The Religion of Peace Strikes Again...

A mother of 5 has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for committing blasphemy. Perhaps my progressive brethren should be less worried about the "right wing Christians" and more on groups who threaten the lives and liberty of minorities across the globe.


Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan 'for blasphemy'

A Christian woman has been sentenced to hang in Pakistan after being convicted of defaming the Prophet Mohammed.

Asia Bibi has been sentenced to death 'for blasphemy'

By Rob Crilly in Islamabad and Aoun Sahi in Lahore

09 Nov 2010

Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother-of-five, denies blasphemy and told investigators that she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination.

Christian groups and human rights campaigners condemned the verdict and called for the blasphemy laws to be repealed.

Her supporters say she will now appeal against the sentence handed down in a local court in the town of Sheikhupura, near Lahore, Pakistan.

Ashiq Masih, her husband, said he had not had the heart to break the news to two of their children.

"I haven't told two of my younger daughters about the court's decision," he said. "They asked me many times about their mother but I can't get the courage to tell them that the judge has sentenced their mother to capital punishment for a crime she never committed." Mrs Bibi has been held in prison since June last year.

The court heard she had been working as a farmhand in fields with other women, when she was asked to fetch drinking water.

Some of the other women – all Muslims – refused to drink the water as it had been brought by a Christian and was therefore "unclean", according to Mrs Bibi's evidence, sparking a row.

The incident was forgotten until a few days later when Mrs Bibi said she was set upon by a mob.

The police were called and took her to a police station for her own safety.

Shahzad Kamran, of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, said: "The police were under pressure from this Muslim mob, including clerics, asking for Asia to be killed because she had spoken ill of the Prophet Mohammed.

"So after the police saved her life they then registered a blasphemy case against her." He added that she had been held in isolation for more than a year before being sentenced to death on Monday.

"The trial was clear," he said. "She was innocent and did not say those words." Earlier this year, Pakistan's internet service providers were ordered to block Facebook to prevent access to supposedly blasphemous images.

Human rights groups believe the law is often used to discriminate against religious minorities, such as the country's estimated three million Christians.

Although no one has ever been executed under Pakistan's blasphemy laws – most are freed on appeal – as many as 10 people are thought to have been murdered while on trial.

Ali Hasan Dayan, of Human Rights Watch, said the blasphemy laws were out of step with rights guaranteed under Pakistan's constitution and should be repealed.

"It's an obscene law," he said. "Essentially the blasphemy law is used as a tool of persecution and to settle other scores that are nothing to do with religion.

"It makes religious minorities particularly vulnerable because it's often used against them."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8120142/Christian-woman-sentenced-to-death-in-Pakistan-for-blasphemy.html

Where are the Pakistani Kings? (part I)

Pictured Above: 2005 riot in Birmingham, UK

between Pakistani and Afro-Caribbean gangs.

Growing up first in West Rogers Park and then the North Shore, I am well acquainted with Chicago's sizable Desi Community (Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis). From my experience Desis are generally hard working, law abiding and oriented towards education and achievement. So, I was quite surprised to read in British newspapers about the proliferation of South Asian gangs and drug traffickers in England, as well as some pretty serious race riots between South Asian and Afro-Caribbean youth. Many of the Indian and Pakistani Muslims that I became acquainted with in Chicago were religious, but not once did I encounter a hint of the radical Islam that plagues England. This prompted me to ask myself "Where are the Pakistani Kings, where are the Gujarati Gangsters in America? Why in Chicago are there so many Pakistani doctors and pharmacists and so few drug dealers? Why does welfare dependency plague many Pakistanis in England, whereas their rate of welfare use in the United States is significantly lower than that of native born whites?"

During a discussion with a British friend of mine, he informed me that the majority of England's Latin American immigrants were highly educated professionals. And he was quite surprised to learn about the Latin Kings and the many other Hispanic gangs that plague some Chicago neighborhoods. It then dawned on me - the issue is not where an immigrant is from, it's which segment of the population they represent. The reason why crime and welfare use is far higher in England's South Asian population is because a large number of the Desis that immigrate to England are uneducated and deeply traditional, whereas many of the Desis that immigrate to the United are highly educated and modern. Also, the comparatively lower rate of South Asian immigration to the United States coupled with their relative lack of geographic concentration creates a socio-economic environment that is conducive to healthy assimilation. In contrast the high demographic and geographic concentration of Muslim South Asians in England allows for a cultural isolation that hinders assimilation and breeds social pathology, such as gangs and radical Islam.

These lessons are highly applicable to issues of immigration and ethnicity in the United States. Unfortunately, most people draw the wrong conclusions from troubling statistics regarding Latinos, such as: a high school drop out rate that hovers at 46%, an incarceration rate that is 2.45 times greater that that of whites and a poverty rate that is 2.48 times higher. On one hand a disgusting racist fringe incorrectly attribute these statistics to innate pathology in Hispanic people and their culture, on the other hand, most progressives incorrectly emphasize racism and discrimination as the primary causes of social pathology. Both are wrong. The cause is neither race nor racism, it's the generally low education and skill level among Latin American immigrants, as demonstrated by the fact that 60.2% of Mexican immigrants to the United States lacked a high school diploma. The socio-economic performance for high school dropouts of all races is abysmal in a post-industrial United States. But, much to their credit, the crime rate among 1st generation Mexican immigrants is actually lower than that of native born Americans. However the level of arrest, incarceration and welfare use surges in the second generation.

Based on their erroneous interpretation of the said statistics, both the racist fringe of the right and most progressives offer flawed solutions. Racists seek to bar non-whites in general and Latinos in particular from immigrating to the United States. Conversely, progressives believe that a regimen of government programs, including affirmative action is the key to raising socio-economic outcomes among Hispanics. The simple answer eludes both extremes: if we want higher socio-economic outcomes, without investing billions of dollars, our criteria for selecting immigrants should be based far more on their education and skill level. A college graduate is a college graduate and a dropout is a dropout, whether they were born in Madison, Michoacan or Madras. And policy makers should take heed: the education and skill level of the 1st generation influences the performance of generation to come.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jul/14/race.drugsandalcohol

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article866516.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3808165.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Birmingham_race_riots

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052344/Gang-warfare-streets-London-Asian-black-youths-battle-outside-Julie-Christies-house.html

http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/raceinc.html

http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparebar.jsp?ind=14&cat=1

http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=679

Apparently They Didn't Listen To Obama's Speech...

Pictured Above: A "Man Caused Disaster" in Pakistan.

Apparently the jihadists didn't listen to Obama's Speech...

At least 15 people have been killed and 70 wounded when a bomb hidden in a truck ripped through a five-star hotel in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/15-Killed-As-Explosion-Hits-Pearl-Continental-Hotel-In-Pakistan-City-Of-Peshawar-Say-Police/Article/200906215299735?lpos=World_News_News_Your_Way_Region_3&lid=NewsYourWay_ARTICLE_15299735_15_Killed_As_Explosion_Hits_Pearl_Continental_Hotel_In_Pakistan_City_Of_Peshawar_Say_Police

Christians Behead Faith Healer...

Sorry, I searched and searched, but I couldn't find any such headlines, but it seems like the "religion of peace" has been really busy lately "spreading tolerance for other faiths."

Pakistan: Faith healers being shot, blown up, and beheaded

For failing to stop their “illegal and un-Islamic” business. "Faith healers: another casualty of lawlessness in Frontier," from The News, February 23:

PESHAWAR: Faith healers have either stopped practicing or have gone underground because of threats to their lives.

The faith healers of the city have been receiving threats for the past many months and the government failed to provide them security. A number of them were picked from various parts of the city and freed only after assurance that they would no longer continue their practice.

Phool Badshah — the latest victim in the city — was shot dead by unknown people at Khan Mast Colony in the Yakatoot Police Station jurisdiction. Police, as usual, are yet to work out the case.

The office of another faith healer was blown up with explosives in Kohati locality last month. He was threatened by a group to stop his “illegal and un-Islamic” business, but he refused. Abdul Nasir of Pandu, Naseer Shah of Kohat Road, two ‘pirs’ of Badaber and a number of others from across the city were either picked or attacked for practicing faith healing.

The murder of Pir Rafiullah of Taroo Jabba grieved the entire city. Armed men from picked him up from outside his residence last month and later his beheaded body was recovered from the boundary of Khyber Agency. No group claimed responsibly for his murder so far...