Here's my problem with Imran Khan's statement: he only objects to the killing based on the fact that the student didn't actually commit blasphemy. What if he had committed blasphemy? Would it have been okay to kill him then? (The apparent answer according to Pakistani society is "yes", by the way.)
Indeed
I think Sunni Islam is one of the real, underlying causes. I mean, what else would it be? It's not poverty or inequality--plenty of the worst religious radicals are wealthy and well-connected. It's not solely Western imperialism--China, India, and non-Muslim Africa were all royally screwed but don't have the same level of religious oppression. It's not education--this problem has been happening in liberal universities (and on the flipside, barely happens in non-Muslim poorly-educated places around the world).
I don't think it's a stretch to think that an ideology that prescribes death for blasphemers or apostates ends up killing lots of perceived blasphemers and apostates.
Islam didn't have to be this way (and Saudi Arabian style Wahhabism is a big reason it became this way), but the problem is real and getting worse.
Yuuuup
My mom used to wear Jeans in pakistan growing up in the 70s. Hell, even i was growing up, no one really cared about religion that much. we all went to the mosques only on Fridays and worried more about cricket than islam. no one i knew wore Burqas or Hijabs. I left before 9/11 and apparently everything changed. I can see the changes in Pakistanis living abroad too. Girls are wearing hijabs when their mothers didnt or still dont. People start praying during random dinner parties at each other's homes. in my uni, there was an Eid Party and they separated female students into a different section and put up a freaking curtain in between despite the fact that we all knew each other anyway. i promptly stood up and left but that stuck with me because in Pak i grew up playing sports with my neighbors. girls, boys, out in the streets in a middle class neighborhood. no one gave a shit.
This really highlights how yes, religion is the problem. The entire culture and social justice regressing is directly linked to religion taking a larger place in their society.
just bizarre whats happened to pakistanis. they have regressed. then again Americans elected trump and britains voted for Brexit. We are all going insane.
So true.
You seriously can't be this naive? This level of punishment and oppression is done to maintain and secure power. Same reasons why wahhabism was introduced in Saudi Arabia. The saudi royal family protect ignorance by using extreme beliefs to push away people from education which in turn keep them in power. Wahhabism is a relatively new sect of Islam that was created only in the past couple centuries. Now look where it got the AL saud royal family. The same thing is happening in Pakistan, but also adding it their own regional problems. I am definitely over simplifying the problem here, but it's not as black or white as some people paint them to be.
All if not most religious conflicts in the history of the world have roots in power, and wealth. They just use religion as motivating and controlling element in war.
This post has several fallacies.
First, saying a conflict is rooted in wealth or power struggles rather than religion is a false dichotomy. They are not mutually exclusive things. On the contrary, they can feed into each other. That doesn't make religion blameless, anymore than wealth inequality is "blameless".
Second, saying "these leaders just use religion as an excuse to oppress etc." implies that these leaders don't actually believe their shit, and we all know that it's not true. Religious fanaticism is real, and harmful.
Third, in this story, wealth, power struggles, etc. are irrelevant; the perpetrators were highly educated and not reacting out of desperation or poverty. Their motivations were
purely religious.
It's high time that we stop handwaving religion as "not the real problem".
