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
In Pakistan these murderers are called heroes. Even their founding fathers , Iqbal and Jinnah, had praised and idolized an illiterate person who murdered a Hindu publisher of a book that the Muslims of that time found blasphemous . The leader of their second most popular party at present , a retired cricketer imran Khan, would not even attend a ceremony in which Sulman Rushdie was invited , as he believes Rushdie has committed the ultimate sin by writing satanic versus . By the way , this is the same character who never owned his own daughter or showed up at the CA court and took a paternity test . To Pakistanis such a major character flaw has no importance, as reflected by his popularity there among the so called educated young people !
The best religious group by far that I ever encountered was called The Church of the New Song or CONS. It was born in either Menard State Penitentiary or Marion Federal Penitentiary and flourished in both. The CONS went to court and demanded the right to have services in the prison and to practice their faith. They were not Conning anyone. If any of you readers out there have heard of these guys please chime in. I was a lawyer in a prior life and ran into these guys in the joints around 1975. Us dogs do not have a religion other than 8th Day Adventist. Essentially we preach that humans should listen to their dogs for guidance. On the 8th Day God put Dog on Earth to give guidance to humans. Then God kind of got out of the picture. You can pray to God all you want but if you want some guidance talk to a dog.
Yes, life can become boring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXbk3OL-t-s
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
’tis what happens when people have no life, just existence in a vacuum; just time, duration, nothingness, a void.
That’s good Paul, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near the vicinity of my womb. 😯
And Paul you already have the right to have religion in your grandchild’s school, that’s what parochial schools are for.
Toes and womb? How about respecting everyone’s unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I believe if we respect that then we can coexist. Of course that means you and I will want government to limit itself to only those powers necessary to secure those rights. We won’t be looking to one party or another to carry an agenda that infringes those rights of others.
So “religionists” and “secularists” have a formula to coexist.
Thank you Annie for bringing some clarity to this discussion.
fiver, LOL! I submit if you continue on Interstate 94 instead of exiting on Baker Road you will end up in actual hell, Detroit.
And out of my grandchildren’s public school and our secular government? Can religionists do it? I doubt it, as they feel they have a Divine Imperative.
John O. Those of you who embrace religion, more power to you, but stay off of my toes, and out of my womb, and we can coexist. Oky doky then?
Annie – I am an agnostic and the last place i want to be is in your womb. However, as a citizen, I have every right to be part of the school system and government. However, if you feel that strongly, the religion of secular humanists can stay out of the schools and the government. In fact, I really would appreciate it if they butted out.
Annie,
You survived the Fundamentalism; got it. Now, if you would just 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 you could do that then perhaps we can abandon religion all together and peacefully coexist. Please tell me this isn’t some “hopey, changey” rhetoric that has no basis in reality.
fratello musulmano mi dispiace ma io no capisco l’inglese je pale en françai
et je parle arabe
The road to Hell is actually paved with asphalt. And it’s name is Darwin Rd.
From Chicago, take the Skyway to 90/94 East. Keep on 94. Continue on 94 to Michigan Exit 167/Baker Rd. Take Baker Rd. 3 miles north toward Dexter. Left on Main/Island Lake Rd. to Dexter Pickney Rd. Go Right. Go about 8 miles to Darwin Rd. Left. Go about 2 miles. Welcome to Hell, MI.
No kidding. Going Left on Darwin leads to Hell. 🙂
If Christian Fundamentalists had their way I think we would have anti blasphemy laws here too, after they finally get their Theocracy that is.
Yes indeed Karen, that is true.
I just don’t want it to be forgotten that children, and a grandmother, were murdered by Muslim Extremists in the name of their faith.
This is wrong. There is no excuse on this Earth to exonerate it. And the majority of people should be united in condemning it, as well as any attempts to craft anti-blasphemy laws here in the US.
You know, people can be zealots about politics, too.
on 1, July 30, 2014 at 2:47 pmPaul C. Schulte
Annie –
No Paul, I was raised in a church FULL of zealots. You don’t know what you’re talking about, respectfully of course
When you make a statement like this, you include yourself in the group of zealots.
**********************************
Paul, I was a child. Your comment is pure baloney.
Annie – just because you were a child does not mean you were not a zealot. 🙂
Paul… Never mind. 😕
Nick;
I expect better form from you.
One can be upset at adversarial parties;
but should never result to name callings.
As noted of the banter pyramid – logic is at the top – and name calling is
on the bottom
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement.svg/707px-Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement.svg.png
John Oliver, Bingo! “The road to hell is paved w/ GOOD intentions.
“We can’t find goodness in our own humanity?”
Define “goodness”; according to whom? If Annie defines goodness and then generates a significant following then wouldn’t the “goodness” of Annie be a “moral” absolute? Wouldn’t that be like a form religion?
It’s easy to find goodness in humanity but not so easy to maintain it. This is why governments must exist and why the People must be aware government is not immune to human weaknesses.