65-year-old man accused of blasphemy shot dead in Pakistani police station

[Grimes]

Article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/16/murder-in-pakistan-police-station-raises-concerns-of-intolerance

 

Reddit article: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/25qqdm/65yearold_man_accused_of_blasphemy_shot_dead_in/

 

Quote I found humorous from reddit: "the religion of peace strikes again"

 

How commonplace is this in hardline Muslim countries?

 

Do the people of these countries believe its the right thing to do? 

[The Radiated Banana]

Step 1 to making discussions in this forum

DONT use that font ;-;

[Grimes]

Step 1 to making discussions in this forum

DONT use that font ;-;

 

What font? 

[Euphoria]

Step 1 to making discussions in this forum

DONT use that font ;-;

 

I personally don't see whats wrong with it.

Font is font.

[Seminal Inhalation]

So they let a random kid walk into a police station and shoot a guy...

A POLICE STATION

[Kevin the Chicken God]

I personally don't see whats wrong with it.

Font is font.

thats what they said about comic sans

RIP

[Grimes]

So they let a random kid walk into a police station and shoot a guy...

A POLICE STATION

 

All religious/political bias aside, thats pretty fucked up.

[The Radiated Banana]

All religious/political bias aside, thats pretty fucked up.

No shit, but it is pakistan, the place isnt really controlled well

[oblivion276678]

So they let a random kid walk into a police station and shoot a guy...

A POLICE STATION

Well if you walk into a police station with a semi powerful firearm and open fire before anyone realizes what's happening, your chances of killing somebody are pretty high. Though them not checking the guy for weapons was a fuck up on their part, it's not that difficult to at least injure somebody in a police station with a firearm.

[Seminal Inhalation]

Well if you walk into a police station with a semi powerful firearm and open fire before anyone realizes what's happening, your chances of killing somebody are pretty high. Though them not checking the guy for weapons was a fuck up on their part, it's not that difficult to at least injure somebody in a police station with a firearm.

What I mean is, why are they letting a random teenager walk around a police station with no security around, no police around, and no body checks? You could just walk in there with pounds of C4 strapped to you and they wouldn't even notice.

[t0night]

"the religion of peace strikes again"

 

meanwhile, the worldwide arbiters of freedom and justice are literally murdering civilians with drone strikes in the same country, in much greater numbers. but hey, we're reddit, what the fuck do we care about brown people being killed unless we can make fun of their religion through it.

[The Radiated Banana]

What I mean is, why are they letting a random teenager walk around a police station with no security around, no police around, and no body checks? You could just walk in there with pounds of C4 strapped to you and they wouldn't even notice.

Its the damn paki's (im no racist sowwy)

[t0night]

also it's possibly blasphemy/religious hardlining being used as an excuse to nail a minority group in general, from what I gathered in the article, rather than like, you get automatically get shot for saying blasphemy. i'm sure they do have some ridiculously hardcore punishments for it, but in this example it's vigilante "justice" based on sectarian divide.

[λngelღмander]

Just today, some random muslim lady was put in jail for renouncing islam and converting to christianity. They said if she came back to islam they would allow her to live, otherwise theyll whip her 100 times then execute her. Peaceful my ass!

[There]

"the religion of peace strikes again"

 

meanwhile, the worldwide arbiters of freedom and justice are literally murdering civilians with drone strikes in the same country, in much greater numbers. but hey, we're reddit, what the fuck do we care about brown people being killed unless we can make fun of their religion through it.

 

And using our fucking religion to justify it?

[CheddarZX]

another quote from reddit i found funny: 

 

God is like "cool thanks. thats uh. totally what I wanted you to do"

[puddingkip]

Alright, I feel like I have to defend muslims again. Yes there are idiot moslims who have some extremely strange interpretations of Qu'ran verses. They then think it's funny to blow themselves up or fly planes into towers.

 

But that's not the majority of people. It's a bit like saying that Christians are all weird and mean because of Westboro baptist church. Or that vegitarians are crazy because Hitler was crazy.

 

These are just people that are being used by the mullahs/imams for their own gain

 

And using our fucking religion to justify it?

 

Does the quote "For God, King and Country" say anything to you? I must admit it's British, but it was widely used in WW1 which wasn't exactly a human rights party

[t0night]

And using our fucking religion to justify it?

why does it matter what you use to "justify" murdering civilians, as is clearly the case in both examples here. religious "justification" or the ideology of "the War on Terror", neither is more or less valid when you're killing innocent people. not to mention the fact that there are those who would certainly like to ally a christian theology more closely with the laws and codes of the state, often the same who support the vast overexpenditure on "defense" of the same state, which can take the form of, you guessed it, drone strikes in Pakistan. tenuous, possibly, but you see what i'm saying. extremism and aggression is not limited to one religion.

 

i'm gonna anticipate your argument that the Qoran tells people to kill infidels or whatever, and that this makes Islam a "worse" religion in this regard, and frankly my knowledge of the book is way too lacking to really debate about it, all I'll say is that it really does not seem to be an interpretation that occurs outside of a politically radicalised context. Plenty of Muslim nations have historically had very stable, peaceful societies. In places of political and social divide and unrest, religion is used as a means of 'othering', of separating groups apart from one's own group in order to solidify your own group. Through that you have the justification, or at least lack of prohibition against, violence towards that group.

 

So then, in the case of Pakistan, a country under 70 years old, born out of what was British India, and defined in the cartological sense by a completely arbitrary line drawn by one colonial authority. Broadly, Pakistan was supposed to become a home for Indian Muslims, and the Hindus were supposed to move to the new India. Can you see why there might be in the very genesis of this nation, a sense of uncertainty and insecurity, and the basis for religion being used as a means of discriminating between "us" and "them" in order to preserve or create some identity? Yeah, I'm not remotely surprised that they still struggle to get their police force up to scratch. Unlike the other major "create-a-nation" project in the period, Pakistan didn't have the backing of western nations or a huge diaspora to come home to it, and building a stable nation partly on a colonial legacy (which includes the blasphemy law which is today being abused) and partly as an independent nation is gonna take them much longer than the ~70 years they've had.

[The Radiated Banana]

Just today, some random muslim lady was put in jail for renouncing islam and converting to christianity. They said if she came back to islam they would allow her to live, otherwise theyll whip her 100 times then execute her. Peaceful my ass!

source?

[F CHARLIE]

So they let a random kid walk into a police station and shoot a guy...

A POLICE STATION

  

 

This kid was chosen to do this and it was allowed by the police. "Investigate our lapse in security" sure.

 

 

And using our fucking religion to justify it?

After seeing these events for some time I believe that this is about social order/control and distraction. Its easier to blame a minority group for the problems than it is to deal with inequality, fear, unfulfilled lives, etc. Look at the homosexual discusion in the USA. It is fairly meaningless in its effect on most people's lives or on the nation as a whole but it is an incredibly intense debate and consumes a lot of national energy.

[Tron]

Well... this isn't the first time we have seen execution due to blasphemy.

 

It really saddens me when religion collides with... law?

 

This movement was definitely from radicals. As we know, the media has a profound impact on peoples beliefs. Publishing this article will certainly increase the hate and stereotype towards Muslims. But hey, its religion and we all get criticism.

 

I think this murder would have seemed right in the radical's eyes, but for standard civilians and Muslims, definitely not. I hope not.. at least.