In Pakistan, a Muslim mob has killed a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister (as well as their grandmother) in the latest carnage to defend the faith from blasphemy. The cause of the outrage was a simple picture posted on Facebook that was deemed offensive to Islam. The mob accused members of the Ahmadi sect, who live under continual discrimination by the Pakistani government and the threat of death from Muslims over their faith.
The violence later on Sudnay in the town of Gujranwala, began when a Muslim man accused an Ahmadi man of posting “objectionable material.” The picture showed the Kaaba – the cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, but also showed a naked woman. That was enough for Muslims to not only file a blasphemy charge with the police but a mob to attack and burn down the homes of innocent Ahmadis. They ended up killing the girls, the grandmother, and causing another woman to miscarry her baby. Yet, such violence is viewed by these extremists to be the act of truly faithful Muslims and pleasing to God. It is such a disconnect with any form of recognizable morality that makes this crime so hard to even fathom.
I do not just blame the mob, however. I blame Pakistan for its codification of the prejudice against this sect and treating them as heretics. The country’s incorporation of religious tenets into the criminal code legitimates these acts of hatred. It is also another example of how there is no common ground over blasphemy.
For many years, I have been writing about the threat of an international blasphemy standard and the continuing rollback on free speech in the West. For recent columns, click here and here and here.
Much of this writing has focused on the effort of the Obama Administration to reach an accommodation with allies like Egypt and Pakistan to develop a standard for criminalizing anti-religious speech. We have been following the rise of anti-blasphemy laws around the world, including the increase in prosecutions in the West and the support of the Obama Administration for the prosecution of some anti-religious speech under the controversial Brandenburg standard.
These cases reflect the true purpose of blasphemy laws: to silence minority sects and religious critics in the name of a “true faith.” Fortunately the effort of Hillary Clinton and others in the Administration to reach a compromise on blasphemy failed, though there continue to be efforts to create an international standard.
Four years ago, Muslims killed 86 Ahmadis. A large crowd watched as the homes of Ahmadis were looted and then burned. In the meantime, according to the article below, blasphemy charges are soaring in Pakistan from just one in 2011 to at least 68 last year.
Source: Telegraph
Better to put your faith in yourself, your mind, your ability to reason and think, to problem solve, to care for others, etc etc etc. we’re all capeable to be our own highest power.
Oh yes, don ‘t put your faith in Jesus! Instead put your faith into some dweeby experts with their latest scientific study!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Charlie, me too. Pentecostal. It was a strange way to grow up, most definitely cultish. Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin’s church. She never left, she’s still a believer in that weird nonsense. Just think someone was actually dumb enough to choose her as a VP.
Sickos.
wrxdave, Yes, that is well said. I again want to post from a blog on cults. I feel this same logic applies to all religion: “The main reason that the following destructive cult tactics are so damaging to both the individual and society is because they debilitate rationality and reduce empathy. Rationality and empathy are indispensable in making good personal and social decisions… History is littered with personal and social catastrophes where a lack of rationality and lack of empathy were its core causes.”
http://www.myownmind.com/warningsigns.cfm
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Well said, Dave. I grew up indoctrinated into Christianity (Pentecostal/Apostolic) and “taught” that all others, including Catholics, would burn forever in hell. All the while I was studying Greek mythology in school and thinking that was silly. Now I’m shocked that it’s 2014 and most of humanity still believes such nonsense.
When you invite religion into government in any guise you invite government into religion, with the power of the state to enforce or not what it views as “religious” principles.
There is a reason for separation in this country and it should be absolute. Because, if not, religion becomes another tool to enforce state policy. Blasphemy becomes a way to silence unapproved or protest speech, it’s a slippery slippery slope.
This is merely the most extreme example of what may be expected when we determine that the subject matter of a communication may appropriately be regulated.
Be careful – dear Professor (and do not travel yonder);
lest ye too – be punished a due; because though sided against the who!
These stories that trickle out of Pakistan are troubling. This behavior isn’t going away.
The bigger problem is bitter relations between Pakistan and India.
July 2014 Kashmir region: Ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir state and allegations of patronizing terrorism and subversive activities in each other’s territories.
Remember these 2 were going to nuke each other and the US estimated there would be around 12 million dead, give or take a few million.
The core dispute between the two nuclear archrivals is the Kashmir issue which led in the past to four wars between them. Failing to solve the Kashmir problem means there can be no guaranteed
peace or friendship between two countries.
Quote of day: If you don’t know, should you know?
So good that innocent women and children can depend on men to defend them.
Well said Nick. I’m not a religious person, but I would rather live in a Christian and or Jewish neighborhood than a Muslim or atheist neighborhood
I feel like I’m playing whack a mole every time a topic like this arises. The problem is not religion, it is zealotry. Atheist Communists have killed close to 100 million people in the name of their “God.”
Nick – normally I would agree with you but at this point the zealots of Islam are the majority party so they are the standard bearers.
Reblogged this on Whats Jimmy Think ? and commented:
Johathan Turley offers cognative writngs every day. My readership may have great interest in following his blog too. Jim.Wilson
That first word is “religion”.
Relition is for chumps. On most planets it never existed. We consider the ant farm known as Earth to be in the dinosaur stage. You can read but you can not write without falling into traverse verse. To put it in Earth terms. “You know what I mean jelly bean.” I heard that one in Kansas City. I dont know if it was Kansas City, Kansas or Kansas City, Missoura. The lady named Dorothy who was explaining planet Earth to me had a lot of good information. But, she then explained that she learned from a wizard. Then a tv show came on in the hotel room and she explained that it was not Ozzie and Harriet of whom she was referring.
East of Corfu the Ten Commandments Do Not Apply. Pakistan is a Pirate Territory. Forget the Stan on the end. I would normally say: Fly over and flush. But the Ukraine situation proves that flying over Pirate Territories and flushing turds down on them is no longer feasible.
Allegedly smart people like Obama and Hillary need to read about Neville Chamberlain.
All religion is tyranny. Tyranny over expression, sex, diet, reading material, behavior, etc. — in the blatant attempt to enact power over this life by threatening punishment in the next.
Long past due for our species to melt away myth.
Where is po when we need him to tell us how peaceful Muslims are.