If you think the violence and political chaos in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya is ugly, consider what’s brewing in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Yesterday, Islamic terrorists gunned down Pakistan’s sole Christian (Catholic) politician in broad daylight outside his mother’s home in Islamabad. Shahbaz Bhatti was Pakistan’s federal minister for minority affairs, a genuine moderate, pro-Western politician, and a leading voice in the now-shrinking movement to reform Pakistan’s government. Mr. Bhatti was murdered because of his brave and outspoken criticism of Pakistan’s hardcore anti-blasphemy laws, which are routinely used to persecute Pakistan’s non-Islamic minority communities.

Lest there be any confusion about their motives, Bhatti’s assailants left pamphlets with the following message beside the dead body (emphasis mine throughout):

This is a warning from the warriors of Islam to all the world’s infidels, crusaders, Jews … and especially the head of Pakistan’s infidel system, [President Asif Ali] Zardari, his ministers, and all the institutions of this evil system. In your fight against Allah, you have become so bold that you act in favor of and support those who insult the prophet. And you put a cursed Christian infidel Shahbaz Bhatti in charge of [the blasphemy laws review] committee. This is the fate of that cursed man. And now, with the grace of Allah, the warriors of Islam will pick you out one by one and send you to hell, God willing.

It was a public warning from radical Islam: Oppose us and you will die.

Bhatti isn’t the only top government official to have been sprayed with bullets. On January 4, Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab province, was assassinated by Islamists because he disagreed with Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law and was defending Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for supposedly blaspheming the prophet Mohammad. Taseer was shot 26 times by his bodyguard as he departed a market.

The Islamists’ ferocious, take-no-prisoners tactics appear to be working. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made it clear in a speech in Pakistan’s National Assembly that his government had no intention of amending Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws. Throughout Pakistan, lamented Syed Shamsuddin, coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, “[a]ll those working for a tolerant society are in retreat because there’s no support from the government.”

The extent of the government of Pakistan’s capitulation to radical Islam is also evident in the increasingly heated dispute between America and Pakistan over Raymond Davis, a former U.S. Special Forces officer and current U.S. government contractor. Davis was arrested, charged and imprisoned by Pakistani authorities in January for allegedly shooting two young Pakistani men—both armed and trailing him—at a busy intersection in the city of Lahore.

Despite Davis having diplomatic immunity—and in spite of multiple calls from U.S. officials, including President Barack Obama and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who traveled with a delegation to Pakistan to secure Davis’s release—Pakistani authorities continue to refuse to let him go.

This is not because Pakistan’s moderate leaders are morally opposed to releasing Davis. It’s because these men value their own lives. As Joel Brinkley wrote earlier this month, no one inside Pakistan “wants to face the possible fate of Salman Taseer, the Punjab prosecutor, assassinated by his own bodyguard last month for standing up against Islamic militancy.”

In reality, more is at stake than the lives of a few politicians.

If Davis is released, Pakistan could become the next Egypt or Libya overnight. Liaquat Baluch, the deputy chief of the Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami, has promised “forceful protests” throughout Pakistan if Davis is released with a court order. On February 13, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (ttp), a branch of the Taliban, issued a statement demanding that Davis be executed or turned over to the ttp for punishment. The entire country, and especially Pakistan’s Islamic populace, is gripped by the Raymond Davis case. As Stratfor’s Scott Stewart recently wrote, this “complicates the position of the Pakistani government [and] raises the distinct possibility that there will be civil unrest ifDavis is released“ (February 16).

Radical Islam has Mr. Gilani’s government over a barrel. If Davis is set free, Pakistan could erupt!

Keep a close eye on Pakistan, especially amid the unrest sweeping the Muslim world. Geographically, Pakistan is on the periphery and may seem somewhat distanced from the Muslim uprisings occurring in North Africa and the Middle East. But politically and ideologically, Pakistan’s unstable, strife-ridden, Western-friendly, moderate government—which, given a choice, would curb Islam’s influence inside Pakistan—is outweighed and outnumbered by the radical Islamists. Beyond the susceptibility of its government, Pakistan is home to organized, well-established Islamic terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In many ways, Pakistan is more vulnerable to radical Islam than Tunisia, Egypt or Libya!

Prime Minister Gilani and the moderates in Pakistan are walking a tightrope. Radical Islamists have infiltrated nearly all the departments within the nation’s government. If Gilani continues to acquiesce to their demands, the Islamists will likely remain content for the time being—essentially creating a situation in which radical Islam is calling the shots, or at least all the important ones.

But if Pakistan’s moderate leaders rock the boat, if they release Davis, or get too cozy with the United States or too confrontational with the Islamists—especially amid the current climate of Muslim unrest—radical Islam could set the nation on fire with mass unrest, violence and political upheaval. Coming on the heels of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, an Islamic uprising in Pakistan would be a nightmare scenario for the Western world.

Unlike the other countries, Pakistan has a significant cache of nuclear weapons!

And its stockpile is growing. U.S. intelligence agencies recently reported that Pakistan has somewhere between 95 and 110 deployed nuclear weapons, and enough fuel to build a further 40 to 100. Two years ago Islamabad had roughly 75 nukes. In the past 24 months, Pakistan has managed to add another 20 to 30 nuclear weapons to its already significant stash. Meanwhile, radical Islam has tightened its grip on the country.

This is what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his band of radical Islamic terrorists dream about at night: acquiring a pile of nuclear weapons and setting off a nuclear Armageddon!

Just as we did with Egypt and Libya, the Trumpet has consistently warned of Pakistan and its nukes falling into the hands of Iran and radical Islam. In January 2008, for example, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote that “Pakistan also has the nuclear bomb and could be taken over by radical Islam, with plenty of help from Iran.” A nuclear-armed Pakistan could soon become a “proxy of the Iranian mullahs,” he warned, and “this would be the worst possible disaster!”

In 2009, Mr. Flurry warned yet again that the “Taliban terrorists could soon conquer a nuclear Pakistan.”

Watch Pakistan. Islamists already possess decisive influence within and over Pakistan’s shaky and impotent government. With much of the Muslim world on fire with violent protests and political upheaval, now is an opportune time for them to stage a coup.

It’s a terrifying but entirely plausible scenario: Iran and radical Islam could soon dominate Pakistan—and exercise dominion over a stash of nuclear weapons!