Laws against blasphemy have rarely been about religious dogma. They are, like anti-terrorism statutes, political weapons that are available to intimidate and ensure conformity in the population. The very vagueness of the concepts of terrorism and blasphemy allow them to be interpreted so broadly that almost any action can be interpreted as breaking the law. These weapons are invariably used by the most extreme elements of society.
I wrote earlier about the 12-year old Christian girl in Pakistan who was charged with blasphemy because she allegedly had been found with torn or burnt or otherwise defaced pages of the Koran in her bag. The resulting uproar resulted in her being taken into police custody and about 600 Christians fleeing the area for fear of mob violence against them by enraged Muslims.
In a twist, the imam who first raised the charges by allegedly discovering the act has now been accused of being the one who planted the pages in the girl’s bag in the first place as a means of achieving his desired result of driving the Christians away from that area. Now he is being charged with blasphemy.
Assuming that this new charge holds up, it provides yet one more example of the hypocrisy of religious leaders, because the imam clearly did not fear the wrath of his god for defacing the Koran. He was cynically exploiting blasphemy statutes to achieve a political goal.
He’s out on bail, she’s still in jail.
My prediction:
The court will eventually discover that his heart was in the right place when he tore those pages out of the Koran and all charges against him will be dropped.
The girl is 14, not 12, and I am willing to bet that there is more than religious fervor driving the cleric’s desire to eliminate her presence from the village. Yes, I’m that cynical.
It’s hardly surprising. As the BBC article puts it:
Or perhaps a “gaffe” or his words were “taken out of context.”
The positive part in this unholy mess is that someone had the courage to speak up and reveal what happened. I wonder if he is going to be in trouble with the “community”.
An actual example of christian persecution. Wow. I wonder if this will teach a lesson in empathy next time a christian demands outrageous action because their feelings were hurt.
The Express Tribune reports that two more witnesses have come the fore.
“The Ramna Police Station has recorded the statements of Hafiz Owais and Khurram Shahzad, who endorsed Hafiz Zubair’s statement against Chishti.”
Has been confirmed.