Randy Grau is against “unnecessary laws,” such as the “Oklahoma Blasphemy Law” (we support repealing this law), but he supported unnecessary laws banning the phantom threat of “Shariah law” and requiring doctors to do particular exams on women who want a prescription for abortion-inducing drugs.

Contradiction much? (h/t: Rizwan)

Oklahoma House of Representatives to Consider Repealing Blasphemy Law

In 1909, Oklahoma enacted a law prohibiting blasphemy, and it stands to this day. But if a new bill from Republican State Representative Randy Grau is passed and signed, that law will be thrown into the dustbin of history.

Reports The Oklahoman on HB 1088:

“Part of my goal is to get rid of unnecessary laws,” [Grau] said… The measure, which passed [the House committee] 6-4, would remove blasphemy as a misdemeanor…

“I am not pro-blasphemy,” Grau said. “I’m for everyone to freely exercise their religion. But that law prohibits the free exercise of religion as well as free speech. Under that law, you could be convicted of a misdemeanor for making fun of another person’s religion. Now, again, I don’t support going around disparaging other people’s religion, but it’s not a crime.”

Rep. Grau is no atheist, far from it. From his campaign website:

Our rights do not come from government, but instead, they are given to us by God…

My Christian faith guides my values in my public and my private life.

Charles Pierce at Esquire, late last year, noticed Grau’s work on this issue, and revealed that Grau was troubled by the protests in the Muslim world over the “Innocence of Muslims” video. But don’t get too excited — Grau also supported bills supporting the non-existant threat of Sharia law in Oklahoma and requiring doctors to perform particular exams on women who want a prescription for abortion-inducing drugs.

It’s interesting times in Oklahoma, considering the recent interest in atheist activism in the local media.

Anyway, HB 1088 will next be considered by the entire House. Its fate is anyone’s guess.

Pakistani policemen escort Islamic cleric Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti as he arrives at a court in Islamabad. Photograph: Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty Images

An update on the case against Rimsha Masih via. Mohammad Rashid, who adds the comment, “Time to abolish this idiotic law!” Agreed.

It seems the local cleric, Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, who was a chief instigator in the recent anti-Christian agitation and persecution of Rimsha Masih had a very belligerent attitude against local Christians who he accused of making “too much noise” when the they worship (where have we heard that before?). Like other absolutists he couldn’t countenance living near people who were different than him. This was revealed by another cleric Maulvi Zubair from a mosque nearby who said he objected to to Chishti’s plans.

Chishti is in custody now, pending investigation on charges that he planted charred pages on the young girl. This gives the story an added twist of depravity, what kind of adult would do something so cynical, so base? I hope he is also charged for inciting violence.

Pakistani mullah ‘planted charred texts’ on girl accused of blasphemy

(The Guardian)

The mullah at the centre of the furore surrounding a young Pakistani Christian girl facing a death sentence for blasphemy has been accused of deliberately framing her by planting burnt Islamic texts.

In an extraordinary development in the case, which has attracted international condemnation, Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti arrived in court blindfolded and under tight security after being arrested late on Saturday night. The judge ruled he should be held in police custody for two weeks.

Police say two of his colleagues gave statements that he added pages from the Qu’ran to strengthen the case against Rimsha Masih, who has been in custody for two weeks after she was accused by Muslim neighbours in her Islamabad neighbourhood of burning the holy book.

The crime is particularly serious under the country’s much-criticised blasphemy laws and offenders can be sentenced to death.

Maulvi Zubair and two other assistants at a mosque near Rimsha’s house told police Chishti deliberately added pages from the Qu’ran to some charred refuse she was carrying.

Zubair is said to have objected at the time but Chishti insisted it was the only way to get rid of Christians in the area.

Rimsha’s lawyers maintain that she did not commit any crime. They say that not only is she only 13 years old, and should be tried as a juvenile, she also has Down’s syndrome and therefore “cannot commit such a crime”, according to her bail application.

Chishti has been outspoken about his dislike of the hundreds of Christian families who live in the area, even appearing on a popular national television show to complain that the noise made by Christian worshippers had disturbed Muslim residents.

He also welcomed the departure of most of the Christians from the area following the furore surrounding the arrest of Rimsha last month. With passions running high in the community – hundreds of people demonstrated outside her house, reportedly demanding the right to burn the young girl to death – most Christians fled the area.

“We are not upset the Christians have left and we will be pleased if they don’t come back,” Chishti told the Guardian on 18 August.

Tahir Naveed Chaudhry from the All Pakistan Minority Committee said Rimsha’s lawyers had always maintained the evidence was planted. “And now it is proved that the whole story was only designed to dislocate the Christian people,” he said.

“[Chishti] must be prosecuted under the blasphemy law as it will set a precedent against anyone else who tries to misuse that law.”

The blasphemy laws have been widely abused as a powerful way to settle scores and disputes. People have been sentenced to long jail terms on extremely weak evidence, some of which cannot even be properly examined in court for fear of repeating any blasphemy.

But public criticism of the laws is itself dangerous – two prominent politicians have been assassinated by religious hardliners after speaking out.

Mumtaz Qadri, a former security guard who last year gunned down his boss, Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab at the time, is regarded by many Pakistanis as a hero for killing a man who had publicly criticised the blasphemy laws and backed a Christian woman who was sentenced to death.

Christians and Muslims protest the blasphemy laws.

“He will not enter paradise whose neighbor is not secure from his wrongful conduct” – Prophet Muhammad

In the most recent manifestation of rising intolerance against minorities in Pakistan we have yet another instance in which blasphemy laws, amended under the military dictatorship of Zia-Ul Haq in the 1980′s have been used and manipulated to abuse and harm the most vulnerable.

This time an 11 year old girl by the name of Rimsha Masih has been arrested at the incitement of a mob on charges of allegedly burning a few pages of the Qur’an.

This is not the first time such egregious assaults on the conscious in Pakistan have come to our attention.

A few months ago a mentally ill man in Bahawalpur was accused of insulting Islam by burning the Qur’an, he was beaten by a mob, police intervened and jailed the man for his protection. This however did not sit well with the mob or their thirst for vigilante ‘vengeance’. The mob besieged the police station, forced their way inside, overwhelmed the impotent police force, dragged out the man, and beat and burned him alive.

Before that incident there was the high profile case of Aasia Bibi, a poor Christian woman who was accused of blasphemy by her co-workers. In the resulting aftermath the Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer was murdered by his own security guard for speaking out about the injustice of the blasphemy laws and the treatment of Aasia Bibi. Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister of Minority Affairs, was quite vocal regarding his opposition to the law and the way Aasia Bibi was treated, he too was gunned down.

Such horrific cases are not limited to Christians: Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmedis, Sunnis and Shias have all been subjected to the injustice of blasphemy laws, in one form or another. The laws are generally used according to observers as a means to settle personal scores.

Critics among Pakistan’s embattled liberals say the law is regularly misused by people to settle personal scores and dispossess neighbours from land.

Now, 11 year old Rimsha Masih sits in a dingy jail cell, as in other cases ostensibly for her protection.

How did this tragedy unfold?

Some doubts and questions exist about whether or not Rimsha Masih is actually 11 years old and suffers from Down syndrome as most media outlets have portrayed,

Christian, and some Muslim, neighbors said Ms. Masih was 11 years old and had Down syndrome. Senior police officers dismissed those claims; one described her as 16 and “100 percent mentally fit.”

Discussions about Masih’s mental faculties and age miss the point and are irrelevant considering there is agreement on the most important facts.

According to most accounts, Rimsha and her family are impoverished street sweepers who lived in a slum near Islamabad. According to her landlord the controversy erupted when a local cleric was informed by his nephew about Masih holding a burned copy of a book called the “Noorani Qaida” which is used to teach children the Quran.

Malik Amjad, landlord of the family’s rented house, said the controversy started early last week after his nephew saw Ms. Masih holding a burned copy of the Noorani Qaida. The nephew informed a local cleric, Khalid Jadoon, Mr. Amjad said.

Desecration of Muslim holy texts is illegal in Pakistan and punishable by death. But Mr. Amjad said the incident bothered few local residents initially and caught fire only at the instigation of the cleric and two conservative shopkeepers.

“He tried to shame people by saying, ‘What good are your prayers if the Koran is being burnt?’ ” Mr. Amjad said.

Mr. Amjad said he handed the girl over to the police for her own protection and criticized the cleric’s role. “He exaggerated the incident and provoked people,” he said.

It was not clear how, or even if, Ms. Masih had come across the burned religious book. One neighbor, Malik Shahid, said it might have simply become accidentally swept up in a trash pile she was collecting.

The situation has been roundly condemned by Pakistani Human Rights campaigners and activists, government officials and politicians.

Senior government and police officials agreed with Christian leaders that the accusations against Ms. Masih were baseless and predicted that the case would ultimately be dropped.

Imran Khan, a leading politician and frontrunner in Pakistan’s 2013 Presidential elections sent out this message,

Shameful! Sending an 11yr old girl to prison is against the very spirit of Islam which is all about being Just and Compassionate.

The Poor child is already suffering from Down Syndrome. The State should care for its children not torment them. We demand her immediate release.

Pakistani journalists and bloggers have also been quite vocal about the shocking situation.

We have been alerted to two separate petitions calling on Pakistan’s Minister of Human Rights and the government to protect and immediately release both Aasia Bibi and Rimsha Masih (h/t: Hatice).

Repeal Aasia Bibi’s death sentence petition

And

Letter to Pakistan’s Minister of Human Rights for the Immediate Release of Aasia Bibi

And

Appeal to UNO Human Rights for the Release of Rimsha Masih

It is important to sign and share these petitions, so as to make clear where the world stands on these issues. It is vital foremost for Muslims to do so.

Some may question why we are highlighting this particular case, since Loonwatch focuses on exposing rampant anti-Muslim and Islamophobic bigotry. We believe sharing the above petitions are important most of all out of respect for basic human dignity and because such attacks also harm Muslims everywhere, especially in the West. A bigot or an Islamophobe may use it as justification for his (or her’s) nefarious anti-Muslim agenda and or as an excuse for violent reprisals. It is also important to point out the great irony of all of this, that such mobs, excited by ignorant and blind passions of “defending the faith” stand condemned by Islam–unequivocally. Nowhere, not even in classic, medieval Islamic jurisprudence can one find an interpretation permitting vigilante, extra-judicial torture and murder of any person who allegedly committed a crime–let alone killing and beating the insane, handicap and poor. Indeed, those individuals who took part in the mob should be found, arrested and given the harshest judgment possible under the law. To be made examples.

Clearly the implementation of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan has proved defective and only increased divisiveness, sectarianism and injustice. It calls to mind the urgent need to implement what Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan called “An international moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty” in Muslim majority countries–and to go further, a repeal of unjust laws such as the current blasphemy law in place in Pakistan which overwhelmingly prosecute and persecute the innocent, the poor, the vulnerable and the minority.