Saturday 1 July 2017

Coming to a street near you and me?


A bouquet for Newsnight follows.

There was a shocking report on last night's programme from Secunder Kermani about the brutal lynching of a left-wing student, Mashal Khan, by a large mob of fellow Muslim students in Pakistan. Those students believed him to be guilty of blasphemy. 

Kirsty Wark said the case "puts pressure on British imams to distance themselves from the country's blasphemy laws", though the report didn't expand on that side of the story and there were no follow-up interviews with British imams. 

According to Secunder Kermani: 
Most Pakistanis, religious or not, are sympathetic to Mashal's case, believing he was wrongly accused [which, if true, is good news]. But none of the political parties are seriously talking about reforming the blasphemy law because of the resistance they would face. Unlike extremist groups such as the Taliban, the law does have deep support in many quarters. 
Of course, such violent tensions within Pakistan are mirrored here now as a result of mass Muslim immigration to this country over the past few decades. As a result we in the UK need to keep up to speed with such stories now, alas.

2 comments:

  1. I expect we have more Pakistanis living here than Northern Irish protestants yet the DUP is the 'problem'...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the DUP seem to be aligned with Angela Merkel on social issues...and she is a BBC saint...go figure!

      Delete

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