[WSMDiscuss] How Caste Underpins the Blasphemy Crisis in Pakistan

[Umakant]

Dear Friends

Greetings! Please click on the linkgiven below to read an opinion piece how caste is still important in anotherwise Islamic society in South Asia. 

 

Do pass it on to others in yourcircle/network.

 

How CasteUnderpins the Blasphemy Crisis in Pakistan

Faisal Devji, The New York Times, Dec. 18, 2018 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/opinion/caste-blasphemy-pakistan.html

 

Caste discrimination againstChristians, whose ancestors were lower-caste Hindus, persists in the country. 

 

On June 14, 2009,Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman, was picking fruit in the field of Itan Walivillage in Pakistan, about 30 miles from the city of Lahore. On the landowner’sorder, Bibi fetched drinking water for her co-workers, but three Muslim women amongthem accused her of contaminating the water by touching the bowl. An argumentfollowed.

 

Later, the Muslim women accused Bibi ofmaking blasphemous statements against the Prophet Muhammad — a chargepunishable by death under Pakistani law. Despite little evidence, Bibi spentnine years in prison — eight in solitary confinement on death row — till shewas finally acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in late October. 

 

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With Regards 

Umakant, Ph. D 

New Delhi 

 












My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar
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