Pakistani cleric faces possible blasphemy charge for framing Christian girl

(September 03, 2012) Pakistani police are investigating whether a Muslim cleric who allegedly tried to frame a Christian minor girl for blasphemy should be charged with insulting Islam himself and potentially face life in prison, a police officer said Monday. Khalid Chisti was arrested Saturday after a member of his mosque accused him of stashing pages of a Quran in the bag of Rimsha Masih to make it seem like she burned the Islamic holy book. He allegedly planted the evidence to push Christians out of his neighbourhood in Islamabad. He has denied the allegations. The case has generated significant international attention because of reports that Rimsha Masih is about 14 and has mental disability. Human rights activists have long criticized Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, saying they are misused to persecute non-Muslims and settle personal vendettas. They have hailed Chisti's arrest as unprecedented and hope it will prevent false blasphemy accusations in the future. More immediately, they have called for the release of the Christian girl, who has been held in prison for over two weeks. However, she will remain in jail until at least Friday after her bail hearing was postponed for a second time Monday, because of a lawyers' strike.
Under Pakistan's controversial anti-blasphemy laws, anyone who speaks ill of Islam or the Prophet Mohammad commits a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment. Activists and human rights groups say vague terminology has led to its misuse, and that the law dangerously discriminates against the country's tiny minority groups. Rimsha may be in danger if she returns from jail to her village. Some Muslim neighbours insist she should still be punished, and said the detained imam was a victim. Critics of Pakistan's leaders say they are too worried about an extremist backlash to speak out against the law in a nation where religious conservatism is increasingly prevalent. In January 2011, the governor of Punjab Province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his own bodyguard because the governor had called for reform of the anti-blasphemy law. Two months after Taseer's murder, Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, was killed by extremists for demanding changes to the law.