Pakistan mob kills woman, girls, over 'blasphemous' Facebook post

[Warren Stupidity]

Lahore: A Pakistani mob killed a woman member of a religious sect and two of her grand daughters after a sect member was accused of posting blasphemous material on Facebook, police said on Monday, the latest instance of growing violence against minorities.

The dead, including a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister, were Ahmadis, who consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims and many Pakistanis consider them heretics.

Police said the late Sunday violence in the town of Gujranwala, 220 km (140 miles) southeast of the capital, Islamabad, started with an altercation between young men, one of whom was an Ahmadi accused of posting "objectionable material".

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pakistan-mob-kills-woman-girls-over-blasphemous-facebook-post/488865-56.html

You have no right to not be offended.

[samsingh]

1. disgusting

[zazen]

2. sigh . . I think my despair meter's not even going to make it to noon today n/t

[get the red out]

3. But they are such peaceful people

We've got to understand their culture! We are worse than them because we made war. Women wear high heels here, our women are as bad off. Christianity would do this, maybe, possibly, if they could; so our majority is just as terrible.

[Htom Sirveaux]

9. You forgot one:

Consistent with the idea that cultural differences often arise from differences in ecological and historical conditions, we found that tight countries have experienced a wide range of ecological and historical threats whereas loose countries experienced fewer. The strong norms that characterize tight nations help humans coordinate their social action in the face of numerous survival threats. Loose nations can ”afford” more latitude and permissiveness because they face far fewer natural and human made threats.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tightness-and-looseness-a-new-way-to-understand-differences-across-the-50-united-states/

Pakistan had the highest "tightness" rating they studied. The researchers grant that at this point they've only found correlation, not causation, but they are working on improving.

[trotsky]

4. Well at least we won't be subjected to 200 Google search results...

to Gish-Gallop us away from thinking this had something to do with religion.

[Htom Sirveaux]

5. Nope, someone could put forth the alternative causes just using the article itself:

Human rights workers say the accusations are increasingly used to settle personal vendettas or to grab the property of the accused.

[trotsky]

6. That is a general statement, and not specific to this case.

Unless the 7-year-old girl and her baby sister owned property?

But A+ for effort! Someone would be proud.

[Htom Sirveaux]

7. The girls weren't the ones accused of blasphemy either.

"As police were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and started burning the houses of Ahmadis."

The youth accused of making the Facebook post had not been injured, he said.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Right. So this became a classic case of

religious sectarian violence. Not family vendettas etc. it was kill all the blasphemers.

[Htom Sirveaux]

11. Of course it was religious sectarian, but if it was to "kill all the blasphemers"

it's weird that (a) only two people were killed and (b) the person actually accused of the blasphemy in question wasn't hurt at all. But more importantly, as I point out above, even if the specific division that determines who will be attacked is religious, that doesn't end the question of non-religious underlying causes. The article names vendettas and theft, and also see Post #9.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. All the Ahmadis were considered blasphemers.

The triggering incident appeared to be a facebook post, but the mob just went after the entire community. A classic religion inspired act of indiscriminate violence against an entire group. You appear to be desperately searching for some way it might not have been exactly what it appears to have been, which is par for the course here.

[Htom Sirveaux]

14. Are you satisfied with terminating the search for explanation with "because of religion"?

Why?

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Does Pakistan have mass murders, theft and arson that the police let happen

for any other group? People of a particular profession, perhaps? People who speak a language other than Urdu? We never hear about it. But we frequently hear that people are murdered in Pakistan because of their religion.

[trotsky]

15. And regardless, without religion there would be no (even if bogus) "blasphemy" charge to begin with.

But hey, I've been told before that religion never causes bad behavior, only good.

[rug]

16. There would still be vendettas, bigotry, and overall general stupidity.

Speaking of which, where's the link for this:

But hey, I've been told before that religion never causes bad behavior, only good.

[mr blur]

13. But...but...why are you so disrespectful?

You could make somebody cwy like that!

[Warren Stupidity]

18. I haven't seen any google splatter here for months.

Oh wait. Never mind.

[Htom Sirveaux]

8. I agree, no right not to be offended.

Free speech is a beautiful thing, and this is a horrible tragedy.