A Christian teenager was accused of
sending anti-Islamic text messages in the city of Karachi. This case follows a
highly publicized one that happened earlier this year in which a 14-year-old
girl was detained for weeks after being accused of burning pages form a
religious textbook. 16-year-old Ryan Stanten had his home ransacked by a mob on
Wednesday after rumors spread that he had sent blasphemous messages from his
cellphone. He and his mother went into hiding soon after the allegations
surfaced the previous day. The mob dragged furniture out into the street and
set it on fire. One of Stanten’s relatives said some of his friends had used
his phone to send objectionable messages to some religiously observant
neighbors and it was not clear whether they did it as a prank or to cause harm.
Mr. Stanten is not in custody and the police do not know his whereabouts. The police
also state that they opened the case against him to calm the mob. In August the
14-year-old Christian girl in the capital, Islamabad, was arrested and detained
after being accused of burning the pages of a textbook used to teach the Koran
to children. After a public outcry against her prosecution, the court released
the girl, Rimisha Masih on bail last month. Later the police filed charges
against the cleric who had led the accusations against Rimisha. On Thursday the
cleric was also granted bail by the court.
Pakistan has had blasphemy laws in
place since the 1980s. It looks like those laws cause people to do outrageous
things and that it may not lay well with many people. The first case is unsure
of whether the boy actually sent the messages or not but the second case is
obvious that a 14-year-old wouldn’t do such a thing. It seems as if people are
trying to get others in trouble! Both situations could definitely be looked at
as a personal trouble because it affects not only the individual but their
family and possibly close friends. The beliefs and values of the culture were
put into jeopardy because of religious scripts being used improperly. This could
also be considered at public issue. The first situation caused a riot and a mob
decided to take matters into their own hands. That in a way could also be seen
as a social problem because a significant number of people recognized the
problem and decided to do something about it or thought that something could be
done through a collective social action. In the second situation it too could
be considered a public issue because it involved the burning of sacred text
causing the public to become conscerned about how people respect or honor their
beliefs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/world/asia/teenager-in-hiding-after-blasphemy-accusation-pakistani-police-say.html
