Christian, 70, Charged with Blasphemy in Pakistan as 106 Muslims Are Acquitted in 2013 Attack

[Solomon2]

Christian, 70, Charged with Blasphemy in Pakistan as 106 Muslims Are Acquitted in 2013 Attack
By MORNING STAR NEWS ( [email protected] ) Feb 06, 2017 01:03 PM EST

A 70-year-old Christian in Pakistan was jailed on blasphemy charges on the same day 106 Muslims accused in a 2013 attack on a Christian colony were acquitted. Reuters


A 70-year-old Christian in Pakistan was jailed on blasphemy charges on the same day 106 Muslims accused in a 2013 attack on a Christian colony were acquitted.

A mosque leader in the Lambanwali area north of Gujranwala, Punjab Province, on Jan. 28 accused Mukhtar Masih of writing two letters containing derogatory remarks about the Koran and Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, police records show. He was charged under Section 295-A, deliberate and malicious acts intending to outrage religious feelings, which carries a sentence of 10 years of prison and/or a fine, and under Section 298, derogatory remarks against "holy personages," punishable by three years' imprisonment and/or fine.

Police raided Masih's house on Jan. 28 and took his entire family into custody, an area source told Morning Star News.

"The police took with them Masih, his son, daughter, and three children," he said. "The family was later released on the intervention of rights outfits, but Masih was detained under blasphemy charges."

The source said that the charges against Masih were fabricated by local Muslims seeking to seize his property. Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal scores, and Islamist groups and lawyers advocating the harshest punishments often apply pressure for convictions on police and courts.

Mosque leader Qari Shahbaz Hussain alleges in the First Information Report (FIR No. 49/17) that area residents on Jan. 26 brought to his notice two letters containing the alleged blasphemous comments. He stated that an investigation by a local committee he headed revealed the letters were written by Masih.

Hussain claimed in the FIR that the committee had found Masih guilty and sought his prosecution under blasphemy charges. Hussain and other accusers were unavailable for comment, and Masih's relatives have gone into hiding and were also unavailable.

The investigating officer refused repeated requests for comment, citing orders from his superiors.

Also on Jan. 28, an Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore acquitted 106 Muslims accused of a massive attack on Joseph Colony, sparked by a blasphemy accusation in March 2013, after prosecution witnesses said they did not recognize any of the accused assailants.

More than 80 prosecution witnesses, 63 of them with statements recorded about the attack that destroyed more than 150 homes, said they did not recognize the accused. The 106 suspects, who were released on bail the day they were accused, appeared before judge Muhammad Azam.

On March 9, 2013, thousands of rioters armed with sticks, clubs and stones besieged Joseph Colony and torched the houses in the predominantly Christian neighborhood following allegations of blasphemy against a Christian, Sawan Masih.

The mob also torched three church buildings, several shops and a number of vehicles. Police later arrested both the rioters and the blasphemy suspect, who was charged under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for derogatory remarks about Muhammad, which mandates the death penalty.

Sawan Masih was sentenced to death on March 28, 2014. His appeal against the conviction is pending in the Lahore High Court.

Witnesses and police said the enraged mob ransacked and burned the entire locality a day after all Christian families left the area, as police apparently had alerted them about the possibility of an attack. The affected people, however, also accused police of doing nothing to stop the attack and plunder.

Blasphemy Suspect Released on Bail
Separately, a Christian facing the death penalty on blasphemy charges was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Wednesday (Feb 1) because of gaps in the investigation of his case, sources said.

Evangelist Adnan Prince had been in prison since Nov. 6, 2013, after he sought to correct misconceptions about Christianity in a Muslim book. He was charged with outraging religious feelings (Section 295-A), defiling the Koran (295-B) and derogatory remarks against Muhammad (295-C) of Pakistan's widely condemned blasphemy laws. He denied having written anything against Islam or Muhammad when he scribbled in a Muslim book he found in a glassworks shop where his brother worked.

The accused's lead counsel, Asma Jahangir, indicated that deficiencies in the case against Prince led to his release on bail. She told reporters that there were no direct eyewitnesses, and all forensic evidence failed to link the accused in the case against her client.

She added that the case should have been decided within two years. Prince was jailed on Nov. 9, 2013. Jahangir said the case was not decided within two years due to lawyers' strikes and prosecution delay tactics. She added that legal formalities were not fulfilled when investigating the matter.

"According to guidelines passed by the Supreme Court, a police officer not below the rank of a superintendent should have conducted the probe," she reportedly said.

Attorney Nadeem Anthony, another member of Prince's defense team, said that on the court's directions, Sections 295-A and 295-B have been dropped, and the evangelist is facing only 295-C, punishable by death.

Blasphemy suspects have long been targeted by Islamist vigilantes in Pakistan. At least 65 people, including lawyers, defendants and judges, have been murdered over blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to figures from a Center for Research and Security Studies report and local media.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Dost Muhammad Khan on Wednesday (Feb. 1) ordered Prince's release on bail.

 

[Solomon2]

Pakistani Christian Grandpa Arrested, Beaten After Trumped-Up Blasphemy Allegations
BY SAMUEL SMITH , CP REPORTER
Feb 7, 2017 | 12:28 PM

A 70-year-old Christian grandpa in Pakistan was arrested and beaten by police in an attempt to extract a confession after he was accused of writing letters that were deemed insulting to Islam. Now he could face years in prison or possibly death.

(Photo: Reuters/Faisal Mahmood)Members of the Pakistani Christian community attend a protest rally to condemn Sunday's suicide attack in Peshawar on a church, in Islamabad, September 23, 2013. A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the 130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday mass, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country.

The London-based charity British Pakistani Christian Association has reported that Mukhtar Masih and his family were taken into custody in the village of Lambanwali in the Punjab province on Jan. 28 after police stormed his home around 10 p.m. and informed him that a blasphemy case had been lodged against him.

According to the accusation of local Muslim residents filed at the Rahwali police station, Masih allegedly wrote blasphemous messages with derogatory comments toward the Muslim prophet Muhammad and the Quran.

The BPCA reports that Masih was accused of pinning the notes on Gulzar Mosque. Qadri Shahbaz, the imam of the mosque, claims to have found the note on Jan. 26 and two other local Christians were initially accused of writing the notes. But having been pressured, the two Christian reportedly incriminated Mukhtar and claimed he was the man who penned the note.

Along with Shahbaz, the case was filed by other local Muslim men.

The charges filed against Masih fall under Section 295-A and Section 298 and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines. However, BPCA warns that it is possible that the severity of the charge against Masih could possibly be increased during trial to Section 295-C, which is a blasphemy law against insulting the name of Muhammad and is punishable by death.

​

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As Masih was the only member of his family to be accused, the BPCA participated in long negotiations with police officials to release the other family members. Although Masih's daughter and three grandchildren were released, the police continued to detain Masih's 40-year-old son, Anjum, until Jan. 30 for questioning.

All of Masih's family members have been placed in the BPCA safehouse inside Pakistan to protect them from societal backlash. BPCA will also cover the legal costs for the family.

"These charges are completely false, my father is innocent. We tried explaining this to the police but they still arrested us and they beat my elderly father and I with their lathi trying to force a confession," Anjum told BPCA. "I am sure that if you look at the letters the writing will not match my father's. He would never dare enact such an offensive crime knowing it would endanger his family."

As Pakistan's corrupt blasphemy laws are frequently taken advantage of by Muslims looking to settle personal scores with religious minorities business and property owners, Anjum told BPCA that men have been "chasing us for our property." However, the family was receiving low-ball offers.

"They threatened to kill us if we did not leave and now this has happened," Anjum said. "There is never any peace for Christians in Pakistan. Muslims hate us."

Masih is far from the first Christian to fall victim to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

Last month, it was reported that a Christian evangelist in Lahore, his wife and daughter were arrested after he was accused of tearing pages out of a Quran.

Last year, a 16-year-old Christian boy named Nabeel Masih was arrested and charged with blasphemy over a post on his Facebook page.

Arguably, Pakistan's most notorious blasphemy victim is Christian mother of five Asia Bibi, who has been sitting on death row for years after local Muslim women accused her of insulting the prophet in 2009. Although she was supposed to have her appeal heard by Pakistan's Supreme Court last year, her hearing has been delayed.

BPCA reports that a new date for her hearing could be set by March.

Pakistan currently ranks as the fourth worst country in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA's 2017 World Watch List.

"Now this elderly man Mukhtar Masih will probably die in prison or by hanging for a crime he did not commit," BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry said in a statement. "This dilemma is compounded by the knowledge that Britain and America plough the taxes of their citizens into a nation of extremists, much of which supports security forces including the police whose blind prejudice ferments persecution."


Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/p...phemy-allegations-174434/#OYbddooXaVXtJ379.99

 

[salarsikander]

Burning of Christian churches in Israel justified, far-Right Jewish leader says
Head of Lehava, known for violent campaign against Jew-Arab assimilation, risks arrest with public defence of setting fire to Holy Land churches

The leader of a far-Right Israeli group has risked arrest by apparently voicing support for arson attacks on Christian churches amid an official crackdown on Jewish extremism.

Benzi Gopstein, the outspoken head of Lehava - which has drawn notoriety for its violent assaults on Jewish-Arab assimilation - made the remarks at a panel discussion for Jewish yeshiva students when asked by a fellow panelist if he believed burning down churches in Israel was justified.

He later tried to evade accusations of inciting his followers to fire-raise, saying it was the government's responsibility to carry out what he presented as a religious teaching of the 12th century Jewish philosopher, Maimonides.

“Did the Rambam [Maimonides] rule to destroy [idol worship] or not? Idol worship must be destroyed. It’s simply yes – what’s the question?” Mr Gopstein told the panel.

His comment alarmed his questioner Benny Rabinovich, a journalist, who told him: "Benzi, I must say I’m really shocked by what you’re saying here. You are essentially saying we must go out and burn down churches. You’re saying something insane here.”

Told by another panelist, Moshe Klein, rabbi of Israel's Haddash medical centres, that the discussion was being filmed and that his remarks could lead to his arrest, Mr Gopstein answered: “That’s the last thing that concerns me. If this is truth, I’m prepared to sit in jail 50 years for it.”

He later retreated slightly after a recording of the exchange was posted on Kikar Shabbat, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish website. "I stressed several times I was not calling to take operative steps, but that this is the Rambam’s approach and that it’s the responsibility of the government, not of individuals," he said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the incendiary comments could not have been more provocatively timed. They came after Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's defence minister, ordered the detention without trial of Mordechai Meyer, 18, for extremist activities believed to include starting a fire that badly damaged the symbolic Church of Loaves and Fishes in Galilee in June.

He was one of three extremists detained after Benjamin Netanyahu's government was prompted to launch an unprecedented offensive against "Jewish terrorism" following an arson attack by suspected hardline settlers in the West Bank village of Duma last Friday that killed a one-year-old Palestinian toddler and gravely injured his parents and brother.

Head of a Jewish extremist group Meir Ettinger appears in court in Nazareth Illit (AP)

Also arrested was Meir Ettinger, grandson of the late Meir Kahane, a Jewish rabbi notorious for racist beliefs who was murdered by a Palestinian in 1990.

Mr Gopstein, Lehava's founder, is a one-time member of Mr Kahane's Kach party, which was banned because of its racist philosophy.

However, Shin Bet - Israel's domestic intelligence agency - recently concluded that there are no legal grounds for similarly outlawing Lehava, despite a request from Mr Ya'alon to consider doing so.

Two of the group's members were recently jailed for setting fire to Jerusalem's Jewish-Arab Max Rayne Hand in Hand school last November. Hebrew graffiti reading "Kahane was right" was sprayed on a wall of the school.

Mr Gopstein was arrested along with 20 other Lehava members for suspected incitement to violence last last year but has so far not been charged.

Lehava - whose name means "flame" but is also the Hebrew acronym for "prevening assimilation in the Holy Land" - regularly holds open gatherings in Jerusalem's Zion Square, where members distribute literature warning of the dangers of relationships between Jewish women and Arab men.

The group held a demonstration at which members chanted "death to the Arabs" outside a wedding between a Muslim and Jewish woman who had converted to Islam during last summer's Gaza war.

It also staged a protest against last week's gay pride march in Jerusalem, where an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man attacked six participants, leading to the death of a 16-year-old girl.

 

[Indika]

Pakistani Christian Grandpa Arrested, Beaten After Trumped-Up Blasphemy Allegations
BY SAMUEL SMITH , CP REPORTER
Feb 7, 2017 | 12:28 PM

A 70-year-old Christian grandpa in Pakistan was arrested and beaten by police in an attempt to extract a confession after he was accused of writing letters that were deemed insulting to Islam. Now he could face years in prison or possibly death.

(Photo: Reuters/Faisal Mahmood)Members of the Pakistani Christian community attend a protest rally to condemn Sunday's suicide attack in Peshawar on a church, in Islamabad, September 23, 2013. A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the 130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday mass, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country.

The London-based charity British Pakistani Christian Association has reported that Mukhtar Masih and his family were taken into custody in the village of Lambanwali in the Punjab province on Jan. 28 after police stormed his home around 10 p.m. and informed him that a blasphemy case had been lodged against him.

According to the accusation of local Muslim residents filed at the Rahwali police station, Masih allegedly wrote blasphemous messages with derogatory comments toward the Muslim prophet Muhammad and the Quran.

The BPCA reports that Masih was accused of pinning the notes on Gulzar Mosque. Qadri Shahbaz, the imam of the mosque, claims to have found the note on Jan. 26 and two other local Christians were initially accused of writing the notes. But having been pressured, the two Christian reportedly incriminated Mukhtar and claimed he was the man who penned the note.

Along with Shahbaz, the case was filed by other local Muslim men.

The charges filed against Masih fall under Section 295-A and Section 298 and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines. However, BPCA warns that it is possible that the severity of the charge against Masih could possibly be increased during trial to Section 295-C, which is a blasphemy law against insulting the name of Muhammad and is punishable by death.

​

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As Masih was the only member of his family to be accused, the BPCA participated in long negotiations with police officials to release the other family members. Although Masih's daughter and three grandchildren were released, the police continued to detain Masih's 40-year-old son, Anjum, until Jan. 30 for questioning.

All of Masih's family members have been placed in the BPCA safehouse inside Pakistan to protect them from societal backlash. BPCA will also cover the legal costs for the family.

"These charges are completely false, my father is innocent. We tried explaining this to the police but they still arrested us and they beat my elderly father and I with their lathi trying to force a confession," Anjum told BPCA. "I am sure that if you look at the letters the writing will not match my father's. He would never dare enact such an offensive crime knowing it would endanger his family."

As Pakistan's corrupt blasphemy laws are frequently taken advantage of by Muslims looking to settle personal scores with religious minorities business and property owners, Anjum told BPCA that men have been "chasing us for our property." However, the family was receiving low-ball offers.

"They threatened to kill us if we did not leave and now this has happened," Anjum said. "There is never any peace for Christians in Pakistan. Muslims hate us."

Masih is far from the first Christian to fall victim to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

Last month, it was reported that a Christian evangelist in Lahore, his wife and daughter were arrested after he was accused of tearing pages out of a Quran.

Last year, a 16-year-old Christian boy named Nabeel Masih was arrested and charged with blasphemy over a post on his Facebook page.

Arguably, Pakistan's most notorious blasphemy victim is Christian mother of five Asia Bibi, who has been sitting on death row for years after local Muslim women accused her of insulting the prophet in 2009. Although she was supposed to have her appeal heard by Pakistan's Supreme Court last year, her hearing has been delayed.

BPCA reports that a new date for her hearing could be set by March.

Pakistan currently ranks as the fourth worst country in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA's 2017 World Watch List.

"Now this elderly man Mukhtar Masih will probably die in prison or by hanging for a crime he did not commit," BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry said in a statement. "This dilemma is compounded by the knowledge that Britain and America plough the taxes of their citizens into a nation of extremists, much of which supports security forces including the police whose blind prejudice ferments persecution."


Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/p...phemy-allegations-174434/#OYbddooXaVXtJ379.99

Blasphemy against justice & human rights. Typical way an islamic country behaves but no muslim will protest that. But muslims will act like victims and crow that they are discriminated even if they are well treated.

 

[Solomon2]

Burning of Christian churches in Israel justified, far-Right Jewish leader says
...Two of the group's members were recently jailed for setting fire to Jerusalem's Jewish-Arab Max Rayne Hand in Hand school last November...

In that case three persons were convicted and sentenced for the crime - and one of these recently had his sentence extended as the original punishment was deemed insufficient - an initiative undertaken by Netanyahu's government.

Israel can't control every individual - democracies don't do that - but it does very well, for a nation that is hated by so many, under attack from both within and without, at delivering justice to its minorities. So why shouldn't Pakistan, whose majority Muslims don't suffer from the psychological pressure of genocidal enemies, be expected to do at least as well as Israel does?

 

[salarsikander]

In that case three persons were convicted and sentenced for the crime - and one of these recently had his sentence extended as the original punishment was deemed insufficient - an initiative undertaken by Netanyahu's government.

Israel can't control every individual - democracies don't do that - but it does very well, for a nation that is hated by so many, under attack from both within and without, at delivering justice to its minorities. So why shouldn't Pakistan, whose majority Muslims don't suffer from the psychological pressure of genocidal enemies, be expected to do at least as well as Israel does?

Why should A country like Pakistan follow the terror model of a state that is built around occupied territories ?

And what of the right winger who openly claims who justifies to burn down the churches ?

 

[Solomon2]

Why should A country like Pakistan follow the terror model of a state that is built around occupied territories ?

We've discussed this before: you have the right to your own opinion but not your own facts. That you feel compelled to ask such a nonsense question is the fault of Pakistan's education and political establishment.

(It's kind of a Catch-22 situation, isn't it? You don't dare fight the hate because it's mandated, while your leaders don't dare change the mandate because they are in fear of the hate. Courage is needed, I suppose...)

And what of the right winger who openly claims who justifies to burn down the churches ?

Gopstein was quoting from a medieval Jewish writer who had been expelled from Christian Spain and became physician and writer for an Egyptian Sultan as well as head of Muslim-ruled Egypt's Jewish community. Gopstein explicitly said he did not call for "operative steps" to apply this in today's Israel.

 

[salarsikander]

We've discussed this before: you have the right to your own opinion but not your own facts. That you feel compelled to ask such a nonsense question is the fault of Pakistan's education and political establishment.

(It's kind of a Catch-22 situation, isn't it? You don't dare fight the hate because it's mandated, while your leaders don't dare change the mandate because they are in fear of the hate. Courage is needed, I suppose...)

Gopstein was quoting from a medieval Jewish writer who had been expelled from Christian Spain and became physician and writer for an Egyptian Sultan as well as head of Muslim-ruled Egypt's Jewish community. Gopstein explicitly said he did not call for "operative steps" to apply this in today's Israel.

Oh please spare me your usual bullshit. You have no right to preach. You're against your own teachings of Torah. Capturing and keeping innocents in confinement even in 21 century it is non wonder that Holocaust survivors are disgusted at current Zionists behaviour

 

[Verve]

How many Palestinians have the Israelis killed so far?

 

[Solomon2]

Oh please spare me your usual bullshit.

No, I think Pakistanis need to be reminded of this frequently, rather than forget it.

You have no right to preach. You're against your own teachings of Torah.

The "right to preach" - yes, I suppose I have that. Pakistanis vote with their feet to come to the U.S.A. Arabs prefer to stay in Zionist-ruled territory than migrate elsewhere.

Whereas when people are running away from a regime due to its lies and misgovernance, such a regime has little moral right to preach about the bad governance of others - especially to those who receive its fleeing population.

 

[haviZsultan]

No, I think Pakistanis need to be reminded of this frequently, rather than forget it.

The "right to preach" - yes, I suppose I have that. Pakistanis vote with their feet to come to the U.S.A. Arabs prefer to stay in Zionist-ruled territory than migrate elsewhere.

Whereas when people are running away from a regime due to its lies and misgovernance, such a regime has little moral right to preach about the bad governance of others - especially to those who receive its fleeing population.

You are turning this into a "they come here so they accept our moral standards and ideology.

The people who go to US from Pakistan are economic migrants, not ideological migrants. There is a big difference between each. You are assuming that we accept that countries ideology and war monger reputation and want to adopt it ourselves. Of course the belief that you and your oppressive Israel fellows are morally righteous.

Also despite the general gdp capita being $35000+ for Israelis and less than 3000 for Palestinians (West bank and Gaza strip) there is a constant pouring of Palestinian refugees to other arab countries, primarily Jordan. I know some personally. Entire families have escaped Israeli persecution but Pro Israel KKK member Solomon doesn't see anything than a shining Israel.

Also the Palestinian arabs staying in their own land which was stolen has to do with the lax attitude of muslim countries in welcoming migrants from Palestine and merging them within their own nationals.

 

[graphican]

Title is purposely deceiving. Feels like 70 Christians are charged with Blasphemy while 106 Muslims are acquitted. It doesn't make sense to use age of one person against total number of acquitted persons.

 

[Solomon2]

Title is purposely deceiving -

Mods don't let me change titles.

 

[Verve]

How long would any one of us last on an Israeli forum if we started posted Israeli atrocities there, and claim to have a 'right to preach'?

 

[WhyCry]

Standard Pakistandards