Waiting to hit the bottom on Pakistan's blasphemy law...

by Salman Hameed

Just when we think that the blasphemy accusations in Pakistan cannot get any crazier, we turn out to be wrong. The latest case is that of an 11-year old Christian girl - possibly with a Down Syndrome -  who is accused of blasphemy for burning pages of a booklet (not even the Qur'an itself) that teaches how to read the Qur'an. From Express Tribune:

An 11-eleven-year old Christian girl was accused of blasphemy and arrested for allegedly burning pages of a Noorani Qaida, a booklet used to learn the basics of the Holy Quran. 

Officials of the Ramna Police Station told The Express Tribune that the girl, named Rifta Masih, had burned a Noorani Qaida on August 16 and threw it in garbage after putting it in a plastic bag. Masih belonged to the rural area of Mehrabadi, which is next to the G-11 sector in Islamabad. 

Soon after the incident, residents of the area had gathered to lodge their protest. The protesters also allegedly beat up the girl and her mother, while the rest of the girl’s family managed to escape. 

The Kashmir Highway was also blocked by the protesters, but they dispersed after the police lodged an FIR of the case and took Rifta into custody.

This case is not in some remote area of Pakistan. Instead, this is close to Islamabad. All we can do is to constantly raise our voices against such acts and the laws that allow these things to happen.

Here is an excellent article by Mahdi Hasan in reaction to this episode:

I, for one, am fed up with politicians, mullahs and mobs using my religion to further their own vicious and sectarian agendas. So here's my own very simple message to the bigots, fanatics and reactionaries of the Islamic world: whatever intellectual or theological disagreements we may have with them, the fact is that Christians (and, for that matter, Jews) are our brethren; the Quran respectfully refers to them as the "People of the Book". Nor should we extend our tolerance, compassion and solidarity only to members of Abrahamic faiths while demonising and discriminating against everyone else. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists - all of them are also our brethren. Don't believe me? Listen to the verdict of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, the great Muslim caliph and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad: "Remember that people are of two kinds; they are either your brothers in religion or your brothers in mankind." 

The imprisonment of this Christian child isn't only about Pakistan or Pakistanis. Those of us who claim to be members of a global Muslim ummah cannot be silent when such flagrant human-rights abuses are committed in the name of Islam and in the world's second-biggest Muslim-majority nation. Denial is not an option, nor is turning a blind eye. We have to speak out against hate, intolerance and the bullying of non-Muslim minorities - otherwise we risk becoming complicit in such crimes. "Not in my name" has to be more than just an anti-war slogan.

Read the full article here.

And this is not just about the treatment of Christians. The Ahmadis are treated even worse. That despicable bigot, Aamir Liaqat, is back on TV after his incendiary remarks about Ahmadis - and he is being assisted in his bigotry by the "father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb", Dr. A.Q. Khan. As long as people feel safe to make hate-statements against minorities in such an open manner, we will keep on seeing violence against the minorities. They are an easily identifiable target. The national identity card in Pakistan identifies the religion.

Here is an NPR report on the return Aamir Liaqat on TV: