It’s wonderful news that Rimsha Masih has been released from jail in Pakistan.
Masih is an 11 year old Christian girl who was arrested under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws after she was falsely accused of burning the Quran. She and her family will remain in protective custody to ensure their safety.
One interesting point to highlight in the following article is that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws derive not from Sharia, but from Biritsh colonial laws, circa 1860. The looniest blogger ever, Pamela Geller, is frothing-at-the-mouth, telling her readers anyone reporting this unwelcome historical fact is, “whitewashing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,” including CNN.
Whatever the origin of Pakistan’s vile blasphemy laws, they urgently need to be repealed. Let’s hope this outrageous, high profile case will ultimately spark much needed reform.
In Pakistan, girl freed but blasphemy debate still stuck
By Taha Siddiqui, Christian Science Monitor
Pakistan released from jail a Christian girl accused of burning Muslim religious texts and flew her to an undisclosed location by government helicopter.
“Due to the security concerns surrounding her and the family, the girl is being kept in government’s protective custody and there are plans to settle them outside Islamabad,” says Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, one of her lawyers.
The courts had approved the girl’s bail on Friday at a sum of one million rupees (equivalent to $10,500), on the grounds of her being a minor. The accusations against the girl had also lost strength when it emerged that a local cleric had planted burnt pages of the Quran in the evidence, in order to evict Christians from the locality they were living in.
Activists seeking to reform Pakistan’s stringent blasphemy laws had hoped this case would spur public debate and government action toward amending the laws. However, that has not happened yet, say activists, and the girl’s release may cause the spotlight to fade.
“Even though we are happy that the child is now reunited with her parents, I am unhappy about the public face the government put on during the ordeal. The state did not come with any long term resolve to stop the abuse of blasphemy laws, and the debate does not even seem to go in that direction,” says Peter Jacob, head of one of the largest minority rights’ activist groups in Pakistan.
The blasphemy laws, which date back to the colonial times in South Asia, were carried forward in the constitution by Pakistani authorities after the country’s independence in 1947. In the 1980s, draconian amendments to the laws by a military dictator were introduced, to the extent that anyone found guilty of committing blasphemy can be punished for life, and in severe cases, with a death sentence.
“The text of the law has problems but even if that is changed, it is the mindset of society that needs to be changed,” says Marvi Sirmed, a social activist, who has been threatened many times over her strong secular views. “Until and unless the state divorces itself from religion, and becomes secular, persecution of minorities will continue to happen,” Ms. Sirmed adds…
Pakistan’s Christian community
Pakistan’s roughly 2.7 million Christians make up less than 2 percent of the population. The Christianity community here, both Catholic and Protestant, traces much of its roots back to missionary efforts during British rule of the Indian subcontinent…
Read the rest here
Related Stories:
Pakistan: 11 Year Old Christian Girl, Rimsha Masih Arrested on Charges of Blasphemy
Pakistani mullah ‘planted charred texts’ on girl accused of blasphemy
Senior Islamic cleric defends Christian girl: “Our Heads are Bowed in Shame”
Mehdi Hasan: Not In My Name: Islam, Pakistan and the Blasphemy Laws
CAIR Calls for Release of Pakistani Girl Held for ‘Blasphemy’
