Time and again, we find that just doesn't take a whole lot. Asia News reports that the defendant is a Christian, which adds an important dimension to the story: namely, the use of Pakistan's blasphemy laws to terrorize and repress religious minorities.
"Life term for blasphemy accused," by Ishaq Tanoli for Dawn, February 25:
KARACHI, Feb 25: A blasphemy accused was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday by a sessions court for outraging religious feelings of Muslims while a co-accused was acquitted for want of evidence.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Jangu Khan found Qamar David guilty of using blasphemous remarks about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and Holy Quran and pronounced the verdict after hearing final arguments from both sides.
The court imposed a total of Rs101,000 in fine. In case of non-payment, the convict would serve a prison term for another seven months and 10 days.
The sentences will run concurrently.
According to the verdict, a SIM (subscriber identity module) card was found in possession of the convict and the data produced by the cellular company established that messages were sent from the seized SIM.
According to prosecution, Qamar David spread blasphemous messages through his cellphone. Police arrested him in April 2006 and seized his cellphone.
And Dawn just reports all of this so matter-of-factly. All in a day's work...
I wish the Dawn article had been more specific about these "blasphemous" messages. Since these were probably text messages, it could have been as small a thing as forgetting or not bothering to put the ubiquitous "pbuh" after Muhammed's name, and forgetting it was the "holy", "noble", or "sacred" Qur'an that was being referenced.
Muhammed was only a man, and the Qur'an is only a book. Anyone who gets bent out of shape over these facts needs medication.
The verdict was noted by the prosecutor in the Wilders Case; he thanked the Pakistani Court for its wisdom and jurisprudence and futher indicated that he intended to cite the case as a precedent to show how other Courts have acted responsibly to curb hatred and offensive insults.
He was overheard remarking to an aide: 'isn't that funny; they have christians with jewish names that insult islam while living in an islamic country, where's their god to protect them now? Some people just can't acept their position in life, can they?'
When told by bystanders that his remark was offfensive he replied: 'well, its the truth, and, don't they say, the truth is the best defense, right, hahahahaha'.
And Dawn just reports all of this so matter-of-factly. All in a day's work...
.....................
Yes, indeed—that "Peace be Upon Him" was a bit of a tip-off as to their "objectivity".
More highlights from Dawn's coverage:
# Protecting women
The Domestic Violence Bill was stalled because of opposition from the religious lobby.
....
Why would the "religious lobby" oppose protecting women? Oh, wait—you mean the "Islamic religious lobby"—now it makes perfect sense!
# Do more!
Pakistan has suffered greater losses than the Americans who tell the country to do more.
....
Yes—because how could a fight against "radical Islam" ever be Pakistan's fight?
Will Pakistan hear any complaints from the United States over the grotesque railroading of poor Qamar David? I wouldn't hold my breath.
... blasphemous remarks about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)...
*** al-Tabari IX:69 ***
Killing disbelievers is a small matter to us.
-- The Holy Prophet Mohammed
Peace be upon him, indeed.
*** 8:39 ***
... and Holy Quran.
Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.
-- Allah
Peace be upon Allah, too.
*** 92:8 ***
Am I missing a connection here?
I'm sure everything this defendant said was alright, cuz he or anybody else cannot possibly say anything impious or slanderous about Mohammed and his angry sidekick Allah.
This is probably the source of 99% of Islamic terrorism. When Muslim non-fundamentalists live under a regime of fear for saying anything that might be "out of line" against the Quran or Muhammad, and face the death penalty if they want to leave Islam. Then surely they will be pushed to the extremes of the fanatic Islamist fundamentalism.
That is also the reason why America's war in Afghanistan will never produce a free Afghanistan without the coercive force of the fanatic Mullahs. The laws in Afghanistan still mandate the death penalty for leaving Islam or blasphemy. So unless we tell the Afghans that the blood of our soldiers will not be spilled to enforce their disgusting laws, I see nothing good coming out of our military presence in that area.
Muslims are acutely sensitive to any ridicule of The Pedophile because he is the one and only foundation of their cult, and if his 'authority' is undermined then the whole rotten edifice will come crashing down.
That is why satire of Islam, and especially of the Child-Mohlester, is such a potent weapon. Mockery is far better than any theological, philosophical or other rational arguments.
While we still have free speech in the West we should use it to ridicule and belittle the Dirty Old Pervert as frequently as possible. It's a psychological war of attrition: http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/ridicule-mockey-and-satire-best-weapons.html
Given that Islam is more like a gang than anything else, wonder how non-Muslims get by in prisons populated largely by Muslims. It is horrible to even consider. The only hope would be that the Muslims think so lowly of the infidels that they are put in a separate prison or wing of a prison.
"...for outraging religious feelings"
Well, Jangu Khan, it so happens that "The Cult Test" by A. Orange is making the rounds at sites critical of the global warming hoax. 100 questions. Very relevant to your line of work. You should get to know it.
Start at #64, then proceed to #19, "Surrender to the Cult". In your case, Jangu, it's "Surrender to Submission, the Cult of a Guru Who Called Himself, Get This, Muhammad".
There's not much about cults striving to take control of secular legislatures, the courts, etc., and #93 looks like a denial of the existence of contradictory propositions and as such needs a minor fixup. Still...
www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult_q0.html
The silence of leaders like the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury on the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world seems, to me, grotesque. Do they feel no urge to stand by their co-religionist whatsoever? Surely they must realise that there is no hope of things improving without their expressing their concern, at least, to western governments and international bodies.
Any direct complaints to Muslim dominated regimes would be met with denials and a 'how many divisions has the Pope?' mentality.
The supineness of our church leaders must only serve to reinforce the contempt Mohammedans barely bother to conceal for the religion of peace. It must even be yet another deterrence to some waverers in the camp of Islam from taking the leap of converting to Christianity.
May I continue to "outrage the religious feelings" of Muslims myself with this new offering:
http://s478.photobucket.com/albums/rr144/gravenimageartist/?action=view¤t=gharkad.jpg&newest=1
From the Hadith:
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The
stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Except for the Gharkad tree, which is the the tree of the Jews."
And so, proclaiming "I am a Gharkad Tree" means you will protect victims from Islam. Please let me know what you think.
Lovely.
Dumbledore's Army, thank you.
"The silence of leaders like the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury on the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world seems, to me, grotesque."
Oh, it's grotesque, and it is evil, pure Satanic evil. Christians in the free West should be very concerned that they are failing their Faith big time. If God is allowing Islam to destroy the West surely the failure of Christians in the West, with wealth the world has never seen, failing so spectacularly to stand with and to stand up for the Christians of the lands where Jesus was born and Christianity first grew, would be one valid reason that God would have.
Thanks for the pics graven. I downloaded them, and changed the file names slightly so they would have meanings such as this - 'Jihad Watch - Heroes against Jihad - Geert Wilders'.
Curiously that compresses to 'JW_HAJ_GW'.
I got a little laugh at seeing that HAJ in there and thought I'd share it.
Nice.
wallyUK, good point.
But, Christians, ministers, politicians say they can only do so much, having not much power in other countries. And pointing out that persecution of Christians happens occasionally in China and much more brutal in North Korea too. And in the old days, when there was no Islamic presence in Democratic countries to speak of, I could not find much fault with this realistic attitude.
But now there are both Islamic minorities in countries dominated by Christians/ Hindus/ Buddhists/ Atheists, Divers, which together I would call here the Faith-coalition with the Democratic principles, AND minorities of these faiths (incl. Atheism) in Islamic countries.
And there is huge imbalance in rights for the 2 minorities among the 2 majorities!
There are 2 ways for Democrats to respond:
I. We keep looking only nationally, and try with relatively ineffective diplomatic efforts to help the Democratic minorities in Islamic countries.
Or II. We develop an "Interfaith-policy", NOT looking primarily to borders between different countries and at their separate autonomies, but looking at how worldwide the Democratic faithful and the Islamic faithful interact.
Then, and I don't know how exactly yet, we aim for total reciprocity in treatment, rights, opportunities for minorities, including the right to apostasize and convert, and even proselityze.
And in that scenario somehow we could hold accountable the Muslims living in the Democratic countries. They must announce and show their primary loyalties and these should be to Democratic principles in both Democratic and Islamic countries. Strict neutrality can be accepted but choices against Democratic principles and reciprocity of rights for minorities should be reacted against with just measures.
With increased intolerance from the Democrats towards hostile Muslims living in Democratic countries. Always on condition that Muslims keep getting the choice of loyalty to Democracy.
I say this because the Democrats should not be forced to trust blindly in the good faith of the vast majority of Muslims without them explicitly taking sides or remain strictly neutral.
To demand blind trust by Muslims & their friends from the Democrats, for the sake of respect and love, is not reasonable and acceptable, when there are so many Muslim leaders who advocate that theocracy should supplant Eemocracy and that Islam in this way should rule the world, by whatever means possible.
And when most often a Muslims highest loyalty is not national, but international, to his/ her Muslim brethren. And even if national, then not to the Democratic principles so many of the Democrats can't live without, but to opposing Islamic principles.
Whereas at the same time it is perfectly doable and fair for Muslims to live under Democratic rules.
Very nice, gravenimage. I may just have to order one of those shirts.
It appears from the lack of any significant protest or official complaint from the United-Dhimmi States of America, our incapable president or the impotent senate and congress, that the likes of Pakistan and Egypt are above basic law and all normal human and civic sensibilities of the United-Dhimmi States of America.
In particular, these two Islamic nations have in the past and continue to persecute, severely punish, harass and kill Christians, Jews and all non-Muslims, whom they consider less than human in accordance with the Koran.
It is high time the people of United States protest to stop the unquestioned, unaccounted, and uninterrupted financial aid in the tens of Billions of US taxpayer dollars, siphoned off from our future generations to subsidize extra judicial slaughter and slavery of minorities in Pakistan (terror- central) and Egypt by corrupt Jihadists masking as our "allies".
"Muhammed was only a man, and the Qur'an is only a book. Anyone who gets bent out of shape over these facts needs medication."
Actually, I think involuntary commitment to an insane asylum is more in order.
"Muslims are acutely sensitive to any ridicule of The Pedophile because he is the one and only foundation of their cult, and if his 'authority' is undermined then the whole rotten edifice will come crashing down."
Like in "The Wizard of Oz" when Toto pulls aside the curtain revealing "Oz" for what he is - a "humbug." i.e. An impostor. Just like Mo.
Right - it's essential to Mohammedans that the curtain around Mo not be pulled aside.
But every satire, mockery, and ridicule by us provides a little tug.
"But, Christians, ministers, politicians say they can only do so much, having not much power in other countries."
If they had been consistently pressing for rights for Christians in Islamic lands over the centuries that fight would have in and of itself (even if they never made it any better for Christians in Islamic lands) made it impossible for people to ignore the true nature of Islam and the West would not be in the predicament it is today wherein it believes that Islam is just another religion and that it can coexist with others and that it can exist in the West without destroying the West. Ignoring the plight of Christians in Islamic lands has ironically resulted in Christians in the West setting in motion the day when they themselves, or at least their descendants, being in the exactly same position in their own countries! One can excuse the atheist or the lapsed Christian secularist for failing to grasp the reality of Islam but any Christian, and in particular any church leader or pastor has no excuse for failing to scream from the rooftops about the evils of Islam to every single person they come in contact with. Having failed to do that they have sown the seeds for the destruction of their own civilization, one that ironically was made possible by their faith, Christianity.