11 Year Old Girl held on Pakistan blasphemy charge

[Meg]

Girl held on Pakistan blasphemy charge - CNN.com

(CNN) -- An 11-year-old Christian girl has been arrested and detained on charges of blasphemy for allegedly desecrating pages from the Quran in the Pakistan capital Islamabad.
According to a statement released by the President's office on Sunday, the girl, identified as Ramsha, was accused by a local resident of burning pages of the Muslim holy text after she gathered paper as fuel for cooking.
Local media reports said the girl has Down syndrome. CNN was unable to confirm these reports, however Qasim Niazi, the police officer in charge of the police station near where the incident took place, said the girl did not have a mental disorder but was illiterate and had not attended school.
The accused girl had told him she had no idea there were pages of the Quran inside the documents she burnt, he added.
Niazi said that 150 people had gathered on Friday where the neighborhood's Christian population lived and threatened to burn down their houses.

"The mob wanted to burn the girl to give her a lesson," he told CNN.
Other Christian families living in the area have fled fearing a backlash, he added.

It makes me wonder, if they're so worried about their koran, what are loose pages doing laying about where a kid can mistakenly mix them up with other paper trash? This is more trumped up charges to give them an excuse to persecute Christians.

[IamPJ]

You'd think these people would have better things to do than to persecute an 11 year-old girl with downs syndrome.

[mattfivefour]

Satan has no love or compassion in him ... and these people, through their religion, are his servants. Indeed, God says they are the devil's children. But so are all who do not come to Christ. We were no different in God's eyes. But now that we have been reconciled to Him He has given us the ministry of reconciling others to Him by sharing with them the same gospel by which we were saved, forgiven and freed. The way to help this young girl is to first pray for her; second, pray for those around her; and third, support any ministry that is taking the true gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims wherever they may be.

[caligal]

This poor child probably has no idea what is happening to her or why everyone is so mad at her. Poor baby.......

[LivnForChrist]

[Meg]

Here's the latest developments in this poor child's case:

Pakistani mullah accused of trying to frame girl in blasphemy case | World news | The Guardian

Pakistani mullah accused of trying to frame girl in blasphemy case

The case against a Pakistani Christian girl potentially facing a death sentence for allegedly burning sacred Islamic texts has been thrown into doubt after her local mullah was arrested on accusations of tampering with evidence in order to frame her.

Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti appeared in court on Sunday after witnesses claimed to have seen him adding pages of the Qur'an to a bag of ashes Rimsha Masih had been carrying away for disposal last month in order to strengthen the case against her.

Although many of the cases brought under the country's much criticised blasphemy laws are thought to be spurious, the Rimsha case is thought to be the first time in the more than two decades since the laws were introduced that someone has been arrested for fabricating evidence.

But while the dramatic turn of events delighted the girl's supporters, a prosecution lawyer insisted he would press ahead with the case against her.

Last month a local man, Malik Hammad, spotted the girl with the ashes and accused her of burning a prayer book that included passages from the Qur'an, a particularly provocative form of blasphemy which can carry the death penalty.

Police arrested the girl amid uproar in the neighbourhood of Mehrabadi, a poor area on the outskirts of Islamabad. Locals had been whipped into a frenzy by Chishti, who reportedly showed the burned pages to mosque-goers at evening prayers and led a crowd of people to Rimsha's house.

But after two weeks of controversy during which the case has been criticised by both human rights groups and even hardline religious conservatives, three of Chishti's deputies have come forward to implicate the mullah.

Hafiz Mohammad Zubair told Geo TV that he witnessed Chishti putting two pages of the Qu'ran into a plastic bag of ashes in order to strengthen the case against the girl.

Chishti had made no secret of his distaste for the several-hundred-strong Christian community of Mehrabadi, even appearing on national television to bemoan the noisiness of church services which he said had disturbed Muslim residents, the overwhelming majority in the area.

He also welcomed the panicked departure of most of the Christians from the area following the furore. He had reportedly made an announcement from the mosque's loudspeaker telling them to leave the area.

"We are not upset the Christians have left and we will be pleased if they don't come back," Chishti told the Guardian on 18 August.

However, his actions may well have alienated the community's Muslim landlords who rely on poor Christian families to rent their properties.

Human rights groups say the blasphemy laws are often used to settle vendettas and property disputes. People have been sentenced to long jail terms on extremely weak evidence, some of which cannot even be examined in court for fear of repeating the alleged blasphemy.

Others have been killed by furious mobs, such as last July when a mentally ill man was dragged from a police station in Punjab province and burned alive in the street.

Ali Dayan Hasan, head of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, said he hoped the arrest of Chishti would "act as a deterrent to further frivolous charges and will seek to temper this atmosphere of impunity with which extremists incite violence against vulnerable people in the name of blasphemy".

But it is unlikely the controversy over Rimsha will lead to fundamental reform of Pakistan's blasphemy laws as the country gears up for an election. Last year two prominent politicians were assassinated by religious hardliners after speaking out against the law.

Keep praying folks, those Pakistanis have really hard hearts!!!

[livin_in_the_Son]

[LivnForChrist]

Pakistan blasphemy case girl granted bail

7 September 2012

A Christian girl who has been detained on blasphemy charges for three weeks in
Pakistan has been granted bail.

The girl, named as Rimsha, is thought to be about 14 years old. She was arrested
in Islamabad after a mob accused her of burning pages of the Koran and
demanded her punishment.

Last week a Pakistani imam was remanded in custody, accused of planting burned
pages of the Koran in her bag.

more

[forensics]

This poor child probably has no idea what is happening to her or why everyone is so mad at her. Poor baby.......

I would think that she does know why and what is going on. She was brought up in a Muslim World and chose to be Christian...............She is old enough to become Christian in a Muslim world she is fully old enough and most likely fully aware of why the uproar from the Muslims. After all Christians are called the Infidels by Muslims.
So glad to hear she (and the Pastor as well) have been released.

[Forgiven]

UPDATE: Pakistani teen innocent of blasphemy, but case continues



September 25, 2012

A 14-year-old Pakistani girl who had faced life in prison for allegedly burning the Quran will have her case heard in juvenile court, the girl's lawyer told CNN.
A local court ordered the transfer on Monday, Tahir Naveed Choudhry said.

Pakistani investigators said Rimsha's neighbor accused her of burning pages of the Quran to use as cooking fuel. The neighbor began to shout in protest, drawing a crowd that grew angry. Some neighbors said the teenager was beaten. Others said she ran back home and locked herself inside. When police arrived, they arrested her.
Rimsha's lawyers said the neighbor wanted to settle a personal score with the girl because the two didn't get along. They said it's likely that he liked the teen and she didn't feel the same.
While the latest turn in her case this week appears largely positive, her ordeal is far from over.

But no matter how her case pans out, it's unclear what kind of life she might be able to have. She told CNN in September that she wanted to stay in her home country.
People will believe what they want to believe, no matter what the courts or police say, Hasan said.
"She is certainly in grave danger," he said. "It's the accusation that endangers your life, and can endure."

Police: Pakistani teen innocent of blasphemy, but case continues - CNN.com

[IamPJ]

Thanks for the update, I was wondering what was happening with her case.

[Hannah]

Thanks for the Update.

Keeping her in prayer.