NYT: "Online Chats Are Leading to Imprisonment for Blasphemy"

[DrLeftover]

It is to many Pakistanis an unspeakable crime, so much so that evidence is not always required to secure a conviction. Violent rallies spring up at just rumors that it has happened. Vigilantes have hunted down the accused, and they are praised as heroes for doing it.

The crime is blaspheming Islam, and in Pakistan, it can carry a death sentence, although the country has not executed anyone for it.

......
Shahida Bibi, who lives in the capital, Islamabad, was finishing her prayers one night in 2023 when four men knocked on her door. At first, they claimed to be friends of her son’s, but their questioning made her nervous.

After some wrangling, Ms. Bibi said, one finally admitted the truth: They were officers of the Federal Investigation Agency, then Pakistan’s primary authority for cybercrime investigations, and her son had just been arrested on charges of online blasphemy.

MORE:

Hundreds Languish in Pakistan’s Prisons on Blasphemy Charges

In Pakistan, hundreds are in jail on charges of blaspheming Islam. Rights groups say some of these cases are due to bad actors’ entrapping victims online.

www.nytimes.com

 

[MrDawn]

I'm so glad I was born in a country that doesn't use religion to terrorize it's people.

 

[Dead2009]

In the Bible, it's also considered a sin. Catholics and christians just aren't beheading people over it.

 

[DrLeftover]

You both missed the point.

It isn't about religion.

It is about power.

Keeping the people living in fear, denouncing each other, looking over their shoulder, staying off anything online that might be taken the wrong way.

The Taliban are doing it as well.

The same way the Socialists in the Eastern Block maintained power.

 

[Dead2009]

Catholics and christians just aren't beheading people over it.

You missed this part, lol

 

[DrLeftover]

You missed this part, lol

They've had their moments doing that.

 

[passenger]