Pakistani Christians Under Attack - Horrible barbarism

The blasphemy law is in need of not only revision but repeal. The abuse this law is open to has become intolerable to the extent that Pakistan is viewed as a country that cannot prevent the killings of the religious minorities. This impression has gained currency because of the government’s complacency towards the massacre of the minorities at the hands of vigilante mobs given license to torture and kill people in the name of Islam. Case after case has proved that most of these killings have their origins in settling personal scores. The Punjab government’s swift action against the killing of a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan on the charges of burning copies of the Quran is welcome. However, it remains to be seen what eventually emerges from this case, whether the perpetrators are caught and punished for the crime or will there be a replay of the lack of evidence justification to draw the curtain on the issue. This is the time to act and if not now, the forces taking advantage of the blasphemy law will gain strength from the fact that not only are they free to abuse the law, the government and judicial system are weak enough to be pressurised to absolve them of their heinous deeds.

One is shocked at the inhumane ways mobs adopt to punish alleged blasphemers. What kind of society have we become? We seem to savour killing people. We brutalise them in the name of a religion that promotes peace. It is madness to lynch others on mere hearsay, a proposition strongly condemned in Islam. The couple killed by so-called Muslims were first dragged out of their home, locked up by the owner of the brick kiln in a room, later tortured and burnt alive in the kiln. A few burnt pages from the Quran allegedly found in their trash were the only ‘evidence’ that provoked the crowd to kill the couple. Is this all this society has been reduced to: an emotionally charged crowd, ever ready to kill others with impunity? There is little doubt that this is yet another ploy to implicate innocent Christians to settle a personal vendetta. It raises questions about the general mindset of people who could be so easily provoked by a call from a cleric to take the law into their own hands. It is time that we revisit the reasons for this societal degradation, along with our inability to live peacefully with fellow human beings and the critical need to mend our ways.