EDITORIAL : Blasphemy and our

artappraiser — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:54:32 +0000

In reply to Attack on Christians Follows Claim of Blasphemy in Pakistan

EDITORIAL : Blasphemy and our minorities, Daily Times of Pakistan, March 11, 2013

Good summary of reporting on the incident followed by this conclusion:

[.....] The fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry can accuse anyone of blasphemy without any sort of evidence to back up the claim is what is leading to this insanity in the name of religion. It is so simple and the results are so murderous that the very suspicion of blasphemy is enough to make one cower in their boots. Usually, this country’s minorities are targeted and most of the time the accusations are bogus — revenge, hidden agendas and provocation are the only reasons blasphemy accusations are so common, and nothing is done to stop them. Forget about the idealism of fixing or reforming the blasphemy laws, this nation’s people must reform their mentalities. The governments, provincial and federal, must wake up from their slumber and help our minorities against this targeted abuse and mayhem. Anyone can rent a crowd in Pakistan and have free licence to become rabid if blasphemy is even mentioned. This is ridiculous and it is high time that the government bring to book all those responsible for the Joseph Colony rampage. If they do not, no one will be safe. *

"A very sick country"

artappraiser — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:05:56 +0000

In reply to Attack on Christians Follows Claim of Blasphemy in Pakistan

"A very sick country" continued:

The silence of the lambs
From Dawn's Inpaper Magzine and Naziha Syed Ali, March 9, 2013

Tahir* remembers with searing clarity the night several years ago when he was sexually assaulted by three policemen. “A group of us boys were sleeping on a pavement when a police mobile arrived and the cops told us to move. I was the only one they picked up. They took me to the police station and told me that I could scream and no one would do anything or I could cooperate and it would go better for me.” He was 11 years old at the time, a runaway living on the streets of Karachi.

According to the UN, there were between 1.2 and 1.5 million children on the streets of Pakistan’s urban centres in 2005, figures regarded as a gross underestimate by many social workers in the country. The number of street children has also increased dramatically over the last few years with the fighting up north compelling multitudes of internally displaced people to migrate — mainly to Karachi — while catastrophic floods have driven families out of the agrarian economy into penury on the fringes of various urban centres. Their children have been forced onto the street and, in many cases, into the clutches of predators on the lookout for easy prey.

Sexual abuse is among the first perils that children living on the street come up against.[....]

dagblog - Comments for "Attack on Christians Follows Claim of Blasphemy in Pakistan "

EDITORIAL : Blasphemy and our

"A very sick country"