SivVulk
10-12-2011, 11:48 AM
In the Pakistani village of Havelian, a Christian Grade 8 student named Faryal Bhatti has been accused of blasphemy after making a spelling mistake on a test, a miscue that has had drastic and life-changing consequences for her whole family.
Bhatti’s case is the latest in a string of incidents that highlight the growing influence of radical Islamists in Pakistan, and it also serves as a reminder of the government’s frequent inability or unwillingness to curb them.
In January, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab state, was assassinated by his bodyguard — shot 27 times in the back — after Taseer promised to repeal or at least tone down the country’s blasphemy laws.
School authorities say Bhatti recently misspelled a word in Urdu in a poem written to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad. Instead of the word “Naat,” which meant a poem of praise, Bhatti misplaced a letter with a dot and instead wrote the word “Laanat,” which means curse.
Bhatti’s teacher reportedly beat her in front of her class and then referred the case to the school’s principal.
As news of Bhatti’s infraction spread through the village, close to Abbottabad, the city north of Islamabad where Osama bin Laden hid in plain sight for years, religious clerics rallied locals to protest in the streets.
Bhatti should be expelled, they demanded, and her family evicted from their home.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1067390
Unbelievable... perhaps Pakistan should adopt the American tradition of televising spelling bee competitions to prevent such incidents :|
Seriously doesn't the real fault lie in the founders of the alphabet for making the words so damn similar? :confused:
Bhatti’s case is the latest in a string of incidents that highlight the growing influence of radical Islamists in Pakistan, and it also serves as a reminder of the government’s frequent inability or unwillingness to curb them.
In January, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab state, was assassinated by his bodyguard — shot 27 times in the back — after Taseer promised to repeal or at least tone down the country’s blasphemy laws.
School authorities say Bhatti recently misspelled a word in Urdu in a poem written to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad. Instead of the word “Naat,” which meant a poem of praise, Bhatti misplaced a letter with a dot and instead wrote the word “Laanat,” which means curse.
Bhatti’s teacher reportedly beat her in front of her class and then referred the case to the school’s principal.
As news of Bhatti’s infraction spread through the village, close to Abbottabad, the city north of Islamabad where Osama bin Laden hid in plain sight for years, religious clerics rallied locals to protest in the streets.
Bhatti should be expelled, they demanded, and her family evicted from their home.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1067390
Unbelievable... perhaps Pakistan should adopt the American tradition of televising spelling bee competitions to prevent such incidents :|
Seriously doesn't the real fault lie in the founders of the alphabet for making the words so damn similar? :confused: