Pakistan mob burns man to death for 'blasphemy'

[alp227]

Source: BBC

A Pakistani mob has taken a man accused of blasphemy from a police station and burnt him to death, police say.

The man was being held for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran in public. The incident took place on the outskirts of Bahawalpur, in Punjab province.

Witnesses said hundreds of people looked on as he screamed for help.

Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law imposes the death penalty for insulting Islam, but it is rarely carried out.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18713545

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Another reason this independence day to be thankful that the US has separation of church and state.

[CanonRay]

1. Score another one for religious nutbaggery

I despise them, of any stripe.

[hobbit709]

2. Anyone that thinks it can't happen here is mistaken.

The fundies would do it in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it.

[awoke_in_2003]

4. The only reason they are against...

Sharia law is because they don't want any competition

[Lionessa]

5. They sort of already do with the beating and bullying they do to LGBT

only it's not quite so public.

Also I'm looking back at the school bus monitor incident. Yes, for those who remember, I was frustrated with the woman and the bus company, but that doesn't change the fact that in a similar fashion, we are seeing the beginnings of that type of group hate in more and more public ways. If we allow these religious fundies here to gain much more of a foothold, the war on women will be the least of our worries. It will be a war on all. Geez, just look at the Texas Republican platform, if that doesn't reek of state sponsored fundamentalism, I don't know what does.

[cali]

17. It doesen't happen here and the fundies can't get away with it and they are no where

near the place where they could. Not defending the nutbag fundies, but the system.

[hobbit709]

19. Don't bet on it.

Crazier things have happened in history.

[Speaker]

36. Dr. Tiller would like a word...

[NYC Liberal]

23. Yeah, "if they could get away with it"

That's a mighty big if.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. The cozier they get with our government, the smaller an 'if' it becomes

[4th law of robotics]

30. Weird how every thread about foreigners acting stupid becomes

a thread about how awful it is here.

You don't see that in reverse.

/religious idiots protested against gay marriage in Florida? Yeah well it could happen in pakistan too!

[FiveGoodMen]

32. Not weird

We are nominally in charge of our own nation but not in charge of Pakistan.

Saying "it could happen there, too" is just a way of saying "things could be worse so shut up" whereas saying "It could (or does) happen here, too" is a warning and a call to action.

[treestar]

38. Yep. This could in theory happen here

But it doesn't - even the fundies know they will be charged with murder - that may be the case in Pakistan, too.

It plays into the hands of right wingers with their perpetual argument that extreme fundies don't do things like this. But those fundies know the system will punish them for it and that makes a big difference.

[agent46]

3. It would be a small thing at this late stage

...for an opportunistic theocratic Republican admin and congress to enact such blasphemy laws in the U.S.. Of course, in America violators would be assigned life sentences to forced industrial labor. Death sentences would be such a waste of cheap manpower. It's coming if we don't stop it.

[agent46]

10. In chaotic times

Fundamentalism creeps into every doctrine and tries to take over. It's based on fear and the need for literal certainty in a world that's too complex to understand. There's no ideology on earth that's immune to this threat. Vigilance is so important to our Democracy right now.

[freshwest]

27. +1

[longship]

6. Hmm! Than, explain all these so-called religious freedom bills.

The people who write them no nothing about religious freedom. They only know that the state should advocate solely for the freedom of the religious, excluding all those who disagree.

Damnit! This is a secular government. To the extent that you disagree, is the extent to which you do not understand the philosophical underpinnings of the founding of our country.

The Republicans have lost their way. They think -- and preach, literally -- that our history was based on their Christian Puritan heritage.

The extent to which we do not take them on about these falsehoods is the extent to which we will lose.

Call them out for what they are, ideologues who see every argument as against their religious purity.

May God damn them. (So to speak)

[Lionessa]

7. All over a book.... I just can't wrap my head around that.

How insecure that religion, those followers, must be to fear and hate based on burning a book (1984 in reverse) that has millions of copies and more to come, no doubt.

[treestar]

39. I agree - there are zillions of copies of the book

and it won't go away as an idea - so they must be reacting to the idea there's a person who dislikes the book enough to burn it more than anything, and that it is very threatening to them that people who don't believe in it exist. Like is someone else does not believe in one's religion, that makes it more likely that one's religion is "wrong." People need to get a grip - if they really believe, someone else's non-belief should not be a threat.

[ohgeewhiz]

8. Most disturbing that Pakistan allows this

I'm aware that Pakistan is not the most advanced western-semi-allied nation in the world, but this is really disgusting.

As free and and advanced and as much as we have our own religious nuts in the USA, we don't see people burning other people for religious reasons, at least not to my knowledge for the last hundred or so years.

True we have bigots and racists that lynched and still kill and torture and firebomb and make America look backward. But this kind of thing, from a supposed ally? Pakistan is an enigma, a mix of ancient and modern cultures and values, a place no one would want to spend much time in, if they had a choice. There's a reason so many intelligent Pakistani folks try to come to Europe or the USA. Pakistan is a Somalia with a powerful government and army.

We have to realize that a significant part of the world has a long way to go to get up to our standards, where our bigots and racists and yahoos are most often arrested punished for any overt act of hatred and ignorance half as ugly as this.

I'm not giving America a blessing for religious zealots who only inspire hatred and fear with their words, but we don't see religious zealots burning people at the stakes, not yet, anyway. I hope this never happens again anywhere in the world, and that Pakistan is shamed for not interceding and saving this poor man's life.

[pscot]

11. It's not so much that Pakistan allows this

This is what Pakistan is. These people aren't Minnesotans. they see things differently than we do.

[pscot]

12. Bye the way

welcome to DU.

[freshwest]

28. If you add all the excellent examples to the Salem witch trials, it might be the same. We've become

More progressive, but the voices of hatred promoting intolerance are strong in some areas, very strong. In rural areas, things do go on with the alleged approval of authority.

Pakistan is not really our ally, nor are many of these countries; they are business partners for our global corporations. For all we know, they see this as a good way of keeping the people divided for business.

And welcome to DU. Good comment there.

[applegrove]

9. Sick!

[Auntie Bush]

13. We have separation of church and state? Could have fooled me.

[24601]

35. Separation of Church and State are not from the Constitution. Instead, it provides

that the government will not establish religion, not will it prohibit the free exercise thereof. And the dating of the Constitution does include the words "in the year of our Lord...." citing years from the Christian calendar.

The Declaration of Independence is more explicit as it defines that our rights are endowed by our "creator" - and i don't judge they meant mom & dad.

[sulphurdunn]

14. Pakistan

is medieval Europe with nukes.

[fujiyama]

15. A governor or minister (who was Christian at that)

was assassinated a while ago for opposing these blasphemy laws.

I don't understand how we can give a country like this any aid whatsoever, when we hold no preconditions on their sponsorship of terrorism (obvious one) or even having such vile and backwards laws on the books.

[SylviaD]

16. Why in the world would a native Pakistani burn a Koran? n/t

[Igel]

22. Not every Pakistani is Muslim.

Some are Xians. There's even a really small Hindu minority left over after the waves of ethnic cleansing in the '40s.

The "desecration" doesn't have to be intentional. It can be accidental.

It also only has to be alleged. For the time it takes to investigate the faithful would be dishonored and seek to reclaim their honor by the prescribed manner.

It's a standard way of getting Xian land: You accuse the owner of blasphemy, he's killed, and his land's auctioned for cheap. Or you know the family and get them to see it lest the eldest son or the mother or somebody else also be accused of blasphemy. (It's also an effective method of getting a Xian girl as your house servant or making it so her pregnancy 8 months after starting to work for you is attributed to her brother or some stranger. Yeah, she's a prostitute at that point, but it's that or death for the father. Golden-Age laws for Pakistan's golden age, I guess.)

[4th law of robotics]

31. Apparently he was cold. n/t

[StateApparatus]

18. Shhh...

They're our allies! Don't say anything!

[Adsos Letter]

20. Theocracy has the answers to our problems!

...oh, wait...

[Igel]

21. It happens.

Such are the people. This was over in Punjab.

A couple of weeks ago, in Sindh. http://dawn.com/2012/06/18/mob-attempts-to-lynch-blasphemy-suspect/

[cosmicone]

25. This is news?

This is day-to-day stuff in Pakistan, a failed state, living on foreign aid and providing terrorist services to the highest bidder.

[may3rd]

34. It's a bbc article, it grows legs with their asian population reading news about their homeland

and this sanitized article pales in comparison of what gets pulled from you tube for standards unbecoming a civil website such as theirs.

http://www.usip.org/events/countering-radicalization-and-violent-extremism-in-pakistan

[freshwest]

26. Yes, and we better keep it that way. If only the fundies here could see what they're creating...

[may3rd]

33. 2,000 members of the judge, jury and executioner mob rules against the vagrant

the police state can't hold back that many zombies demanding blood in the name of their gods honor.

Yes,
it could happen here but the current majority of fundies in the US follow the turn the other cheek mantra.

Maybe, with the spread of the other kool aid ,
the mob rule mentality will take root . If,
they can reach a workable majority here and there

[riderinthestorm]

37. Ignorance, fear, a mob mentality, and Allah's will - a recipe for religious atrocity. Disgusting nt

[dmallind]

40. Well when you worship something that does that same thing eternally out of "love"

It's a pretty small step to save him the trouble and do it yourself. Same for any religions that have a hell.