Student in Pakistan beaten to death after accused of blasphemy

[Sid Vicious]

The ransacked university hostel room of slain Pakistani student Mashal Khan has posters of Karl Marx and Che Guevara still hanging on the walls, along with scribbled quotes including one that reads: "Be curious, crazy and mad."

The day before, a heated debate over religion with fellow students broke out at the dorm and led to people accusing Khan of blasphemy against Islam. That attracted a crowd that grew to several hundred people, according to witnesses.

The mob kicked in the door, dragged Khan from his room and beat him to death, witnesses and police said.

The death in the northwestern city of Mardan is the latest violence linked to accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan.

Those who knew Khan described him as an intellectually curious student who openly professed devotion to Islam but asked many questions.

"Whatever he had to say, he would say it openly, but he didn't understand the environment he was living in," said one of Khan's teachers at Abdul Wali Khan University, who declined to be named for fear of retribution.

Aziz ur Rehman, a caretaker at the hostel who witnessed Khan's debate with his fellow students, said he brought up arcane subjects such as whether the offspring of Adam and Eve - the original humans in Islamic texts as well as Judeo-Christian ones - would have married each other, raising the issue of incest.

Crimes related to blasphemy are a serious offense in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and penalties range from small fines to the death sentence.

At least 65 people have been murdered over blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to figures from a Center for Research and Security Studies report and local media, and dozens more convicted of the crime are currently on death row in Pakistani jails.

The Pakistani government has yet to comment publicly on Khan's killing.

In March, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued an order for the removal of blasphemous content online, and said anyone who posted such content should face "strict punishment under the law".

Police say they have arrested 20 suspects involved in Khan's murder and have found no evidence to substantiate blasphemy allegations.

IMAM REFUSES LAST RIGHTS

Rehman, the caretaker, said Khan was alive when the police arrived, but that they did not approach the hostel until it was too late.

"They could have easily saved his life but they stood away from the mob ... I heard one officer say it's good that they sent this non-believer to hell," he said.

Mardan police chief Mohammad Alam Shinwari denied the allegation that officers did not do enough to save Khan.

In Khan's home town of Swabi, around 60 km south of Mardan, his father, Iqbal Shaer, said the accusations of blasphemy were unfounded. "First they killed my son and now they are adding salt to our wounds," he told Reuters.

Shaer, who runs a small business selling biscuits and chocolates to local retailers, said he had always been a lover of poetry and literature and encouraged his children to express themselves and appreciate the arts.

He added: "My wife told me this morning that she spent her life taking care of her son, but those who killed him have wasted that long struggle."

At Khan's funeral, the imam at the local mosque refused to read the last rights, according to Swabi resident Salman Ahmed. A technician who was asked to do so in the cleric's place was confronted by several people afterwards.

Khan has since been buried.

Dorm debate led to death in Pakistan 'blasphemy killing': witnesses | Reuters

but of course it would be racist to condemn ideology that would support these type of actions

[Mr.Money]

Good thing we have true freedom so nobody kicks our ass for not believing a magic man in the clouds watching over us while there is War breaking out and All kinds of wrong.

i often wondered when everybody was trying to take over there part of the globe,how many gods did they make up and whoever won,they're idea stays?.

[Nabatron]

religion is the sole cause of war....

[fsy82]

This shit outrages me so much. LIKE WTF..I am Muslim and man some of the middle eastern countries take their own culture and add it to Islam..like WTF. I'm so grateful that I am able to live in Canada.

[Acura604]

while i don't dispute that this event occured...beware of media sensationalism...ISLAM is a huge topic for the media...and however they want to drive their audience could be in either a negative or positive light...whatever gets them the exposure.

[StylinRed]

this is kind of like that paris police shooting a chinese man to death over in france... ya it sucks, but honestly, wtf cares

[CivicBlues]

Sid, did you know this guy personally?

[nsmb]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Sid, did you know this guy personally?

[mr_chin]

Is there anything in Islam that goes against killing, harming, and stealing?

If there is, then do these people (the mob) know that they're not following their religion then?

[Sid Vicious]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Sid, did you know this guy personally?

nope, why?

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by Sid Vicious

nope, why?

So basically you're using the death of this man as a means to espouse your tired narrative and bigoted views amirite?

Thanks for playing.

[Sid Vicious]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

So basically you're using the death of this man as a means to espouse your tired narrative and bigoted views amirite?

Thanks for playing.

LOL. so criticizing a flawed ideology and beliefs = bigot? no wonder nobody can have a meaningful discussion these days.

[CivicBlues]

^nope not at all, but you motives are complete transparent going by your post history. You're not looking for well-balanced discussion, you're just looking for a bitch fest on Muslims.

[westopher]

Here you can read about the anti homosexuality laws in Africa because of extreme christianity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda...lity_Act,_2014

Yes islamic extremism is atrocious.
No not all muslims are extremists.
Yes Christian extremism is atrocious as well.
Not all Christians are extremists.
Look at the numbers posted about people being killed due to blasphemy. Yes, one is too many, but you seem to forget how many people have been killed in the christianity crusade.
All religions have the opportunity to be taken in a fucked up context.
Hopefully one day there is no religion and people understand that all that really matters is the life around you. Humans will probably be gone before that happens. That said, I don't plan on spending my life treating anyone poorly because of their beliefs. Only because of their behaviour as an individual.

[nsmb]

Originally Posted by westopher

Hopefully one day there is no religion

[Manic!]

Closer to home:Female pastor, 3 others guilty in church torture with electrical cord that kille

Christian pastor and 3 others beat 2 teens for 14 hours until one dies.

UTICA, N.Y. — The pastor of a small church where two brothers were beaten for hours during a counselling session that she called pleaded guilty on Friday to manslaughter and assault.

Three other church members admitted to less serious charges for their roles in the all-night beatings that killed Lucas Leonard, 19, and injured Christopher Leonard, 17, last October.

Word of Life Christian Church Pastor Tiffanie Irwin, her brother Joseph Irwin and mother and son church members Linda Morey and David Morey were the last of nine people charged to be convicted in the attack, which investigators say took place after the brothers discussed leaving the congregation. Joseph Irwin and the Moreys each pleaded guilty to assault.

Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara called the case “a terrible tragedy.”

“I can only hope that Luke can rest in peace, Chris can get on with his life,” McNamara said.

The victims’ parents and half-sister and the pastor’s mother and a second brother were among those charged after members of the secretive church took the bloodied body of Lucas Leonard to a hospital, where doctors initially thought he had been shot. Authorities later found his badly injured brother still inside the converted New Hartford school building that housed the church and living space for its leaders.

Christopher Leonard testified at an earlier hearing that Tiffanie Irwin asked his family and some others to stay behind for a meeting after an eight-hour Sunday service last October. Over the next 14 hours, he said, he and his brother were pummelled in their torsos and genitals with an electrical cord.

McNamara has said the brothers were ordered during the beating to repent for a variety of sins, including using a voodoo doll. Police have said there was no evidence to support a claim by their half-sister, Sarah Ferguson, that they had molested her children.

Ferguson was convicted of manslaughter and assault after a non-jury trial in July. The only defendant to decline a plea deal, she was sentenced last month to 25 years in prison.

The victims’ parents, Deborah and Bruce Leonard, pleaded guilty to assault. The church’s matriarch, Traci Irwin, and her son Daniel Irwin, a deacon, admitted to counts of unlawful imprisonment.

Sentencings are scheduled for December and January.

[Ferra]

these people are just fucked up and violent to begin with

I think they have these "I AM RIGHT YOU ARE WRONG! If you disagree with me i am going to fuck you up (assuming they have the power to)" mentality towards everything

religion is just a convenient excuse for them to do these horrible things.
if not religion, it could be race, culture, social status...etc
same power tripping, toxic mentality

[Berzerker]

The last man on earth will probably say "Thank God I'm the last one alive"

Fuck religion.

Berz out.