THE KANSAS CITY STAR: ISLAMABAD -- A group of Islamic leaders in Pakistan lent strong support Monday to a mentally disabled Christian girl accused of blasphemy in an unprecedented public move that was the first denunciation by hard-line mullahs of the country's controversial blasphemy law.
The All Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group of Muslim clerics and scholars that includes representatives from fundamentalist groups, joined hands with the Pakistan Interfaith League - which includes Christians, Sikhs and practitioners of other religions - to call for understanding for the girl, who's been identified only as Rimsha. They also demanded that those making false allegations of blasphemy be punished.
Tahir Ashrafi, the chairman of the Ulema Council, warned that it was the "law of the jungle" when angry mobs routinely pressured police to file blasphemy charges, as happened in the case of Rimsha, who her family says is 11 years old and suffering from Down syndrome.
Rimsha was charged earlier this month with desecrating the Quran. The issue has terrorized the country's Christian population after a rampaging crowd drove Rimsha's family members, who were living in a mixed Christian-Muslim enclave in Islamabad, and their Christian neighbors from their homes.
The Vatican has expressed its concern, saying that Rimsha - who cannot read and made a living by collecting garbage - had simply picked up scraps of paper that turned out to have religious text on them. » | Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers | Monday, August 27, 2012
