Tough day today, I must say. You have Ashcroft’s Seven Deadly Agents roaming the streets of US, you have Abu Hamza in London looking like an evil Captain Hook. And then you have the case of Samuel Masih in Lahore. I found out about it from an editorial in the Daily Times:
A Lahore Christian of unsound mind was accused of blasphemy by the narrow-minded among us and sent to police custody. He was in a lockup when it was discovered that his general health was poor and in fact he could die while in custody. A scared SHO had him examined by a doctor who advised that Samuel Masih was in an advanced stage of tuberculosis. He was at once removed to a hospital. Then the unspeakable happened. The police constable on duty at the hospital “discovered” that Samuel was a blasphemer. He went up to his bed and smashed his head in with a steel bar.
Horrific. The charge of blasphemy is brought by gentleman who saw him spit on a mosque’s wall. SPIT!
update: Samuel Masih died from his injuries in the hospital on May 29th, 2004.
Now, the Federal Sharia Court as has only upheld Hadd decisions in 2 cases [theft] which were overruled by the Supreme Court. Hence, it is fairly certain that this case will also get dismissed. But what to say about the attack? A mis-guided sipahi who has been trained at the Pavlovian level to hate Christians, Hindus has no rational ability to judge the veracity or strength of any claim of against The Prophet? He hears only that Tauheen-i Risalat was commited by someone and he reacts as he has been conditioned to: with violence.
And blasphemy is not the only sword of Damocles hanging over the Christian community. In another case, Pastor Samuels and his family has been charged under the Shari’a Law for inciting a Muslim woman to marry a Christian. I am not sure about the details of this case, but it revolves a Muslim woman who began a love affair with this Christian. A no-no. As the injuctions in Shari’a against a Muslim woman marrying a Christian (or other People of the Book) is much more severe compared to the relative laxity in the case of a Muslim man marrying a Christian woman.
And lest we stray into thinking that the persecution is only against Christians and only in Pakistan, this recent case in India of the tribulations of a Hindu woman and a Muslim man should dispel those notions.
Regardless, this HAS to change. Pakistan has to modify it’s school curriculum. It has to change the rhetoric of the Mullah. It has to guarantee equal rights to all citizens. The Hudood Ordinances instituted under Gen. Zia-ul Haq have got to be re-evaluated. I am glad at least one other person thinks so….
[...] And conveying wrong impressions to Pakistanis is not the only place where it makes poor political sense. The lack of religious freedom is a problem in Pakistan — where minorities live in constant fear of blasphemy laws and official discrimination. For many Indians (including this blogger), Jizya (or Jaziya), the religious tax which Islamic rulers imposed on their non-Muslim subjects was something to be found in the history books. As Amit Varma discovered during his Pakistan trip, it still exists today. The plight of those Pakistanis, so often citizens belonging to its religious minorities, who are charged under blasphemy laws is more well-known. The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province, under Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has made attempts to reach out to the Sikhs, but by and large, the picture remains one of religious intolerance. High-profile visits to Hindu and Sikh places of worship by Indian leaders gives the Pakistani government an opportunity to show off its ‘tolerance’ to the international media. It is unclear why the Indian prime minister and the Opposition leader have to provide celebrity endorsement to Pakistan’s dubious product. [...]