A glimpse into the reality behind many of the blasphemy cases in Pakistan.
“Pakistan: ‘Saving one Christian girl suffering persecution will help others,'” by Francesca Merlo, Herald Malaysia, December 24, 2019:
38 year-old Catholic lawyer, Tabassum Yousaf, considers assisting persecuted Christians her mission, and a service to God and her Church. This is why she has not allowed the threats she has received to “stop her”, as she defends Huma Younus’ parents in their battle to get their daughter back.
Huma’s story
Huma is a 14-year-old Christian girl from Zia Colony in Karachi, Pakistan. On the 10th of October, whilst her parents were out, she was abducted from her home and forced to convert and marry a Muslim man.
Though her parents received Huma’s conversion papers and marriage certificate – to a man named Abdul Jabar – the family are sure the papers are fake, due also to them being dated to the very same day the young girl went missing.
Recently, Huma’s abductor has threatened both her parents and their lawyer, Tabassum Yousaf, that he would accuse them of blasphemy. The High Court of Sindh lawyer has worked on many cases of forced marriage, and speaking with Aid to the Church in Need, she says that these threats are common. She explains that the abductors often say, “If you do not stop searching for your daughter, we will rip pages out of the Koran, place them on your doorstep, and accuse you of profaning the sacred book”.
Abduction in Pakistan
Abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage is a major issue in Pakistan. Most of the victims are Christian or Hindu girls and young women – both religious minorities in the country – who are forced to wed against their will to much older Muslim men.
Of the 159 cases reported between 2013 and 2019, some 16 girls and young women have gone before the Sindh High Court asking for support against their forced marriages.
Tabassum Yousaf explains:
“Many Christians do not know that they have the same rights as Muslims. The poverty and lack of education of our brothers and sisters in faith allows Islamic fundamentalists to abuse their social, political, economic and religious powers to persecute Christians. And the judiciary is under strong pressure from political parties, which do not provide minorities with the right legal support”.
Mobuyus says
islam itself and itself alone is a blasphemy.
mortimer says
Islam blasphemes all other faiths but punishes blasphemy against Islam by death.
gravenimage says
“If you don’t stop searching for your daughter, we’ll rip pages out of Qur’an and accuse you of profaning the book”
………………..
‘If you object to our kidnapping, raping, and forcibly marrying an underaged child to a Muslim man, then we’ll falsely accuse you of “blasphemy” and have you sentenced to death.’
God, I hate Islam.
Infidel says
Gravenimage, that’s why a few days ago I welcomed the idea of Chinese smugglers enticing Paki women to go to China, so that those women won’t be around to procreate thugs like these. I don’t pretend to like human trafficking, but I’m willing to make an exception here given the stakes that are involved.
If they’re Christians, Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists, they should make a beeline for India, where despite the anti-CAA riots there, they’ll be welcomed. I’d love to see all non-Muslims leave those 3 countries for India, so that none of them have to live w/ such experiences
alex says
This kind of idiotic, criminal nonsense on the part of many Islamists in Pakistan shows exactly why the new law in India (that is, the one fast-tracking citizenship for Christian, Hindu and Sikh refugees from there) is perfectly reasonable.
Christopher Watson says
Lets face it: without vast amounts of aid from the west, Pakistan would not survive for a week. The male Pakistanis in England are generally child molesters and should be deported immediately before serving their sentences.
Infidel says
Like Hugh pointed out in his series about the Kuala Lumpur meeting, Pakistan has 2 masters – China, for whom they are a key Belt/Road link to the Arabian Sea and whose investment they want, and Saudi Arabia, whose aid they want. They can’t lift a finger against Saudi Arabia despite the latter refusing to take sides on Kashmir
Kepha says
Having served as a consular officer in China and having worked on issues such as people-smuggling, I have no sympathy with those Chinese smugglers at all. It is a system of latter-day slavery, and those smuggled women might easily be sold into prostitution. Despite the humane face of COnfucianism and Daoism, and the pretensions to “positive liberty” and “democracy” on the part of the Communist regime, the Chinese are still every bit the children of Adam the First as we are.
By the same token, I welcome Modi’s sillingness to take in persecuted people.
gravenimage says
Infidel wrote:
Gravenimage, that’s why a few days ago I welcomed the idea of Chinese smugglers enticing Paki women to go to China…
…………………..
Firstly, Infidel, we don’t have to act like Muslim thugs abusing women in order to oppose Jihad.
Then, most of the victims are actually Christian, rather than Muslim:
“Pakistani Christian girls trafficked to China as brides speak about their ordeals”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBv-Za4u2h8
Learning this did not surprise me.
Infidel says
Why put on that charade, and deceive your clients into a false sense of security? Everyone knows that Pakistan was created exclusively for Muslims, and most non-Muslims living in that area got out in 1947. You’re doing youself and your clients no favors by pretending otherwise. Now try and get that girl out on the grounds that she’s underaged, and then hightail it out of Pakistan to India while you can
elee says
Anybody remember reading The Crucible in high school? Such are the gifts of al Lah.
Agostino Armo Pellegrini says
“If you do not stop searching for your daughter, we will rip pages out of the Koran, place them on your doorstep, and accuse you of profaning the sacred book”.
It’s bizarre that a book with some torn pages could have that kind of power to destroy lives. But in islam it does.
Islam always creates an atmosphere that favors superstitious bigotry over rationality and commonsense decency. I’ve seen so many videos of muslim mobs foaming at the mouth over the tiniest “offense” to islam, the koran almost takes on a magical significance to these people. It’s a “religion of peace,” but they would kill you like a vampire over one torn page. And our leftists seem to have embraced this whole superstitious mindset and use it to their advantage. They don’t have to be rational in this new crazy atmosphere for islam, just throw out some unfounded terms like “racist” and “islamophobe” and “xenophobe” and like magic they can shut down all rational debate. They aren’t real accusations based on truth, but are instead chimeric epithets they have created from their own malicious imagination. Don’t criticize islam or muslim immigration or the “racist” bogey man might get you! or the “islamophobia” ghost may cost you your job!
Booga Booga! give me my juju bag of beans! islam’s ghosts are out to get me!
I think it’s the same kind of mania that governed the Salem witch trials. In large measure the West has given up on basic human decency and reasoned thinking to accommodate the backwater beliefs of muslims. And they do so with impunity because we are no longer in the arena of sane morality and intelligent thinking. Instead we are in the crazy, magical world of islam where a baseless threat like “blasphemy” or a foul epithet like “racist” can destroy your life in one short minute.
Don’t let islam’s idiocy destroy us! Reasoned thinking must win over islam’s bigoted ignorance for allah!
James Lincoln says
Agostino Armo Pellegrini,
I read your post – twice.
100% accurate, my compliments…
Kepha says
No, the West is trying very hard to exorcise the Christian God from its life, Islam and Muslims are another convenient stick with which our governmental-academic-legal-media complex can use to beat the Christian dog.
Michael Copeland says
Pakistan is a failed state.
Battle says
“If you don’t stop searching for your daughter we’ll rip pages out of the Qu’ran place them on your doorstep and accuse you of profaning the book.”
O how peaceful?
Felony kidnapping. Felony statutory rape. Felony child molestation. Felony child abuse.
O how peaceful?
gravenimage says
Grimly, Battle, these are seldom considered felonies in Pakistan.