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According to the GUARDIAN (UK), seven journalists from an English-language newspaper in Pakistan may be executed for printing a “highly sacrilegious” letter to the editor. The letter in question accused the prophet Mohammed of anti-semitism and male-chauvinism, and of making revelations from God “in order to satisfy his political or personal agenda or his libido.”

Islamic protesters set fire to the Frontier Post’s printing presses and ransacked the paper’s offices after the letter’s publication. Police then stormed the building and arrested staff members, holding them under a Pakistani law that carries the death penalty for blasphemy.

The Post published a letter of apology in rival newspapers, but maintained that it was the victim of a right-wing conspiracy bent on closing down the publication. The owner of the paper was arrested for drug trafficking in 1999, and has been in jail ever since.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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