PAKISTAN – a world leader in religious lunacy – is back in the headlines, this time over the treatment of a 10-year-old Christian schoolgirl who misspelled a word pertaining to a poem in praise of the “prophet” Mohammed.
The Urdu word, according to this report, was “naat” (hymn), but Faryal Bhatti, an eighth grade student at Sir Syed Girls’ High School, wrote it as as “laanat” (curse).
All hell then broke loose. On spotting the error, Bhatti’s Urdu teacher Fareeda Bibi, scolded the child and beat her.
All it takes is an innocent spelling mistake to spark the fury of Muslim muppets in Pakistan
Matters escalated when the school’s administration and religious leaders decided that the error was “serious” enough to fall within the realm of blasphemy.
The next day, male students at the school and some religious leaders organised a rally and demanded that Bhatti be expelled and charged with blasphemy.
It was reported later that a mob chanted slogans against Christians, and in last Friday’s sermons religious leaders denounced the episode as “a conspiracy against Islam”, which ought to be crushed.
To appease the religious nutjobs, the school administration expelled Bhatti – and her mother was stripped of her job at a local hospital, and transferred to another.
One basketcase – Maulana Alla Dita Khateeb of Gol Masjid – praised the decision to expel the girl. Asked whether the incident fell within the realm of blasphemy, Khateeb said though he was unclear about the intentions of the girl, the word she had used was “sacrilegious”.
But another more sensible pair of clerics – Maulana Mehfooz Ali Khan and Hussain Ahmed Malik opined:
It is the innocent mistake of a child. Many Muslim students in the madrassas incorrectly pronounce the Arabic words, changing their meaning. You cannot punish a child for an honest mistake – the girl was only 10 years old, she will carry this trauma with her. Faryal Bhatti has been subjected to all of this only because she is Christian, I protest against the decision to expel the young child and to transfer the mother.
The bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Anthony Rufin, told AsiaNews:
I condemn the incident. Now, even Christian students are victimized and accused of blasphemy. Society is becoming so intolerant that a tiny error gets major attention. The ulema have decided on the punishment of a child who does not even know what she did wrong. They should have explained the mistake to her, if it really was a terrible mistake, in this way gaining her confidence and making a service to religious dialogue. What happened is exactly the opposite.
Hat tip: BarrieJohn
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 29th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Now, that’s a proper bit of anti-christian feeling. Seems to me that the people over here who protest against so-called aggressive Atheists need to get a bit more perspective. I hope the young girl sees the sense in dropping religion but in that country, you’re stoned if you do and stoned if you don’t.
September 29th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Another heart-warmimg story from “The Religion of Peace”:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....in-action/
September 29th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I’d like to say stories such as this from hotbeds of religious fanaticism such as Pakistan beggar belief. But quite frankly they don’t. It is, sadly, an almost daily occurrence to see the gullible mob whipped up into a frenzy of religious fervour by calculating little despots who claim to represent this god or that god.
Human beings are still so easily (and willingly) manipulated it is truly scary.
September 29th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Pakistan is evil. How can anyone in this country and the USA deal with these people. They are not human beings they are evil thru and thru. Be ware These mad so called religious bigots seem to be allowed to get away with this. they want to bring these laws to this country we must do all we can not to let this happen. Blair was and most likely still is friendly with Gadahi, whilst fighting the IRA., just shows how much governments care about poor defenseless children.
Again it will be words not actions.
September 29th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Picking on a 10 year old child? Brave or what?
The dickless wonders who follow Islam were probably pissed off due to the fact she was learning to write, as opposed to being married like a good muslim woman i.e Aisha.
September 29th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Did I read somewhere that the USA (a fundie xtian country) had given $3 billions in aid to Pakistan? Cameron also seems to find loadsa money to send to that corrupt country while at the same time “saving it” by cutting our police forces, armed forces etc. Ho bloody Hum. I suppose the Swiss banks are doing well as that’s where all the money ends up.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
It’s worth wading through the comments on the story Barriejohn linked. Outrage from the atheists, bickering with the author for daring to criticise Christianity from the Christians. Nice to see the religiots’ priorities come to the fore, ain’t it.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Our Government and us unwilling taxpayers are funding Pakistan [and therefore funding this nonsense] by giving them millions in aid. Where do most of the islamic terrorists go for training? Where do most of the mad mullah hate preachers come from? Which country was harbouring Bin Laden? Yes, Pakistan.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Forgot to add this link: http://www.theatlantic.com/int.....er/245691/
September 29th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
This report seems to be at odds with the letter published in this months The Freethinker from the
nutjobesteemed director of The London School of Islamics, Iftikhar Ahmad…Muslim schools turn out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality and extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam’s teaching of tolerance and respect, which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society.
I’m still chuckling.
September 29th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
This is not about blasphemy. It is about control. And to achieve control, those being controlled must be kept off balance and ignorant. This is a popular and effective tactic of the religious where some fool pastor is granted a wholly spurious “knowledge.”
I mean an ignorance not from a lack of knowledge but from being dependent on what the controllers decide is “right.” And what they decide is “right” is arbitrary. They want to punish, of course, pour encourager les autres. As only they know what is “right” they have all the knowledge without having to take the trouble to acquire it.
The more we expose the antics of these cynical bigots the better.
September 29th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
OT, but I’ve been catching up with some missed programmes on iplayer. Did anyone watch Johnathan Sacks’ bland little broadcast the other night? What a horribly schmaltzy appeal to fond remembrances of a golden age that never was, when everyone was religious—all of the nice ‘love thy neighbour’ kind, of course. There were, apparently, no homeless, and divorce was unheard of (not that that meant that beaten wives were forced to stay with their husbands, of course!).
Oddly, he doesn’t quite get round to mentioning that the C of E was the biggest slum-landlord in the country…
September 29th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
It’s not only in Pakistan, unfortunately:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15074372
September 29th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Daz: I studiously avoided it. Did he mention homosexuality, I wonder? Here’s a glimmer of hope, anyway (where’s Broga?):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cul.....ioned.html
September 29th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
@barriejohn: I’m here, I’m here. And isn’t that link a treat? Thank you. I rarely listen to TOFD now. The contributors have raised the banal to an art form with words sucked dry of all life. And pronounced with that ghastly, sombre tone of faux profundity so characteristic of the religious.
I wonder just how far those regarded as religious will have to fall before they remove the expensive charade of TOFD. I see 1 in 4 do not regard themsleves as religious and even a religious commentator thought that was an under estimate. People tick the religious box in surveys almost as a reflex.
September 29th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Daz I watched that programme presented by Lord (wtf) Sacks. He’s been banging that same drum for sometime now. It makes me wonder being a non-believer, should I be looking after my 80yr old neighbour? There are plenty of good Christians, Jews and Muslims in my street but I don’t see any of them checking on him everyday helping him put his socks on going to the shop etc.etc.Perhaps they’re all too busy playing dominoes in groups just like he portrayed?
September 29th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Broga: Whilst most commentators see that survey as demonstrating that religion is withering on the vine in Great Britain, the Mail, naturally, comes to an altogether different conclusion!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....5-gay.html
September 29th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
This is a 10yr old making a spelling mistake, which, if she was here in the UK would be considered a marvel simply because she could write.
As for Mr Sacks’s program, I saw the blurb and gave it a body swerve. I read a report that apparently he was saying that religion gives a sense of community, place, blah, blah, blah. None of which proves that religion is right. They always seem to forget that.
September 29th, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Barriejohn
No, homosexuality wasn’t mentioned, though there was a lot of focus on ‘The Family’, and we all know that’s shorthand for ‘no divorce, no gays’. Generally it painted a nice little picture of all religion as being something like a young Alec Guinness playing a genteel country parson. Oh and apparently young people are beating up old people in droves, and young muggers have never before in history picked on frail, weak people as easy targets. They’re doing it now because of, erm, godlessness.
September 30th, 2011 at 9:20 am
I completely agree about these surveys being skewed to the point of being meaningless. When asked what their religion is, most people automatically put CofE because that’s the ‘brand’ of Sunday School or regular school they went to as kids.
To give you an example, a friend of mine who is a fellow non-bleiever ticked the CofE box in the last census because he didn’t realise there was the option to say ‘no religion’. When I pointed out his error he was furious with himself. But I very much doubt that he was alone in making the same mistake as the question itself (which was ‘What is your religion?’) was loaded to lead people to claiming to belong to one religious group or another.
The fact that the Hate Mail has gleefully used the latest pile of hogwash to reinforce its own priggish view of the world neatly sums up the depth and quality of its journalistic content.
September 30th, 2011 at 10:14 am
There were some amazingly sensible comments appended to that Mail article. They don’t get it all their own way nowadays. I had to point out myself, however, the supreme irony of their using a pic of a virtually deserted church to illustrate their point that Christianity is thriving in this country (over 60 red arrows to date!). This comment this morning is priceless, though:
Well it has been all through the ages that scoffers & mockers come and go but whatever they say, the word of the Lord still remains and will do so until the appointed day. Sadly most peoples opinions show if anything how void they & ignorant they are of history, for instance, Alexander the Great is mentioned in the Bible. If the Bible is a book of fairy tales then it is probable he never existed. How about history itself in general? Fact is, the Bible is more than a book of history +. What is written in the end of days is unfolding before our very eyes in todays world events. Scoff & mock all you want but please get your facts right before you do. A little research will show you that you are wrong and one day maybe soon you won’t be able to deny that the Bible is more than just a book of stories.
I’m quaking in my shoes!
September 30th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
@barriejohn: I liked that “please get your facts right” and “a little research will show you….” This is about as patronising as it gets.