Friday, September 07, 2012

Blog 2: Christian girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan


Michele Langevine Leiby and Shaiq Hussain wrote this article published by the Washington post. This article is about a fourteen-year-old girl from Pakistan who was sent to jail on blasphemy charges. This young girl was accused of carrying burnt pages of the Koran in a trash bag around in her village. Once the population got word of her alleged blasphemy the young girl was threatened and told that she would be burned alive by a local mob. As a result of the constant threats to the young girls life the police were said to have arrested her for her own safety and placed her parents into protective custody. On the surface, the act of carrying burnt pages of the Koran would seem like a blasphemous thing to do but the issue runs much deeper than that. This young girl was discriminated against, set up, and used as a message to spark fear in the hearts of her people. She is one of the 2 percent of Christians living in Pakistans population of 180 million. The imam of her local mosque was seen placing the burnt pages of the Koran into the young girls trash bag. This was done in an attempt to spark fear in the Christian community at the expense of the young girl. His act seemed to have done the trick because consequentially several hundred of the Christian population fled after the girl’s arrest. Later police discovered that the young girl most likely suffers from a mental challenge and diagnosed it as possible Down syndrome. One million people signed a petition for the bail of this young girl and eventually that bail was granted. Pakistani human rights leaders have recognized the issue and plan to take action.

This article is another example of the many forms of inequalities around the world. Religious inequality will always be a factor for the 2 percent of Christians living in Pakistan. It is scary and pretty sad that the population has to live in fear of being taken advantage of by people of such esteem like religious officials, the justice system, and so forth. The imam was probably aware of the 14-year-old girls mental condition and took advantage of her to set his plan into motion. All people should be able to feel free to make their own choices when it comes to what they believe no matter where they live. The fact that this right is not one known to a good number of the world’s population is a shame. Equal opportunities and safety should be available to all people regardless of their religious affiliations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/bail-allowed-for-christian-girl-accused-of-blasphemy-in-pakistan/2012/09/07/abcc51be-f8d7-11e1-a073-78d05495927c_story.html

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