Pakistan disabled girl arrested for blasphemy

[Cerise]

Pakistani police have arrested a mentally disabled 11-year-old girl after a mob accused her of desecrating pages of the Koran.
The mob demanded the Christian girl's arrest and threatened to burn down Christian homes outside the capital Islamabad, local media say.
Officials said the girl could not properly answer police questions.
Her parents have been taken into protective custody following threats and other Christian families have fled.
It is thought that the girl has Down's syndrome.
Paul Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for National Harmony, told the BBC that the girl was known to have a mental disorder and that it seemed "unlikely she purposefully desecrated the Koran".
"From the reports I have seen, she was found carrying a waste bag which also had pages of the Koran," he said.
"This infuriated some local people and a large crowd gathered to demand action against her. The police were initially reluctant to arrest her, but they came under a lot of pressure from a very large crowd, who were threatening to burn down Christian homes."
He said more than 600 people have fled from the Christian neighbourhood.
Rights activists have urged Pakistan to reform its controversial blasphemy laws, under which a person can be jailed for life for desecrating the Koran.
Many of those accused of blasphemy have been killed by violent mobs, while politicians who advocate a change in legislation have also been targeted.
Last year, Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, was killed after calling for the repeal of the blasphemy law.
His death came just two months after the murder of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who also spoke out about the issue.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19311098


Words fail me.

 

[reader]

A tragicomic incident.

 

[Cerise]

Pakistan's president has ordered a report into the arrest of a girl, believed to be aged 11 and with mental disabilities, who is accused of desecrating pages of the Koran.
Police say in a Christian area of the capital, Islamabad, after a furious crowd demanded she be punished.
It is thought that the girl has Down's syndrome. Her parents have been taken into protective custody following threats.
Human rights activist, Xavier P William shares his thoughts on the story after meeting the girl and her family.
Xavier P William, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
I met the family and the locals. The situation is very tense.
The police have advised Pakistan's minister for national harmony, Paul Bhatti not to send back many of the Christian residents that fled the neighbourhood after the unrest erupted.
I met the girl at the police station when she was arrested and she is suffering from trauma.
Despite Eid, the situation remains tense. We have demanded a first information report (FIR) be written against the cleric who demanded that the police handover the girl so that she can be burnt alive.
An FIR is a written document prepared by police when they receive information about the commission of an offence. The girl is suffering from Down's syndrome, she was unable to speak and answer the questions asked about the incident.
Her medical report confirms that she in mentally challenged and was not aware of her actions.
Although the police said that she had admitted the incident, she is a child, she didn't do anything intentionally - her actions must be treated as such.
The crowd wanted to burn her alive, this is a condemnable act and a clear violation of human rights.
She is an innocent child - she doesn't even know what she did. She is in a state of shock. Her bail is being filed this week and she will hopefully be released.
Extra-judicial killings have been a common practice in the central Punjab. A few weeks ago a mentally challenged person was accused of blasphemy and was burnt alive outside the police station in Bahawalpur.
Such a mindset must be condemned. Many people have been falsely accused like this, they have mental problems yet they are in jail awaiting trial.
We are very hopeful that this girl will be released this week but if she is, her life will be in danger as the locals are already threatening the family.
It is about time that the government takes concrete steps to stop the misuse of the blasphemy laws.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19320229

How long, I wonder, before he is assinated for speaking.
Ahh...don't you just love these religions of peace and love for all?

 

[David]

Ahh...don't you just love these religions of peace and love for all?

Do you really think things are better in backward Christian nations? It's not the religion, it's the people.

 

[Cerise]

Do you really think things are better in backward Christian nations? It's not the religion, it's the people.

Well religion is a large part isnt it? Having a few pages of a BOOK can lead to demands to burn her alive? And where is the outcry from the other members of that religion calling for her to be viewed with compassion....conspicuous in absense perhaps?

 

[David]

Well religion is a large part isnt it? Having a few pages of a BOOK can lead to demands to burn her alive? And where is the outcry from the other members of that religion calling for her to be viewed with compassion....conspicuous in absense perhaps?

The media doesn't cover them. 9/11 was an excellent example, candlelight vigiles in Iran but celebrating Hamas idiots in Gaza was the only thing on the news. Between the lack of media coverage and you overused response why should Muslims even bother denouncing it?

 

[ThirdTerm]

Pakistan is getting a bad press over the incident and the Pakistani government stepped in to release the girl with Down's syndrome without facing any charges and senior government officials predicted that the case would be eventually dropped. But the police should do more to contain communal violence between different communities as hundreds of Christians have already fled the Christian community and the government should firmly establish the rule of law by amending the controversial blasphemy laws which are encouraging vigilante justice.

 

[Cerise]

The media doesn't cover them. 9/11 was an excellent example, candlelight vigiles in Iran but celebrating Hamas idiots in Gaza was the only thing on the news. Between the lack of media coverage and you overused response why should Muslims even bother denouncing it?

Why would they not? Surely the more 'bad press' they get then the greater the need to speak out against it if it's so against the true nature of their religion.

 

[Cerise]

Pakistan is getting a bad press over the incident and the Pakistani government stepped in to release the girl with Down's syndrome without facing any charges and senior government officials predicted that the case would be eventually dropped. But the police should do more to contain communal violence between different communities as hundreds of Christians have already fled the Christian community and the government should firmly establish the rule of law by amending the controversial blasphemy laws which are encouraging vigilante justice.

So why don't they do that?

 

[David]

Why would they not? Surely the more 'bad press' they get then the greater the need to speak out against it if it's so against the true nature of their religion.

Yes but if everyone ignores them, what's the point?

 

[Cerise]

Yes but if everyone ignores them, what's the point?

The point is that if they are truly against what the fanatics do /say then they would continue to speak out until they were heard.

 

[David]

The point is that if they are truly against what the fanatics do /say then they would continue to speak out until they were heard.

They do, people ignore them and you end up with the above question as to why they don't speak out. At some point a person will say "screw this," in that sort of situation, it's just the way people are.

 

[Cerise]

In a city near to where I live, there was an objection placed to servicemen wearing uniforms in the street. It was, apparantly, 'offensive'
None of the religious leaders spoke out against it so by their silence they obviously agreed.
Given that these servicemen, RAF actually, are there to protect the country that these people choose to live in, do you not think their attitude is wrong?

 

[ThirdTerm]

It turned out that the pages of the Koran were planted by a local imam and he was arrested in connection with the case and he obviously tried to incite violence against the Christian community by using the disabled girl.

http://news.sky.com/story/979839/muslim-cleric-held-over-pakistan-blasphemy-case

 

[Cerise]

It turned out that the pages of the Koran were planted by a local imam and he was arrested in connection with the case and he obviously tried to incite violence against the Christian community by using the disabled girl.

http://news.sky.com/story/979839/muslim-cleric-held-over-pakistan-blasphemy-case

So what do you think will happen /has happened to him then?

 

[ThirdTerm]

The Pakistani government is closely involved in this case and the Christian girl was taken to a secret location in a dramatic operation to ensure her safety and protect her from armed vigilantes after her release. The imam himself should face blasphemy charges and he should be severely punished for inciting hatred and he essentially committed a hate crime and Pakistan should make an example of him to deter copycat crimes.

 

[Cerise]

The Pakistani government is closely involved in this case and the Christian girl was taken to a secret location in a dramatic operation to ensure her safety and protect her from armed vigilantes after her release. The imam himself should face blasphemy charges and he should be severely punished for inciting hatred and he essentially committed a hate crime and Pakistan should make an example of him to deter copycat crimes.

'Should' being the operative word here seeing as he actually did what he accused the girl of ie defacing the Koran by taking pages from it. It will be interesting to see if we are ever told his fate and whether it is as harsh as would be given to others doing the same thing.

 

[Iolo]

By turning Pakistan into 'the Enemy' and killing its people with drones and such the US has opened the way to power for every hick and scumbag in the backwoods. 'The West' needs to remember what we stand for. The UK didn't do all that badly in putting forward decent ways in the Sub-Continent, and it worked despite all our faults. It was an American puppet general who made all this filth possible, and let's not forget it.

 

[clax]

I am sorry I have to side with David on this one, it is definitely the people, not the religion. I am Christian and places in biblical texts suggest Christians alienate non believers. The people evolved however I don't know too many Christians that would threaten to burn down houses of non believers. But most Christians I know are Americans. Aside from a few nuts they are generally peaceful.

Religions purpose is to bring people together. People pervert the message to support their own prejudice. There is a clause in the quran that says muslims must wage jihad against non muslims, a similar clause is in the Bible. Jihad can be holy war or spiritual warfare, depending on the person who interprets it, I understand that there are different interpretations of that clause. It really depends on if the person. The more ignorant a person is the easier they are persuaded to commit crimes against others using really any doctrine to motivate them. When people are not allowed to be individuals they are very rashly manipulated. Look at the Catholic church prior to the protestant reformation. It was oppressive and it ruled most of the western world. Mainly because common people were not allowed to read the Bible. It was written in dead languages that only siminary students could learn. The detractors were burned at the stake. The Christian church doesn't have that stranglehold on the worlds superpowers any more. Martin Luther translated the Bible from dead languish to living language so common folk could read it. In that act he not only went a against basically the world but crippled the strangle hold religion had on it's people. Some catholics are still bitter over that but the Catholic church had to evolve or die. Now it has to chimere with not just Lutheran but Anglican, baptists, prespitarians, seventh day adventist and so on. These different Christian sects disagree on a lot of things, only general Christian values make it past these groups so I do not buy for one minuit that Christians oppress people in the USA, some attempt to but they are written off as nuts, as it should be.

All that said I am gay and I wish to marry my boyfriend many Christians seem to take exception to that but marriage isn't religious, it is civil, religion may have involved itself as it commonly does in matters that do not pretain to it. Marriage is civil and it always had been. So I am not one of those ultra church Christians. So it can't be the religion it must bee the people. Bravo David.