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
SWM, yeah we can have a going away party retroactively for all the holy raptured people, with alcoholic beverages even!
Annie, Oh well, you won’t be taken up in the rapture. Catholics, Jews and Muslims can’t go either so you will have plenty of company.
No Paul, I never bought into the religion I was raised in, you are making an assumption. I never become “saved”. No doubt I’m going to hell.
Annie –
When you make a statement like this, you include yourself in the group of zealots.
Nick:
“It is zealotry that is the problem.” Exactly.
It is a fact that Muslim extremism is the norm, not the exception, in the Middle East. Anywhere that Sharia Law is practiced, it commits heinous human rights abuses, especially against women and girls.
And we need to stop bowing and scraping, being so afraid of coming across as Islamophobes that we allow Muslim Expansion of Sharia Law, and the repression of free speech in the West, to continue.
For the Obama administration, or, frankly, anyone in the West, to support anti-blashemy laws, shows a fatal ignorance of history, human rights, and the value of the US. We are the only country with the strongest free speech laws in the world. Even our Western allies do not have as much freedom. To weaken it in any way, in order to “look good” to Extremists, is foolish. They will still want to destroy the west, no matter what concessions we make. They desire a caliphate in the US one day; it has been the outspoken desire of many Imams both here and abroad.
We should not fear the truth. The truth is that many Muslims living in America immigrated here, or their ancestors did, because they wanted freedom from the oppression of Sharia Law. But some did bring extremism with them, and came for other reasons, such as economic opportunities, without valuing the religious freedom we enjoy here. There is a marked difference between a moderate/Westernized Muslim living here in the US, with the Muslim Extremist majority ruling the Middle East. Whether Sunni or Shiite, both major factions show extremism, and both abuse under the guise of Sharia Law.
It is such a shame that we betrayed the Shah. He brought sweeping, Westernized reforms to Iran. Who knows if he could have held out against the Imams. Possibly, if we had supported him.
Paul, Some of those Padres would fill that chalice to the brim. Particularly those Irish ones w/ the big, red, noses. Remember you had to fast before Communion.
No Paul, I was raised in a church FULL of zealots. You don’t know what you’re talking about, respectfully of course. 🙂
Well, even Tammy Faye Bakker was finally revealed when she went to prison and was forced to remove those thirty layers of makeup. And after all those years, you know what they finally found? Jimmy Hoffa 🙂
John, so civilization wouldn’t survive without some religion to fight over? Really? We can’t find goodness in our own humanity? Well maybe some folks who can’t police themselves need Jesus or Allah to do it for them.
And cue the apologists to, yet again, bash Christianity when Muslim Extremists, yet again, commit murder against women and children.
Fiver, yes you Catholics actually got to have real wine in communion, we only had grape juice. 🙁 No alcohol allowed, sinful.
I’m surprised that a blog of intellectuals would succumb to the basest form of religious argumentation. We can discover how to live a moral and virtuous life through reason alone. Additionally, elected representatives can honor their oath office; drivers can obey all posted speed limits; husbands and wives can remain faithful to their spouses; children can respect their parents, and so on. Unfortunately, we live in an age where virtue and morality are increasingly subjective. And as a result, we are finding the law is not something to be respected, but rather dodged
Annie said, “we’re all capeable to be our own highest power.” The assumption there is we don’t need religion to guide our behavior. And with that logic, we wouldn’t need law either. I’m sure Annie is far more enlightened on this subject than I, so perhaps she would identify WHEN in recorded history has a culture EVER survived by the standard of; “put your faith in yourself, your mind, your ability to reason and think, to problem solve, to care for others, etc etc etc.”?
If only those founding fathers had been as enlightened as Annie; we wouldn’t be here debating the merits of religion and perhaps it’s potential for providing a culture with a fixed foundation of moral absolutes that are consistent with a nation founded on the principles of freedom and liberty. We would simply be guided by that great philosopher, Rodney King and just all get along.
Football and sports, concerts, lectures, movies, secular music, dancing, were “worldly”, strongly discouraged back in the 60’s in the Pentecostal churches. It’s hysterical how when Tammy Faye Bakker had all that makeup plastered on her face on their CBN TV show, makeup was then allowed to be worn by the women, even jewelry! Woo Hoo! However when Jimmy Swaggert sinned with a hooker, illicit sex wasn’t mainstreamed, LOL!
Annie,
No snake handling? Thank, um, God for that.
Still, it sounds almost as bad as or maybe even worse than the sadistic nuns that “educated” me as a youth. I’ve read the Bible multiple times – even studied it – and never found where Jesus instructed his followers to beat the children.
As teens, though, we had a bit more fun sneaking out. There was the (unblessed) sacramental wine.
As an adult I found that science was almost always more effective than religion. Sure, speaking in tongues is impressive to some, but I much prefer the T.A.R.D.I.S.’s translation matrix.
Annie – so, you are admitting you were a zealot.
Well, we do sing fewer verses of Just As I Am during football season. But I think Jesus would understand.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky, guess what the Pentecostals believe and preach? Southern Baptists are also going to hell, unless they are “BORN AGAIN”.
Fundamentalists of all religions ARE zealots.
Annie – fundamentalists are fundamentalists. They are not necessarily zealots. And zealots are not necessarily fundamentalists.
BTW, when I was a Catholic only the priest got the wine the rest got the wafer.
Yell, and cries, and strange languages??? Sound like MSNBC to me. And what about Chris Matthews ‘ tingly legs??? Yep. Religious fits.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
PS : you should have tried a Southern Baptist church. We don ‘t do all that wild stuff.
Let’s discuss Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, ALL the North Korean Wackos. They were all ATHEISTS. It is zealotry that is the problem.
Jill, Liberals are the most judgmental people in this country. That’s because they are smarter and better than you. That’s why they govern like nannies controlling every aspect of your life. They are omnipotent. Now, sit down and shut up you stupid, lazy, bible thumping, uncaring, conservative!!