Rimsha Masih’s family spent Christmas Day as they have spent the last four months: in hiding, afraid for their lives. In August, the young girl, who is aged between 10 and 14 and suffers from learning difficulties, was arrested and charged with blasphemy after a local cleric falsely accused her of desecrating pages of the Noorani Qaida. She was incarcerated in one of Pakistan’s toughest prisons for three weeks. Amid international outrage, she was eventually freed, but that does not mean she is safe. Those accused of blasphemy frequently die at the hands of angry mobs before they have even faced trial. Her house, in Mehrabad, a run-down Christian area on the outskirts of Islamabad, stands empty. Given the visceral fury that the mere allegation of blasphemy prompts, it should be no surprise that the Rimsha case inflamed local tensions. Many of her neighbours fled their homes in the ensuing crisis. For those who remained, it has been a bleak festive period. “Normally at Christmas we put up stars on our houses, but this year we will not be able to do this,” Amjad Shehzad, a local resident, told AFP. More:
Shameful and fanatical behaviour, no doubt fuelled by radical mullahs. Nothing will change in Pakistan until these evil-minded beings are seriously dealt with, and the population is educated to a standard (not in madrassahs) where people can think for themselves and are not lead blindly by those with evil agendas.