Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws were not allowed to do their job on Friday, when a violent mob in Lahore set ablaze the entire neighborhood of an accused blasphemer. Over a hundred homes in the Christian neighborhood were torched by thousands of men who claimed that a resident of the area had committed blasphemy. The mob took the law into its own hands, brutally burning Christian houses to the ground with no regards to whether there were people inside. All residents managed to escape the area uninjured, but many wished their lives had not been spared when they returned to the sight of their homes and possessions completely destroyed.
This was not the first instance when a mob has targeted a member of a minority community because of alleged violation of blasphemy laws in Pakistan. Not too long ago, 14-year old down syndrome patient Rimsha Masih was forcefully arrested by a mob led by a cleric who had planted fake evidence against her. After Pakistanis protested against the inhumane action by the religious cleric, he was arrested for planting fake evidence, and the nation is still eagerly awaiting his trial and conviction.
Although such acts of vigilante justice may suggest the Pakistani people are inherently violent towards minority communities, as somebody who has observed reactions to such incidents from the ground, I can safely say that people here abhor the innocent killing of people, regardless of their religious beliefs. The blasphemy laws still have support in Pakistan because people here hold religion very dear to them, but most people strongly believe that the misuse of blasphemy laws, or taking the blasphemy laws into one’s own hands, is not what Islam teaches us. Many people cite the example of how the people of Ta’if threw stones at Prophet Muhammad when he attempted to preach Islam to them, Allah offered him to crush that civilization between two mountains. Prophet Muhammad , instead, chose to pray for them to come to the right path. They argue that Islam orders Muslims to live life in accordance with that of Muhammad, and reacting violently to criticism is not what he taught us.
Criticism of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan have been considerably muted ever since two of the most vocal critics of these inhumane laws, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Federal Minister for Minority Rights Shahbaz Bhatti were assassinated in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Although few political leaders were brave enough to condemn this brutal act of barbarianism, most Pakistanis were united against the attacks. A large number of people gathered in Badami Bagh and distributed food and clothing to now-homeless Christians. A number of protests have been planned all over Pakistan, not to condemn the man accused of blasphemy, but to demand the arrest and prosecution of all members of the mob.
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