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print versionby Asna Ali
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
A man believed to be mentally unstable is accused of blasphemy and then burned alive by an angry mob. A few months later, an eerily similar event takes place – a man is accused of burning pages of the Quran, is beaten and burnt alive.
A Christian girl with learning disabilities is accused of desecrating a Noorani Qaida, is locked up for weeks and is finally released, only to be carted off to an undisclosed location for fears about her safety. She and her family are granted asylum in Canada and start a new life. She is one of the lucky ones.
According to a report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, 52 people have been murdered in Pakistan in two decades because of being accused of blasphemy. Those who have been sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws include women, old men, clerics and minors. Charges have been lodged over misunderstandings or over details as minor as a spelling mistake.
That is why Rimsha Masih is a lucky girl. Yes, she was dragged off to jail over trumped-up charges. Yes, she had to leave behind her home and the life she knew to start again in a foreign country. But she is much, much better off than those who rotted in jails for years or those who were mercilessly killed by mobs whipped up into a religious frenzy.
Her case horrified both the people of Pakistan and the international community. The shock over something so strange, so utterly cruel, quickly morphed into a media campaign to free Rimsha that probably resulted in her case being pursued so vigorously. Yet her acquittal, while welcome, was not an indication that her life would ever be the same again.
Members of her community were forced to vacate their houses in her neighbourhood and many have been living in makeshift housing on the outskirts of Islamabad. In a way Rimsha is luckier than them too.
It speaks volumes that her being granted bail was declared to be a landmark victory. Murderers, thieves and rapists walk free amongst us, but he who is accused of blasphemy loses all his human rights. He can be kept in custody without bail, left to rot in jail without trial, or killed with less mercy than is shown to an animal.
We as a nation have developed an unhealthy relationship with blasphemy and the laws used to prosecute it. There is no other crime that produces so much hatred or desire for vengeance. Our minorities live in fear of it being even whispered that they have committed blasphemy because they know that anyone accused of this crime walks with a bullseye on his forehead.
Muslims too, are hesitant of expressing views differing from the majority because they are aware that expressing support for altering these laws or the way they are implemented can result in very dire consequences.
Soon, Rimsha and her flight to safety will be yesterday’s news overshadowed by newer cases in which the alleged blasphemers will not be so lucky. They will be beaten by their accusers, mistreated by the police, punished by the judiciary and ignored by the public. The reprieve granted to a teenage girl does not guarantee that an adult man or woman or even another teenager will receive the same treatment.
Until we as a nation do not collectively deal with our obsession with doling out vigilante justice to criminals and do not stop abusing our laws to harass and threaten innocents, there is no possibility that cases like Rimsha’s will stop. There will always be another unsuspecting child to throw in jail, another homeless man to burn.
The writer is a business studies graduate from southern Punjab. Email: asna.ali90@ gmail.com
