O/T Christian Girl, Possibly Mentally Handicapped, Arrested in Pakistan and Accused of ‘Blasphemy
Christian Girl, Possibly Mentally Handicapped, Arrested in Pakistan and Accused of ‘Blasphemy’
- Posted on August 20, 2012 at 10:35am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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fYoung Pakistani Muslims play with toy guns near the closed house (L) of Rimsha, a Christian girl who has been arrested on blasphemy charges, at a slum area of Islamabad on August 20, 2012. Pakistan's president on August 20 called on officials to explain the arrest on blasphemy charges of a Christian girl with Down's Syndrome who allegedly burnt pages inscribed with verses from the Koran. There is a growing debate about religious intolerance in Pakistan, where strict anti-blasphemy laws make defaming Islam or desecrating the Koran punishable by death. Credit: AFP/Getty Images
ISLAMABAD (TheBlaze/AP) — Pakistani authorities arrested a Christian girl and are investigating whether she violated the country’s strict blasphemy laws after furious neighbors surrounded her house and demanded police take action, a police officer said Monday. She reportedly burned pages from the Koran.
The arrest of the girl and outrage among the local community demonstrates the deep emotion that suspected blasphemy cases can evoke in this conservative Muslim country, where rising extremism often means religious minorities live in fear of persecution.
In Pakistan, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, or holy book, the Koran, can be sentenced to death, although they’re rarely if ever executed.
A Pakistani police officer, Zabi Ullah, said Monday that the girl was arrested Thursday after hundreds of neighbors, angry over reports she had allegedly burned religious papers, gathered outside her house in a poor outlying district of the capital, Islamabad.
He said the police took the girl to the police station, and that she’s been held for 14 days while authorities investigate.
“About 500-600 people had gathered outside her house in Islamabad, and they were very emotional, angry and they might have harmed her if we had not quickly reacted,” he said.
“Some Muslims from the area claim the girl had burned pages of the Koran, and we are investigating, and we have not reached any conclusion,” he said.
Another police official, Qasim Niazi, said when the girl was brought to the police station she had a shopping bag that contained various religious and Arabic-language papers that had been partly burned but no Koran.
Another police officer said the matter would likely be dropped once the investigation is completed and the atmosphere is defused, saying there was “nothing much to the case.” He did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case.
There were varying reports on the girl’s age and whether she was mentally handicapped. Ullah said she was 16 while other officials have said she was either 12 or 11. Niazi said that when the girl was brought to the police station she was scared and unable to speak normally, but he did not know whether she was mentally handicapped.
Christians often live in fear that they will be accused of blasphemy, and many critics say the legislation is sometimes used to settle scores.
People gathered outside the locked house of a Christian girl in suburbs of Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Aug. 20, 2012. Pakistani authorities arrested a Christian girl and are investigating whether she violated the country's strict blasphemy laws after furious neighbors surrounded her house and demanded police take action, a police officer said Monday. The arrest of the girl and outrage among the local community demonstrates the deep emotion that suspected blasphemy cases can evoke in this conservative Muslim country, where rising extremism often means religious minorities live in fear of persecution. Credit: AP
Angry mobs have been known to sometimes take the law into their own hands and beat or kill people who are accused of violating the blasphemy laws. In July, thousands of people dragged a Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Quran from a police station in the central Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, beat him to death and then set his body on fire.
Attempts to revoke or alter the blasphemy laws have been met with violent opposition, however.
Last year, two prominent Pakistani political figures who spoke out against the laws were killed, in attacks that raised concerns about the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan.
Liberal politician Salman Taseer was shot and killed by one of his own guards in January 2011, and in March 2011, militants gunned down Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian minister in Pakistan’s Cabinet.
A spokesperson for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Farhatullah Babar, said the president has taken “serious note” of reports of the girl’s arrest and has asked the Interior Ministry to look into the case.
Kinda how other religions are persecuted here for being everything but Christian.
It isn't often done by the government, for obvious reasons. That whole separation clause thing.
But we do it to each other. The Sikh temple shooting was a horrible example. The uproar over the "911 mosque" that wasn't a mosque, the killings of various people who look like they might be muslim since 9/11, the uproar over the mosque in murfreesboro (vandalism/threats) and here, the burning of the mosque in... shoot, that happened recently, and now I can't remember the state, the shooting at the UU church in Tennessee a few years ago by a man trying to take out the liberals, the bombings of a black church during the civil rights era, along with the killing of four little girls inside- we're not peachy sweet.
That said, I won't defend these asshats in Pakistan- I will liken them to fundamentalists everywhere, however. Have to force their way on everyone else. Give them a little reign, and thar they go.
Quoting Susancnw:KIssy, Other than the Sikh horror a few weeks ago, can you name how other religions are arrested and murdered in this country? I'm trying really hard to think of them....but I can't think of any.
Cite? Articles, etc.,
I thought Islam was the religion of peace?
Um.
It's a little different here, Aldea. We have freedom of religion here. The first amendment? Heard of it?
However, there are many instances of minority religions or non-religions being picked on- sometimes rather harshly (see Knoxville UU church shooting), or any number of likely bookmarked-by- you websites that talk about the dangers of everything but fundamentalist Christianity, and what you all should do about it.
That said, I'm pretty certain that Pakistan is in need of some serious thought before they allow this to happen, because the world is watching.
And back to the topic at hand-
Just a little while back- this is the sort of thing we were treated to via foxnews-
Here's a sampling of the responses posted on Facebook after American Atheists' Blair Scott appeared on Fox News in a segment on the group's court case involving the cross in the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
i say kill them all and let them see for themselves that there is a God -- Paul Altum
Shoot them. Shoot to Kill. -- Bob O'Connell
TO ALL ATHEIST DIE AN GO TO HELL HAHA IF I COULD ID SHOOT ALL OF YOU IN THE HEAD WITH A 12GAUGE -- Joe Martinez
thats easy shoot them -- Joseph Sneckenberg
Shoot em. At least we know where they're going, waste of oxygen -- Casey M Jones
Nail them to that cross then display it -- Mike Holeschek
I thinly (sic!) we should hang the leader of that group on the cross with nails through their hands and feet, place a crown of thorns upon their head, RAM a spear through their side all after being whipped and beaten publicly! Just so they can endure what Christ did so they understand the sacrifice behind what the cross symbolizes -- Chris Dunn.
Incidentally, 19 people liked Chris Dunn's post within a few minutes. Many more Christians are posting equally vicious and hateful comments on the FOX News FB Page. Though they're being taken down almost as fast as they're being put up, they are being saved for posterity by friends of American Atheists who have quick trigger fingers for the "Screenshot" button.
This brings up an interesting point. In a week or two, that Facebook page will be clean swept of any threats or incitements to violence. If anyone goes back to read it, they'll see Christians and atheists arguing -- not always politely, but without threats. The words on the page will be gone. But for me and my fellow atheists, they will live on as long as we live.
Every day, we have to live with the knowledge that there really are people who wish we were dead. They hate us. They think we are evil hellspawns deserving of nothing better than crucifixion, torture, and death.
What's worse, we have to spend hours defending ourselves to the "Good Christians" who would never do that kind of thing, and think we're awful people for trying to paint Christians with such a broad brush. How dare we call attention to the hateful Christians! How dare we suggest that we're a hated minority and that Christians are responsible? The gall of it all!
And the thing is, day in and day out, we see the hate. We get it in our inboxes. We get it on Facebook. We feel the icy stares when we have the temerity to wear an atheist shirt in public. And then we get shouted down when we wonder aloud why all the supposedly "loving Christians" aren't standing beside us against those who they claim are "Not really True Christians."
Well I'm wondering aloud. WHERE ARE YOU? If there are so many good Christians out there who think we atheists are decent people and that we deserve equal treatment under the law, where are you? Why aren't you helping?
If there are so many of you who believe in separation of church and state, where are you? Why aren't you outvoting that tiny little minority of Christians who are misinterpreting God's word?
Why is it that all we ever see is the hate?
To put it another way, there are really only two possibilities. Either most Christians really are hateful and vicious towards atheists, or most Christians are silent when they should be shouting at the top of their lungs, denouncing these evil people and voting with their feet against anything that would further divide this country.
Here's an easy experiment. Off the top of your head, name five famous Christian leaders who are at the forefront of the battle to keep church and state separate and preserve rights for all Americans, Christian or not.
If you can't do it... it might be time to rethink the old adage that "most Christians are tolerant, accepting, and loving."
http://www.examiner.com/article/loving-christians-respond-to-american-atheists-wtc-case
Quoting PeeperSqueak:When was the last time an athiest was arrested for being an athiest ? Or any other faith ?
Quoting _Kissy_:
Sad.
Kinda how other religions are persecuted here for being everything but Christian.
Because.You're.A.Christian.Of.That.Variety.
Try being an Adventist, hired with very specific requirements for Friday nights off - and Saturday, only to be told two months later that you have to work, or else.
They're little things- grant you. But they happen. People lose jobs, they lose apartments, they lose custody of their children because a judge thinks like you do. There is a need for some real conversation about the direction we are to go here- and if we really want to go that direction. By 'we', of course, I mean you, because I already know I don't want to go there and have similar things done eventually if we don't kowtow to moronic rules based on someone elses religious ego.
Quoting cbk_mom3:Oh, how tragic. We truly are so fortunate to have freedom of religion. And, no, there are no religions here "persecuted for being everything but Christian." Most. Ridiculous. Thing. I've. Ever. Heard.
The "mentally handicapped" part of this caught my eye first thing.
Then the girl possibly being Down Syndrome appeared in front of me.
I have personal experience with Down Syndrome-My only child is a precious girl of 19 with Down Syndrome.
If this is indeed true, that this child has been arrested and held on these charges, I have to say that this is the SLIMIEST ACT I have ever seen in my life.
Having a child with a mental disability and knowing the nature of mentally handicapped children, how they react to horrific things done to them...This is one thing I will have deep in my thoughts until I hear the end of this, which hopefully will be soon and peaceful.
I am just sickened and heartbroken to hear this is happening to a Christian, also.
May God have mercy on these demented Pakistani authorities.
I will be praying constantly for God to intervene and STOP this before it goes any further.
Veronica
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