Before we start, check out the first installment in my new series over at Glibertarians.
Meanwhile, in a Third World shithole that for some insane reason we send millions and millions of American taxpayer dollars to, a mentally ill man was stoned to death by an enraged mob. Excerpt:
An enraged mob stoned to death a middle-aged man for allegedly desecrating the Quran inside a mosque in a remote village in eastern Pakistan, police said Sunday. Three police officers also were injured, and more than 80 men have been detained.
The mosque’s custodian said he saw the man burning the Muslim holy book and told others before informing police, according to police spokesman Chaudhry Imran. The violence took place Saturday evening in Khanewal district in Punjab province.
Imran said police rushed to the mosque and found the man surrounded by an angry crowd. Officer Mohammad Iqbal and two subordinates tried to take custody of the man but the group began throwing stones at them, seriously injuring Iqbal and slightly injuring the other two officers.
Munawar Gujjar, chief of Tulamba police station, said he rushed reinforcements to the mosque but they did not arrive before the mob had stoned to death the man and hung his body from a tree.
Gujjar said the victim was Mushtaq Ahmed, 41, of a nearby village.
“The ill-fated man has been mentally unstable for the last 15 years and according to his family often went missing from home for days begging and eating whatever he could find,” he said. He said the body was handed to the family.
Fucking savages.
I guess the obvious question is “why are U.S. taxpayer dollars still going to these assholes,” but the real head-scratcher is how, in the supposedly-advanced 21st century, people are so medieval as to stone a mentally ill guy to death for… being mentally ill. Imagine if a clearly mentally ill man went into a Baptist church in Texas and started burning a Bible; the congregation might be upset, the authorities would be summoned, but nobody would float the idea of stoning the guy to death. Indeed, in Pakistan, the authorities actually tried to save the guy (to their credit, I suppose) and took a few taps from the rock-throwing crowd themselves.
Now, the story says eighty men were arrested. OK, then what happened? What, if anything, will they be charged with? When are the trials? What are the likely sentences, if they are convicted? Or, as usual, will this be the last thing we hear of this, after which it will quietly fade away, because, you know, cultures, or something.
The story concludes:
Mob attacks on people accused of blasphemy are common in this conservative Islamic nation. International and national rights groups say blasphemy accusations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan.
As I said – fucking savages.
