Pakistan doctor arrested on suspicion of blasphemy

[trotsky]

(via Pharyngula)

Pakistani authorities have arrested a doctor on suspicion of violating the country's contentious blasphemy law by throwing away a business card of a man who shared the name of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, police said Sunday.

The blasphemy law has been widely criticized by human rights groups following the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death last month for insulting Islam. Critics say the law should be amended or repealed because it is often used to settle grudges, persecute minorities and fan religious extremism.

Full story at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/12/12/international/i055248S70.DTL&tsp=1

Thankfully religious extremists are a tiny minority and don't have any real power like running a country and dispensing justice... oops.

[Silent3]

1. You forgot to be especially thankful...

...that it could never, ever happen here.

[trotsky]

2. Whoa, where have you been?

:)
Yes, I am very thankful to live in a place where atheists can be free to express an opinion about religion and not be told to shut up. :sarcasm:

[Igel]

3. Some are just happy to be able to be in a place

where they can express an opinion and not be jailed, fired, expelled from the only Party in town, or generally persecuted by the government.

Those in Pakistan are a special lot. There they're happy just not to be put in jail for decades while the government decides whether to buck international opinion and enforce the death penalty or not, knowing that if a pardon is also a death sentence.

[Silent3]

5. I've been pretty distracted...

...with an open source software project, checking in on DU now and then to read what's going on, but not having had much time or energy to post.

I'm soon going to be on vacation for the rest of the year, but my nerdy idea of fun is that I'm going to probably going to do even more work on that project during my time off. I'll try not to be too much of a stranger, however. :)

This morning, in fact, I was gearing up to start a new thread here, but didn't feel what I was writing was going quite they way I wanted, so I tossed it out. I'll try to take another stab at it tonight or tomorrow.

[DeSwiss]

4. K&R

I wonder if one throws away a business card with the name Muhammad spelled: Mohamad, or Muhammad, or Mohamud, or Mohammud -- if it's the same punishment when it comes to blaspheming? Or is the penalty worse for the poor spelling as well???

- You know, like maybe using larger stones for misspellings and maybe pebbles if you at least spelled it right......

[onager]

6. Local papers have some key details.

Poking around the web...there's a good post at Pharyngula about it:

1. The doctor is an Ismaili - a member of an Islamic Shi'ite sect. Mainstream Sunnis consider them heretics (well, them and everybody else...) So this was a way to harass a minority.

2. The cops were ready to let the doctor go. But the police station was suddenly surrounded by...key words here...a mob of "activists of banned organizations."

Translation: hard-line fundamentalists that are tolerated by the Pakistani government because that government occasionally finds them useful.

When I lived in Egypt, the phrase was "banned but tolerated" and always meant the extremist Muslim Brotherhood. Exactly the same idea.

[trotsky]

7. lol.. "banned but tolerated"

The unofficial Gestapo. Sweet! So the guy is screwed either way.

[ZombieHorde]

8. Seems like any country with a strong religious culture is extremely stupid, and extremely violent.