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.
He was active in intellectual, literary and social circles and he regularly attended the meetings of the Halqa Arbab i Zoaq in Lahore and later in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Shaikh attracted the attention of Islamic fundamentalists because he had protested against the abuse of loudspeakers from mosques which caused pain and discomfort to babies, children, and his clinic patients.
[citation needed] He often spoke out against extremist Islamic mullahs and their atrocities; particularly against one of his Ahmadi medical friends whose clinics and houses in Burewala were burnt down.
[citation needed] As a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, he wrote letters to President Musharraf and different newspapers about Islamic attacks on Ahmadis.
[citation needed] He also campaigned for the human rights of women, of Hindus, Christians, and liberal, secular Muslims.
In response rumors were spread against him to put doubt about his mental balance: as for example, that he might be the son of the female Prime Minister of Pakistan's enemy country, India; that he might be an apostate and Ahmadi and so worthy of punishment and death.
[11] That organisation dispatched a mob to the medical school and to the police station, and threatened to burn them down if action was not urgently taken against Shaikh.
[3] Section 295C of Pakistan's Penal Code says "whoever by the words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad shall be punished with the death sentence or imprisonment for life and shall be liable to fine."
Commenting on the judgement, Shaikh explained: "The judge accepted my legal arguments and found the charges against me to be baseless.