Pakistan: Mentally Disabled Christians Charged with Blasphemy

by Raymond Ibrahim • March 24, 2019 at 5:00 am

If convicted, Stephen Masih could face the death penalty.
"[I]nstead of protecting the teenager from his attackers, [police] arrested and booked him into prison on blasphemy charges." Hours later, the imam and "a mob of more than 300 Muslim fundamentalists surrounded the prison, and called for the public lynching of [Asif] Stephen. As the mob overwhelmed local police, Stephen was removed from his cell and handed over to the mob...." — TruNews, August 24, 2017.
Rimsha Masih, an 11-year-old Christian girl suffering from Down Syndrome, was falsely accused of burning the Koran. Muslims responded by rioting, destroying Christian homes, churches, and crosses, tearing Bibles to pieces, and calling for her death. While under arrest, it was discovered that Muhammad Khalid, a learned Muslim cleric, had planted the charred Koran in her backpack "in order to get rid of Christians in the area." — Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News, August 22, 2012; The Guardian, September 2, 2012, and others.

(Image source: iStock)

"A mentally ill Pakistani Christian man has been charged with blasphemy," the Pakistan Christian Post reported a few days ago. Stephen Masih was arrested after Muhammad Rafiq and Muhammad Imran told Muhammad Mudassar -- a renowned hafiz (one who has memorized the entire Koran) —that the Christian "had made derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)."

Masih, 38, is unmarried and lives with his mother and sister. After contracting typhoid fever as a child, and receiving little medical attention due to his family's impoverishment, the family noticed changes in his behavior; he was eventually taken to a "doctor [who] declared him mentally disabled."

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Mullahs and the English Opium-Eater

by Amir Taheri • March 24, 2019 at 4:00 am

Media controlled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that Syrian President Bashar Assad has agreed to cede control of Latakia to Iran just as he has transferred control of Tartus to Russia. Tehran official media reports imply that neither Iraq nor Syria have sovereign governments and that both are under Iranian control.
In just a few years' time, so the pipe-dream goes, the world will have four super-powers: Russia, China, the US and Iran. And then, Iran will launch the next phase of its project for the "New Islamic Civilization" by destroying first Israel and then the United States.
At the same time, the country is on the brink of environmental tragedy, with the drying up of over 300 lakes and at least 60 rivers. Mass unemployment, rampant inflation and widespread corruption have put Iran on the same slippery slope as Venezuela.

Media controlled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that Syrian President Bashar Assad has agreed to cede control of the port of Latakia to Iran. Pictured: The port of Latakia, Syria. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

When reality is too hard to bear, imagination may rescue you from despair. This is the message of "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" by Thomas De Quincey, the precursor of psychedelic literature. That message, it seems, has reached Iran, triggering an avalanche of empire-building dreams.

Earlier this month, "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei published a manifesto for the creation of a "New Global Islamic Civilization" to replace the old one that he believes is too tired to conquer the world and prepare the return of the "Hidden Imam".

And last week, General Muhammad-Ali Aziz-Jaafari, chief of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that he has over 200,000 troops under his command in Iraq and Syria, the first time since 7th century AD that Iran has had such a military presence in the Levant.

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