Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ian Mason on March 2, 2011 at 1:43pm

Sounds like a mixture of undiagnosed OCD and sadism. Oh, sorry. Musn't say that. It's religion and therefore beyond criticism.

Permalink Reply by Christopher Baughman on March 2, 2011 at 4:30pm

Muslims should keep the sadism in the bedroom, hell everyone should.  Yes, I do mean S&M, ladies and gentlemen. 

 

Anyway, I can only imagine how dangerous it is there for religious minorities.  Especially anti-religious people like atheists. 

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on March 2, 2011 at 5:26pm

They probably do have plenty of sadism, but I'm not sure it's consensual.

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on March 2, 2011 at 5:26pm

So, not only can you be killed for blasphemy, but also for being against killing for blasphemy!

Permalink Reply by Ian Mason on March 3, 2011 at 1:56am

Religion can always find a reason for persecution and murder.

Permalink Reply by Sandy on March 5, 2011 at 5:05am

Update

Turning a blind eye to the bloodthirsty clerics

According to this report, very few politicians had the balls to attend Bhatti's funeral, and even fewer (ie. zero) are willing to condemn the blasphemy laws.

This article has some interesting things to say about the history of Pakistan's blasphemy laws and how they're used, including these examples of real cases that make your mind boggle:

"A 17-year-old schoolboy potentially faces the death penalty because he doodled supposedly blasphemous remarks on a corner of an examination paper. So does a doctor who threw into the dustbin the card of a pharmaceutical salesman whose first name was the same as that of the Prophet.

Just days after Mr Taseer’s murder, a special anti-terrorism court gave life sentences to a Muslim prayer leader and his son. Their crime, prosecutors said, had been to tear down a poster advertising a religious service that had been pasted on their shop front.

In some cases, the accused never made it to court: in 2009, a mob murdered a factory owner because he used an outdated calendar with verses from the Koran written on it to paper over his workplace desk."

Oh - and according to this piece, the politician who was assassinated for his criticism of the blasphemy laws a couple of months ago (Salman Taseer) interviewed Asia Bibi in prison and concluded "that the charge had been brought to hide the fact that she had been beaten and gang-raped for having argued with people of a higher caste."