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'Death to blasphemers' increasing as political rallying cry in Pakistan


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'Death to blasphemers' increasing as political rallying cry in Pakistan

By Asif Shahzad

 

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Muhammad Shafiq Ameeni, candidate of the Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan party, speaks with a Reuters correspondent during an interview in Peshawar, Pakistan October 25, 2017. Picture taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz

 

SWABI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Three police officers stand daily guard at the tomb of Pakistani student Mashal Khan to prevent religious hardliners from fulfilling threats to blow up the grave of the 23-year-old beaten to death over rumours he blasphemed against Islam.

 

His grieving family, now also under police protection, say they have little hope the shocking campus killing will prompt a re-examination of blasphemy laws that carry a death penalty, or action against the mob justice that often erupts in such cases.

 

On Friday, there was more evidence the opposite is happening.

 

A new political party that has made punishing blasphemers its main rallying cry won a surprisingly strong 7.6 percent of the vote in a by-election in Peshawar, 60 km (36 miles) from where Mashal Khan was killed six months ago.

 

"Death to blasphemers! Death to blasphemers!" was a common chant of supporters of the Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan party at its campaign rallies in the conservative northwestern city.

 

The party's relatively strong showing - and a separate outcry over a proposed change to an election law that outraged the religious right - has elevated blasphemy into a potent political issue in the run-up to a general election in 2018.

 

While Tehrik-e-Labaik (Movement of the Prophet's Followers) is unlikely to break out of single digits in coming votes, its rapid rise, along with another ultra-religious party, could create an additional challenge for the ruling Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

 

The PML-N party's leader, Nawaz Sharif, was ousted as prime minister in July by the Supreme Court, and opposition leader Imran Khan - who spearheaded the legal case that removed him over unreported income - is seeking to press the advantage.

 

RELIGIOUS RIGHT GAINS

 

In this week's Peshawar by-election, former cricket star Imran's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party swept to a comfortable victory to retain the parliamentary seat, winning 34.8 percent of the vote.

 

Sharif's PML-N had 18.9 percent, narrowly coming in third to the regionally strong Awami National Party that won just 40 more votes.

 

But the gains by the Labaik party - formed just last year - have grabbed attention.

 

Labaik draws most of its support from the Barelvi branch of Sunni Islam, the largest sect in Pakistan that is traditionally considered moderate.

Though the party does not publicly talk about its funding, the Barelvis have a network of mosques and madrassa religious schools that collect donations.

 

The party emerged out of a protest movement against the state's execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of the governor of Punjab province who gunned down his boss in 2011 over his call to reform Pakistan's blasphemy laws, among the world's harshest, to prevent abuses.

 

Qadri is considered a hero by the party, and its candidate in Peshawar, Muhammad Shafiq Ameeni, was equally supportive of Mashal Khan's killers, although the student's death was not a main feature at campaign rallies.

 

"It was state's responsibility to punish a blasphemer, no two opinions, but when state doesn't do its job and someone does kill, he shouldn't be punished as a murderer," Amini said, referring to the 57 people who face trial over Mashal Khan's death.

 

In Pakistan, allegiance to Islam is the official line of most major parties, but ultra-religious parties have so far remained on the fringes.

 

Labaik is one of two new ultra-religious parties formed in roughly the past year.

 

Together, Labaik and the Milli Muslim League (MML) gained about 11 percent of the vote in last month's by-election in Lahore and 10.4 percent in Peshawar, whereas the established religious parties, such as Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam, combined had 5.3 percent in the 2013 national election.

 

RULING PARTY UNDER FIRE

 

Blasphemy is such an effective wedge issue in Pakistan because there is almost no defence against an accusation.

 

For that reason, say critics, blasphemy laws are often invoked to settle personal scores and to intimidate liberal journalists, lawyers and politicians.

 

Dozens of Pakistanis are sitting on death row after being convicted of insulting Islam's prophet, a specific charge that carries a mandatory death sentence, though no executions have been carried out in recent decades.

 

Now, political parties may be in danger of facing blasphemy accusations themselves.

 

Earlier in October, the PML-N found itself in the middle of a firestorm when it voted through seemingly small changes to the nation's electoral law.

 

The changes, among other things, turned a religious oath in the electoral laws stating that Mohammad was the last prophet of Muslims into a declaration using the words "I declare".

 

The alterations prompted accusations of blasphemy from the religious right and the government quickly retreated, terming the change a "clerical" mistake and apologising in parliament.

 

Labaik has vowed to hold a mass rally on Nov. 6 to demand the lawmakers responsible be prosecuted for blasphemy.

 

MOB KILLINGS

 

Even before the Labaik party's political debut, politicians found promising swift action against blasphemers an easy way to appeal to conservative voters.

 

In March, then-prime minister Sharif issued a public order to prosecute anyone posting blasphemous content online.

 

The next month, Mashal Khan was accused of online blasphemy and beaten to death by fellow students and religious activists as onlookers filmed the scene. Sharif said he was "shocked and saddened" by the "senseless display of mob justice".

 

At least 67 people have been killed over unproven blasphemy allegations since 1990, according human rights groups.

 

Mashal Khan's father, Iqbal, said his son was the victim of false rumours.

 

The family has received death threats from right-wingers and Mashal's sisters had to drop out of school.

 

"The snakes our country nurtured are now biting us," the father said, two days before the Peshawar by-election, standing beside his son's gave strewn with flowers, lace and poetry.

 

Learning of the Labaik party's gains a few days later only made him more pessimistic about the government's ability to stop abuse of blasphemy accusations.

 

"I know very well, I'm not going to get my son back," he said. "But this only adds to my pain."

 

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-28

 

 

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It is always going to be difficult to bring into the modern world, those who believe the word of a rambling, illiterate, child rapist, to be the word of God. Hardly a respectable messenger you would think. It becomes even harder when those very same brain dead morons, preach death for not believing the rubbish. Pointing out their total idiocy, and the idiocy of their religion is a very dangerous pastime.

Christians are almost as bad in believing their rubbish and sticking to their theories in spite of modern day evidence, but at least very few of them advocate death for apostasy or blasphemy, when you challenge them.

Civilisation, quite clearly has a very long way to go to catch up with the world in Pakistan.

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With a battle cry of "Death to Idiots", another political party is attempting to be formed in Pakistan. However, analysts give it scant chances for success, believing there are too few non-idiots left in Pakistan. And even if they succeeded at becoming a viable political party, their workload would be so immense as to be impossible.

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2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"It was state's responsibility to punish a blasphemer, no two opinions, but when state doesn't do its job and someone does kill, he shouldn't be punished as a murderer," Amini said, referring to the 57 people who face trial over Mashal Khan's death.

Hopefully the Government won't cave in to the lunatics and find the whole mob who murdered Mashal Khan guilty and hang the lot. Failure to do so will leave the mob feeling that they are free to murder anyone they please who happens to question their totally pathetic beliefs.

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8 hours ago, jinners said:

The more I see about this cult the more I despair. A real victory for the Neanderthals and knuckle dragging male bullies in Pakistan and many other places over any form of decency. Indoctrination rules OK. Now agree or else.

Let's not denigrate Neanderthals. They probably didn't mob kill their fellows for saying one word wrong.

 

Since there's competition to see who can out-Islam the next guy, here are some suggestions:

 

If a kid is caught watching a western TV program, smash the kid's head with a cricket bat.

If a girl is caught putting on her mother's string of fake pearls, stick a knife in her chest and twist it.

If a boy and girl are caught kissing, before they're married, kill them and their families for 3 generations.   If the boy and girl are from different sects, kill the families for 5 generations.

If one is a Jew, torch both villages they hail from.

 

There, am I extreme enough?  Vote for me.

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, jinners said:

The more I see about this cult the more I despair. A real victory for the Neanderthals and knuckle dragging male bullies in Pakistan and many other places over any form of decency. Indoctrination rules OK. Now agree or else.

But wait!   You must have it all wrong!!  Muslim apologists have been assuring us for decades now that the extremists & zealots are only a tiny tiny faction, and that "mainstream" Muslims are moderate, tolerant, peace-loving, consummately non-violent, never-hurt-a-fly lovely people.   Strange how this tiny tiny faction seems to play such an overwhelming political role in Muslim-dominated countries, and their violence around the world just persists and intensifies. 

 

'Sorry.  The evidence is that it's the tolerant, peace-loving Muslims who are actually the small minority.   Most are dangerous, too easily turned to violence and terrorism in mosques & madrasas by rabid clerics even when they arrive as vetted, seemingly "non-risk" immigrants, and clearly have no place in western society.  None.   The problem with U.S. judicial decision-making on the matter is that these pin-headed Clinton and Obama-appointee jurists still consider to be a religion what is actually a cult.    Worse, they obviously cannot "impose" our constitutional liberties on foreign countries, but the minute a person FROM a foreign country simply says he wants to come here, suddenly he's gifted the Bill of Rights and treated as a citizen, no matter the threat to the very citizens whose rights they're on the bench in the first place TO BE PROTECTING!  Muslim extremists have played our tradition of open immigration against us and are using the left and these agenda-driven jurists as ignorant tools; it's 2017 and times have changed since the potato famine.

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Bigfarang1948 said:

Can't you just feel all the love that Islam exudes? Nowhere outside of a Muslim Nation is a person killed for speaking out against a religion.

and the main article says : "beaten to death over rumours he blasphemed against Islam."

so if your neighbor doesnt like you, they just accuse you and you have a problem

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To be fair, there are such people as moderate Muslims.  It's just that we don't hear much about them.  Newspapers learned from day 1 that extraordinary news (bombings, killings) sell lots more papers than grannies baking apple pies.  Here in Chiang Rai, I to to Muslim restaurants, and have Muslim friends/neighbors, and they're as lovely as any folks I've met in over 60 yrs, residing in a dozen different countries.

 

Muslims are born into their belief system.  There are required to adhere to it (not much different than Thais, in relation to what they're required to believe). Muslims have near zero option to switch, unless they have a death wish.  The idea of free-thinking is alien to them.  If someone has never been near a body of water, it's hard to impart the experience of swimming.   

 

 

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2 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

To be fair, there are such people as moderate Muslims.  It's just that we don't hear much about them.  Newspapers learned from day 1 that extraordinary news (bombings, killings) sell lots more papers than grannies baking apple pies.  Here in Chiang Rai, I to to Muslim restaurants, and have Muslim friends/neighbors, and they're as lovely as any folks I've met in over 60 yrs, residing in a dozen different countries.

 

Muslims are born into their belief system.  There are required to adhere to it (not much different than Thais, in relation to what they're required to believe). Muslims have near zero option to switch, unless they have a death wish.  The idea of free-thinking is alien to them.  If someone has never been near a body of water, it's hard to impart the experience of swimming.   

 

 

 

First paragraph, absolutely.

 

Second paragraph, though... Muslim do not uniformly adhere to the same level of religious practice. Not even within the same country or same community, never mind globally. As for "near zero option to switch" - not really, but more to do with which country/culture is referred to. Granted, this would apply in many places, but not everywhere and not to the same degree. Just as there are people nominally defined as Christians, Jews, Buddhists or whatever - there are Muslims not all that into practicing the religion they were born into. It's not even the case that religion plays a huge part in every Muslim's life.

 

In a way the second paragraph does a good job of of following the sensationalist path referred to in the first.

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On 10/28/2017 at 4:28 PM, MarkusAUST said:

Hopefully the Government won't cave in to the lunatics and find the whole mob who murdered Mashal Khan guilty and hang the lot. Failure to do so will leave the mob feeling that they are free to murder anyone they please who happens to question their totally pathetic beliefs.

The Pakistani government, or at least elements of it, (particularly the military who to a large extent call the shots) rather encouraged the cult of the zealots in the first place. They have considerable influence in government circles. The Pakistani government are rather "riding a tiger" of their own making.

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5 hours ago, zydeco said:

How many of these zealots have already found their way into Europe and America?  Just waiting to grow.  Just waiting to act.

They certainly are present within the Pakistani communities in the UK.

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On 10/28/2017 at 2:51 PM, darksidedog said:

It is always going to be difficult to bring into the modern world, those who believe the word of a rambling, illiterate, child rapist, to be the word of God. Hardly a respectable messenger you would think. It becomes even harder when those very same brain dead morons, preach death for not believing the rubbish. Pointing out their total idiocy, and the idiocy of their religion is a very dangerous pastime.

Christians are almost as bad in believing their rubbish and sticking to their theories in spite of modern day evidence, but at least very few of them advocate death for apostasy or blasphemy, when you challenge them.

Civilisation, quite clearly has a very long way to go to catch up with the world in Pakistan.

 

Pakistan is a lawless tribal based feudal patriarchal society manipulated by Islamist zealots. Low education, "elders" who think rape is a suitable punishment for "offenses" committed by relatives of people they decide to have raped as punishment; honor killings and mob murders based on rumors are all characteristics of their society. A society in which non Muslims are considered of no value. And sadly, many of those of Pakistani descent also carry those views and characteristics.

A very dangerous place, hotbed of fanatics, supporters of Muslim terrorism and showing little sign of ever changing.

 

However, "Christians are almost as bad in believing their rubbish and sticking to their theories in spite of modern day evidence" you state. Could you kindly share this evidence with us please?

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On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 2:31 PM, jinners said:

The more I see about this cult the more I despair. A real victory for the Neanderthals and knuckle dragging male bullies in Pakistan and many other places over any form of decency. Indoctrination rules OK. Now agree or else.

Apparently the Neanderthals weren't as bad as has been ascribed. Just Homo Sapiens using propaganda to justify exterminating them.

 

Anyway, the religion of love and peace is not looking too good at the moment. Perhaps in 500 years they will be in the same place as Christianity is now.

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44 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

However, "Christians are almost as bad in believing their rubbish and sticking to their theories in spite of modern day evidence" you state. Could you kindly share this evidence with us please?

Are you trying to suggest to any of us that the Christian assertion that the world is only about 5,500 years old has the slightest bit of credibility? I mean seriously?

Deny that bull as much as you like. I think the evidence suggests they are slightly out by a few billion years on their calculations. And you are a complete retarded idiot if you believe for one second otherwise.

 

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11 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Are you trying to suggest to any of us that the Christian assertion that the world is only about 5,500 years old has the slightest bit of credibility? I mean seriously?

Deny that bull as much as you like. I think the evidence suggests they are slightly out by a few billion years on their calculations. And you are a complete retarded idiot if you believe for one second otherwise.

 

The current Pope has a degree in chemistry and I think believes in evolution. 

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24 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Are you trying to suggest to any of us that the Christian assertion that the world is only about 5,500 years old has the slightest bit of credibility? I mean seriously?

Deny that bull as much as you like. I think the evidence suggests they are slightly out by a few billion years on their calculations. And you are a complete retarded idiot if you believe for one second otherwise.

 

I believe you are referring to the old testament fairy tale that was dreamed up by the men in the funny hats to explain to a simple people as to the origins of mankind.

I'm by no means an expert on Christianity, but if we go by what Jesus is reported to have said, he mentioned nothing about how long the planet existed that I remember. IMO it was Paul, the Roman intruder that introduced all the poisonous elements into the organised religion that used the teachings of Jesus as a means to control the population, without adhering to the things that the Christ actually taught. Not much to do with Christianity at all really. Unfortunately, there is not much Christianity, IMO, in the religion with the Christ's name.

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