Islamic Fundamentalists Burn Christian Village Gojra over Desecrated Koran
On Saturday, August 1, a mob of up to three thousand Muslims descended on the Pakistan village of Gojra, killing seven and torching dozens of homes. Why? They thought local Christians had torn up pages from a Koran a week earlier.
The Washington Post reports that on July 25, a Christian wedding procession passed through Korian, a nearby village. Money was tossed into the air, in accordance with local custom. A resident claims to have found torn pieces of paper which, upon examination, were pages torn from the Koran.
Accusers demanded that Talib Masih, a member of the wedding party, be punished for the crime of tearing pieces of paper. Not only did he refuse to repent for desecrating printed matter, he even denied having committed this heinous atrocity! As one might expect from such reasonable people as Muslim fundamentalists, violent outrage resulted.
After all, blasphemy is illegal in Pakistan. Sentences for blaspheming the Prophet Moohamhead (did I spell that correctly?) or insulting Islam range from life imprisonment to death. That’s a bit more than the 25,000 Euro fine in Ireland . . . but don’t worry, they’ll catch up!
As the mob descended upon Gojra, bearing guns and gasoline, many fled. Some were not so fortunate; two were shot to death by these representatives of the Religion of Peace, and five more were burned alive in their homes.
The police in the Punjab region of Pakistan reportedly made no attempt to intervene, complaining instead:
“It happened all of a sudden. The police that were here were too few in number to stop it,” said policeman Kashif Sadiq. “It’s not fair to assume they let this happen intentionally.”
Pakistan’s federal government claims as much shock over this underreported incident as the handful of Americans who’ve heard of it.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 3 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday condemned the Gojra incident in which innocent members of minority community lost their lives. “Federal government and the political parties condemn the Gojra incident,” the Prime Minister said in the National Assembly after a joint resolution was adopted against the heinous act.
. . .
Earlier, the house adopted a unanimous resolution read out by Shahbaz Bhatti . . . The resolution expressed grief and sorrow over the killings and urged the relevant authorities to take meaningful action against the culprits.
It urged the government to ensure protection of the minorities in accordance with the sayings of the Quaid-e-Azam and 1973 constitution.
The resolution said that the incident is one of the blackest spots in the human rights history of Pakistan and a violation of Quaid-e-Azam’s philosophy.
The government was urged to initiate firm action against the perpetrators of the incident and called upon the Punjab government to proceed against the DCO and DPO as despite prior information they did not respond to protect the lives and properties of the people in the area.
. . .
Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, in his address said, that the police acted as silent spectator while the criminals burnt the houses and their [inhabitants].
He said the minorities have always played a positive role for their country and this incident is shameful.
He said when sub-Continent was divided in 1947, the minorities had opted to vote for Pakistan.
Bhatti was of the view that it was criminal negligence on part of the district administration for allowing this incident and they too should be given exemplary punishment.
Let’s remember, friends, that fundamentalism isn’t limited to any one group or any one religion. There are fundamentalists of many stripes!
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