Imam claims he saved Christian girl from violence
Pakistanis protesting against the arrest of Christians — File Photo
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani cleric who handed over a young Christian girl to police on blasphemy charges in a poor suburb of Islamabad claimed Friday he did so to protect her from mob violence.
Police arrested the girl, Rimsha, who reportedly has Down’s Syndrome, in a low-income neighbourhood of the capital last Thursday after she was accused of burning papers containing verses from the Quran, and remanded her in custody for 14 days.
The imam of the local mosque, Hafiz Khalid Chishti, insisted the girl was fully aware of what she was doing, calling it a “conspiracy and not a mistake”.
Rimsha, aged between 11 and 16, is being held in a jail in Islamabad’s twin city Rawalpindi, and her case has prompted concern from Western governments and fury from rights campaigners.
Chishti said on the day of the incident he went to the girl’s home after people showed him the papers she had burned, and he found a crowd outside and three or four Muslim women attacking the youngster.
“Some women were beating her and other people were trying to break her arms when I rescued her,” Chishti told AFP.
Chishti, who leads the prayer in the mosque and was the first one contacted by the villagers to take action against Rimsha, said he avoided a major violence incident by handing her over to police.
“People were demanding to burn their house, but I went to police and called them to avoid a major incident,” he said.
The cleric said the girl was 14 years old and was fully mentally capable.
Ejaz;
What an irrelevant comment. We are not discussing disposing off worn out Qurans here, the issue is willful desecration like that in the Florida Church. We need to ascertain facts. Were there Quran(s) destroyed?. The age of the accused, the purported medical condition. If there was an act, was it her own or was it orchestrated by someone else?. If orchestrated, is the culprit an Islamic or an anti-Islamic fanatic?, an Anti-blasphemy law fanatic? or just a Pakistan hater.
May Allah save Islam from Pakistan
It seems for the illiterate/literate minorities should never dare to burn anything written from right to left. it should be considered some holy writing and should duly deposited to the nearest mosque or police station else they should be prepared themselves for such kind of mob violence or capital punishment from the state.
just let the court decide. And I want to say the judges to do justice
downs syndrome persons has IQ of less than half as compared to normal persons.i guess this mulla has half IQ than this girl
The creation of Zia with support form around the world. Please CJ step forward and protect this little girl. Also my question to you all, since when burning of ripped off Quran pages became blasphemy?
It seems to me that the imam was behind all this… and yes its a conspiracy against the christians.. in nywayz nobody in the world has any good thing to say about muslims my dear friends.. muslims have a bad name all over the world.. because of incidents like this. they have zero tolerance to anthing. No matter what a life of a human is more important than a piece of paper… Muslim need to look at their own country first and then look at the west. the west is far more better. How come this girl is arrested for blasphemy and the other people who bomb down mosque and holy places which has quran’s in them those people are never charged of blasphemy and i dont see the crowd getting angry at them… when the mosque was being bombed how many quran’s u think got burned and destroyed how come nobody made an issue them about blasphemy.. because at that time it was ur own muslim and now its a christian. u muslims are double standard hypocrites.
What a shame. I say even if the girl did do this on purpose and fully sane and 14,
she is still a child! It is tragic that things have come to such a pass in Pakistan, that
we are arguing whether she is sane or older than 11 etc. She is a minor pure and
simple.
First of all, I, as a Pakistani Christian, do not believe a bit of what the Imam has to say about saving Rimha from the mob clutches, as she was badly beaten up prior to being sent to the prison. Secondly, I can vouch for my Christian bretheren that none of us will ever violate the Blasphemy laws in Pakistan, as we are well aware of the consequences, hence, can not do so, and also, our religion does not teach us to speak ill-will about the majority religion. Frankly speaking, it is not possible for Rimsha to have done this act, as she is under-age and even if she is of right age, I am sure, it’s not possible. Someone from that area has purpose framed it up to have a go against the poor Christians of that area, as has been the case always, accusing the Minorities of Blasphemy. I repeat we respect the Islamic laws of this country, but it is high time for the majority to stop this witch-hunting of the minorities in the name of the Almighty, fear his wrath upon you.
As long as we have illiterate, coward and opportunistic people acting as Imams we will continue to have bigoted and hate-filled frenzied followers. Pakistan today under these mullahs is worse than the period of Jahiliya 1500 years ago.
in down syndrome IQ and mental status is never 100%
Its very clear now to every sane person in Pakistan that All Masajid and Madersa should immediately be nationalized by the Govt. Then Govt. appointed Imams should carry out daily prayers and Khutbat as ordered and approved by the Govt. And yes by Govt. we mean a legitimate civilian Govt. and not Khaki Ameer ul Momaneen.
All these incidents which have been happining in Pakistan with the minorities and specially with this minor girl, has brought many muslims ashamed living abroad and have defamed Islam in the eyes of the western world and raised question on Islam by many non-muslims ‘is islam a peaceful religion’?
girl may be fully mentally capable but the mob apparently was not!
where is the problem if paper got burn, as per Quran, photos or idols or any other physical things should not matter for the religion. Many people Reading Quran without understanding, because it is written in Classical Arabic. and Pakistanis and Indians Muslims people don’t know Arabic.
If a Christian wants to become a priest in GB, s/he has to study sometimes more than 3 years. S/he is then on ‘probation’ for a period. Is it too much to ask that the Pak government sets up colleges to train Muslim clergy for different Islamic sects with co-operation from the sects? A course in such colleges will also have subjects like science and social sciences. Only a graduate from such a college could be employed to lead prayers and deliver sermons.
Does anyone realize there is something wrong with Islam itself which creates situations like this?