As we have seen in innumerable cases, the accusation of blasphemy alone is enough to touch off enraged mobs.
“Pakistan ‘vigilantes’ behind rise in online blasphemy cases,” by Zain Zaman, AFP, October 14, 2024:
Aroosa Khan’s son was chatting on WhatsApp but suddenly found himself the target of “vigilante” investigators who accused him of having committed blasphemy online, a crime that carries the death penalty in Pakistan.
The 27-year-old is one in hundreds of young men standing trial in Pakistan courts accused of making blasphemous statements online or in WhatsApp groups, an offence for which arrests have exploded in recent years.
Many of the cases are being brought to trial by private “vigilante groups” led by lawyers and supported by volunteers who scour the internet for offenders, rights groups and police say.
The families of young Pakistanis, including doctors, engineers, lawyers, and accountants, say that their relatives were duped into sharing blasphemous content by strangers online before being arrested.
“Our lives have been turned upside down,” Khan told AFP, saying that her son, who has not been named for security reasons, had been tricked into sharing blasphemous content in the messaging app.
One local police report suggests that the vigilantes may be motivated by financial gains.
One such group was responsible for the conviction of 27 people who have been sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty over the past three years.
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unsubstantiated accusations can incite public outrage and lead to lynchings.
While they date back to colonial times, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were ramped up in the 1980s when dictator Zia ul-Haq campaigned to “Islamicise” society.
AFP has attended multiple court hearings in the capital Islamabad, where young men are being prosecuted by private vigilante groups and the FIA for blasphemous online content.
Among them is Aroosa’s son — who had joined a WhatsApp group for job-seekers and was contacted by a woman.
She sent him an image of women with Quranic verses printed on their bodies, his mother said, adding that the contact then “denied having sent it and asked Ahmed to send it back to her to understand what he was talking about”.
He was later arrested and prosecuted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)….
Mike says
There was recently a Catholic mum of four who was found guilty of blasphemy by a Pakistani court.
Who is willing to bet that’s it’s probably another bullshit frame-up job?
Pakistan’s extreme blasphemy laws are an international disgrace.
It’s like in the Monty Python movie “Life of Brian” in which a man is about to be put to death for blasphemy: “All I said was, ‘That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!'”
somehistory says
The victims’ families need to be sharing this among their friends who need to share it with others.
If some thing that the courts will find warrants the death penalty or long years in prison is received, don’t send it back if the sender denies knowing anything.
In recent times mozlums have made those claims against Christians in order to get daughters, wives or property. Now it sounds like they have widened out their areas of prey so they can make more illegal gains from entrapping others.
Despicable behavior, but then pakis are adept at that.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Somehistory.
OLD GUY says
Vote wisely this November, this could be coming to your neighborhood through open borders.
Troybeam says
Open borders yea right, humanitarian refugees from nations that hate us already here and have been for years. In neighbor hoods you bet, buy a house turn it into a Mosque and there’s nothing you can do.
Blasphemy is just a whisper and a perceived action even if nothing was actually said all it takes is a Muslim making a statement that a person spoke against Islam and bam it a crime.
There is no sanity in Islam, just a evil theocracy planning on a one world caliphate which has taken on a new life since the attack on Israel October 7th, 2023. 2024, Muslims trying to change the narrative that Israel at fault even though they attacked Israel.
Open borders by Biden / Harris administration has given way for Islamic fighters and Chinese nationals to enter our nation but our nation will have to wait and see after the election who wins and the result of that win on the nation.
gravenimage says
Pakistan: ‘Vigilantes’ behind rise in online blasphemy cases
One local police report suggests that the vigilantes may be motivated by financial gains.
…………………………………………..
Neither of these surprise. Muslims are supposed to enforce Islam if the state does not–this means there will always be Islamic vigilantes.
Then, this environment is rife for fake accusations–against people who are not liked; as ‘revenge’; to seize goods, property, or even marriagable daughters; and to blackmail victims if they don’t want the case take to the police and Shari’ah courts.
God, I hate Islam.