan have been warning for some time that unless the blasphemy law is abolished, unjustified attacks on Christians will continue as the law is often exploited to settle disputes with Christians and others in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the 175 million population is Muslim.

In August, Pakistani churches held a day of protest after at least seven Christians in Punjab were killed by a Muslim mob.