Hundreds Of Christians hiding in Pakistan after girl’s arrest
by MARK MEMMOTT
“Hundreds of Pakistani Christians are hiding out at a priest’s compound, praying for the safety of an 11-year-old member of their community” who is in police custody, NPR’s Lauren Freyer reports from Islamabad. The Christians also fear their own safety.
The cause of anger directed toward them by some in the Muslim nation: The girl may have burned some Islamic religious materials. According to The Associated Press:
“A Pakistani police officer, Zabi Ullah, said Monday that the girl was arrested Thursday after hundreds of neighbors, angry over reports she had allegedly burned religious papers, gathered outside her house in a poor outlying district of the capital, Islamabad.
“He said the police took the girl to the police station, and that she’s being held for 14 days while authorities investigate.”
Lauren tells our Newscast Desk that other neighbors of the girl say she is mentally impaired and didn’t know what she was doing. There are reports in local media that she has Down Syndrome. There are also reports that she may be as old as 16.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper says that President Asif Ali Zardari has “called on officials to explain the [girl’s] arrest.
The Guardian notes that Pakistan’s blasphemy law allows for the death penalty to be imposed if someone is judged guilty of desecrating the Quran or other Islamic materials. It adds that:
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With A Girl Jailed, Pakistan Law Again Under Scrutiny
by LAUREN FRAYER
Until last week, Pakistani Christians and Muslims on the outskirts of Islamabad lived side-by-side in peace — and in the tight quarters that come with extreme poverty.
Then an Islamic cleric heard a rumor: A Christian girl named Rimsha Masih may have set fire to pages of Quranic verse.
The girl’s priest, Father Boota, says a Muslim neighbor claims to have witnessed it.
“He was the one who raised the alarm, and then there was a shopkeeper — he also started shouting, and he also started making calls, ‘Get the Christians! Wage a jihad against them!’ ” the priest says.
Sebha Farooq, another Christian, looked out her window in horror.
“These people really thrashed the girl,” she says. “They tore her clothes and beat her up.”
The priest says he convinced her family’s landlord to call police for Rimsha’s safety.
“First it was a group of 500 people, which swelled to 1,000,” the priest says. “They were trying to get custody of the girl from police, but police refused. They were wanting to stone her to death.”
Rimsha is now in jail, awaiting trial. Neighbors say she’s 11 years old and mentally disabled, possibly with Down syndrome. Police say she’s 16 — an adult by law. But they won’t let anyone see her, to sort out the conflicting claims.
A Possible Death Sentence
In Pakistan, defaming Islam or its holy book is punishable by death. The case has drawn international attention and has also raised larger issues, such as the influence that Muslim extremists have on the law in Pakistan and intolerance toward religious minorities.
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