The Canadian government should take serious notice of this and send a clear and strong message to Pakistan's government expressing concern for its treatment of religious minorities and telling it to stop grave violations of human rights.
Source/Credit: Calgary Herald
By Kalim Ahmed | September 1, 2012
Re: "Pakistani court extends imprisonment for Christian girl in blasphemy as police investigate," Herald Online, Aug. 31.
As a Canadian Muslim, I'm extremely outraged about grave human rights violations and persecution being carried out in Pakistan against religious minorities.
The most recent expression of these atrocities is an accusation of blasphemy against a Christian girl, Rimsha, 14, who suffers from Down syndrome. She was arrested on Aug. 16 and since then, despite being a minor and suffering from a mental disability, has been kept in solitary confinement in a high-security prison.
She was denied release on bail. Her arrest has triggered an exodus of several hundred Christian families from her poor village on the edge of Islamabad.
Pakistan's blasphemy laws were introduced by the infamous military dictator, Gen. Ziaul Haq, and are considered highly controversial by international human rights organizations. They are often used to settle personal vendettas and to persecute religious minorities. The judges are also afraid of deciding these cases, resulting in the accused languishing in jails for years.
In this case, the cleric of a local mosque has confessed on national media that he had been trying to expel the Christian population from the village for several months.
The Canadian government should take serious notice of this and send a clear and strong message to Pakistan's government expressing concern for its treatment of religious minorities and telling it to stop grave violations of human rights.
Read original post here: Speak up for Rimsha
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