Pakistan to execute Christian mother who verbally insulted Muhammed

Good general overview but there is so much more. Look at India and Pakistan. India is viewed as a vibrant democracy despite rampant corruption and inaction by politicians. They simply have fair and free elections. Pakistan has elections that are largely fair. Although the recent elections in Azad Kashmir were bull**** and the Pakistan People's Party (the ruling party) deserve a large part of that. The problem in Pakistan is that the bureaucratic institutions of any democratic government never developed.

In India you had one party rule for decades WITH fair and free elections. The Indian National Congress dominated India so cleanly that they could have legitimate elections and still succeed for decades. It wasn't until Indira Gandhi declared emergency rule until you had the threat of dictatorship and by then there were so many institutional factors to where that couldn't last. In Pakistan, Mohammed Ali-Jinnah died 6 months after Pakistan was founded. The Muslim League wasn't even popular until 3 or 4 years before partition and much of that support came from Muslims in modern India. This is in contrast to the Indian National Congress that had country wide support decades before partition happened. The Muslim League never had the clean support that the INC had and as a result it was easy for the military to topple society.

Also look at Karachi today. It is easy to say Islam is the problem but Karachi's violence is ethnic not religious. Karachi is in the province of Sindh despite only have a marginal Sindhi population. (less than 10% is Sindhi) The majority today is made up of the Muhajirs which are Muslims that immigrated primary from Uttar Pradesh in India. They are actually very progressive in terms of social issues. ATW would probably be all for them running Pakistan. The issue is that the MQM (the Muhajir party) is an ethnically drawn party and the other large group in Karachi is the Pashtuns. So you have turf wars over control of Karachi between two ethnic groups. This is where 99% of terrorism in Karachi comes from. Both are the same religion but they spill blood over the fact that both sides have ethnically divided political parties.

You can look at other states and find similar problems. Pakistan's problems are complex and deep. I could probably go on forever and analyze each state but nonetheless that's probably a waste of my time since most people wont care and will cry the easy answer and scream Islam.

 

Those links are full of FAIL. Neither mentioned a single individual that was fined, imprisoned, or executed. So you failed to rebut my argument and instead pointed out that the FBI investigated communists and anarchists. Boo hoo. Let me know when you can rebut my initial point, which was that there is no comparison between the treatment those whose speech is not PC in Pakistan and those whose speech is non-PC in America, as alleged by bloop. Or just admit that his comparison was specious. Or don't, I don't really care one way or the other. Your desperate attempts to equate the behavior of the government of the United States and Pakistan is amusing.

 

Yeah, tell that to Bradley Manning and Thomas Drake, as well as the four other whistle-blowers convicted to jail time under the Espionage Act.

classified documents blah blah blah---no charges laid, presumed innocent before guilty, Eighth Amendment violations, guess that doesn't matter. Thomas Drake was charged with 35 years worth of indictments...for what? Mentioning that the NSA was violating the Constitution, and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars doing so?

He did not violate the confidentiality of any document, the DOJ admitted as such by dropping all the charges to a misdemeanor. Too bad he was already imprisoned for a year, and shattered fiscally.

I'm not equating Pakistan to the United States, obviously Pakistan has a whole other degree of horror going on. But don't get all high horse and say nobody in the United States gets punished for saying non-PC things, that is blatantly false.

 

Religion is delusion, delusion is dangerous. I think you need to learn some history...

"Religion is the most pacifying and enlightening moral force in human history."

Pacifying=Yes
Enlightening=No
Moral=??? (If you say so)

 

Shahbaz Taseer has been abducted. He was the son of Salman Taseer, the former governor of Pakistan's Punjab, assassinated back in January for opposing the blasphemy laws.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14677190

Hope the kid is returned safe and alive, but one can't be optimistic. Some people in safer countries criticize why so few speak out against those responsible for these kinds of crimes. Targeted hits, kidnappings, and disappearances are to blame; add in the systemic corruption and entrenchment of backward religious thinking, and Pakistan makes for a dangerous place to stick out your neck and speak your (progressive) mind.

 

Sad stuff. I'm pretty terrified that the country will fall apart soon. The military itself is splintering and fragmenting and the civilian government is more or less useless at this point.

 

More Islamist bullying tactics....yeah !

DD

 

Thanks for the (sad) update. I hope at least his courageous daughter stays safe.

 

I got news of this today from a buddy who was high school friends with Shahbaz. Hope he's safe.

 

Meanwhile, in Pakistan:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/259907/girl-accused-of-blasphemy-for-a-spelling-error/

Girl accused of blasphemy for a spelling error

ABBOTTABAD:
It may have been a mere misplaced dot that led to accusations of blasphemy against a Christian eighth-grader, whose miniscule error led to her expulsion from school and uproar amongst local religious leaders.
Faryal Bhatti, a student at the Sir Syed Girls High School in Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) colony Havelian, erroneously misspelt a word in an Urdu exam while answering a question on a poem written in praise of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The word in question was ‘laanat’ instead of ‘naat’ – an easy error for a child to make, as the written versions of the words are similar.
According to the school administration and religious leaders who took great exception to the hapless student’s mistake, the error is ‘serious’ enough to fall within the realm of blasphemy, Saturday.
Spelling out her punishment
On Thursday, Faryal’s Urdu teacher was collecting the answer sheets from her students when she noticed the apparently offensive word on her pupil’s sheet. The teacher, Fareeda Bibi, reportedly summoned the Christian girl, scolded her and beat her. Her punishment, however, did not end here. When Faryal’s class fellows learnt of the alleged blasphemy, the teacher brought the principal’s notice to the matter, who further informed the school management.
In the meanwhile, the news spread throughout the colony. The next day, male students of the POF colony school as well as certain religious elements took out a rally, demanding the registration of a criminal case against the eighth-grader and her expulsion from the area.
Prayer leaders within the community also condemned the incident in their Friday sermons, asking the colony’s administration to not only take action against Faryal but her entire family. In the wake of the increasing tensions, Managing Director POF Colony Havelian Asif Siddiki called a meeting of colony-based ulemas and school teachers to discuss the situation. The girl and her mother were asked to appear before the meeting, where they explained that it was a mere error, caused by a resemblance between the two words. The two immediately apologised, adding that Faryal had no malicious intentions.
In a move that was apparently meant to pacify the religious elements clamouring for action against the teenage ‘blasphemer’, the POF administration expelled her from the school on Saturday. Faryal was not the only one who got in trouble for her spelling error, however, as her mother, Sarafeen Bhatti, who was a staff nurse at the POF Hospital Havelian for several years, was immediately transferred to POF Wah Cantonment Hospital.
Decision applauded
While talking to The Express Tribune, Maulana Alla Dita Khateeb of Gol Masjid praised the decision of the POF colony administration, claiming that he had personally seen the answer sheet in question. He further went on to say that he had met the girl himself, who had apologised for the word used in error. Asked whether the incident still fell within the realm of blasphemy and whether Faryal deserved expulsion when she had misspelt the word unintentionally, Khateeb said that although he was unclear about the intentions of the girl, the word she had used was sacrilegious.
The managing director of POF Colony was not available for comment.

 

I know right? Those stupid religious people with their Housing of tens-of-thousands of homeless every night in the U.S. alone, or their feeding the millions of starving children across the world. Crazy religious people spending their own money drilling wells in Africa and how dare they put roofs on orphanages in 3rd world countries, or build trauma wings in hospitals. None of that is pacifying, enlightening or moral.

 

Pakastain !!!!

Seriously, what a friggen joke they are in regards to these kind of draconian religious laws.

Man, I really dislike those religious zealots and their idiotic rules of law based upon what I consider mythology.

DD

 

And once again, people are "fired up" after "Friday prayers". But we are told religion has nothing to do with it, right?

 

There's nothing wrong with being fired up.

 

What is the source of that picture?

 

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Paki...d-sentenced-for-a-spelling-mistake-22746.html



Yeah. Nothing wrong...

 

It's the picture that shows up when you go on Google News and enter the name of the 10-year old girl that is threatened with death under the Pakistan blasphemy law - for a misspelling.

 

I understand that you have a problem with protesters protesting something when it disagrees with you.

I don't have the same issues. I can disagree with the protesters but as long as they aren't violent, I don't have a problem with spirited protest.

Better to get their issues out there and debunk them if they are false. Either way I'm on the side of freedom of speech and protest even when I disagree with it.

 

its funny how america has had a consistent record of supporting conservative islamic societies throughout the decades past, especially during the cold war as our main enemy was then the soviet union who had problem's with there muslim minorities that we tried to ally with...

 

Problem is, they were violent, and they were not protesting, they were forming a lynch mob. The military stepped in to prevent it.

Which makes your comment look even more ignorant in context.