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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 6-Nov-2014
6-Nov-14 World View -- Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge

Web Log - November, 2014

6-Nov-14 World View -- Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge

Jordan recalls Israeli envoy as violence increases in Jerusalem

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge
Jordan recalls Israeli envoy as violence increases in Jerusalem

Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge

Site of the brick kiln where the Christian couple was burned to death (Express)

Site of the brick kiln where the Christian couple was burned to death (Express)

A poor Christian couple who worked in a brick kiln were accused on Monday by a co-worker of having burned pages of the Koran. No evidence was presented. On Tuesday, a local cleric used loudspeakers of his mosque to demand that his community to punish the couple. A mob gathered outside the couple's house, dragged them out, and beat them. They locked up the couple for two days, attacked the woman with shovels, then tortured the husband, and threw both of them into the brick kiln where they had worked, letting them burn to death.

The police had two days to stop all this, but did nothing until after the couple had been killed.

I've reported on several similar cases over the years. A completely unsupported charge of blasphemy is made, and the accused is murdered or lynched.

In January 2011, Salman Taseer, a high ranking Pakistani official, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. Taseer had publicly opposed Pakistan's blasphemy law, and so Taseer himself was committing blasphemy. Taseer was shot in broad daylight on an Islamabad street by Malik Mumtaz Qadri, a member of the "Elite Force" that were supposed to protect him. ( "5-Jan-11 News -- Pakistan's crisis worsens as senior politician is assassinated")

The next day, when Qadri was brought to court to face charges of having assassinated Taseer, the other lawyers showered him with roses. A statement by 500 Pakistan religious scholars praised Qadri for keeping alive a "tradition of 1,400 years in Islam" which requires the killing of anyone committing an act of blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed.

In September 2012, a mentally retarded 14 year old Christian girl in a suburb of Islamabad was arrested for blasphemy, accused by a Muslim cleric of burning papers containing verses from the Koran. She was later released when it turned out that the cleric had manufactured evidence, but she and her family had to be relocated because of threats against them.

The application of blasphemy laws in Pakistan is extremely irrational.

The cases that make international news are when blasphemy laws are used to target Christians, but in fact that's a small percentage of such cases. Blasphemy laws are used by Muslims to target other Muslims in well over 90% of the cases, usually by Sunni Muslims targeting Shia Muslims or Sufis or Ahmadis. Thousands of Pakistanis have been jailed, tortured or killed by means of the blasphemy laws. But what's really remarkable is ordinary Pakistanis accept this, and they refuse to speak out against it.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that I've frequently described in Generation-Xers in America, where thousands of Gen-X financial engineers created the financial crisis with the purpose of defrauding hated Boomers, without being investigated or sent to jail, because Gen-Xers refuse to blame other Gen-Xers for anything, even serious crimes. It's this refusal to blame other Gen-Xers for crimes that characterizes this generation today versus the Boomers, and it's exactly the same kind of behavior we're seeing in the Pakistani population today.

As I explained in "The Legacy of World War I and the Holocaust", this is also the same behavior that led to the 1930s Holocaust. Germany's Lost Generation (the generational predecessor of today's Generation-X) hated the previous Missionary Generation just as much as today's Gen-Xers hate the previous Boomer Generation.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, these situations occur in all times and places throughout history, and result in history's greatest catastrophes. In each case, the generational conflict morphs into a political conflict, as people in every generation are forced to choose sides in the generational debate. In 1930s Germany, it was the Christians blaming the Jews for German humiliation in World War I. In America in the mid-2000s, it was the Democrats blaming the Republicans for the Nasdaq crash in 2000. In Pakistan, it's the Sunnis blaming the Shias. The result is always the same: catastrophe. Daily Times (Pakistan) and BBC

Jordan recalls Israeli envoy as violence increases in Jerusalem

Tensions escalated sharply in Jerusalem on Wednesday, as Jordan recalled its Israeli envoy, citing increased violence between Palestinians and Israeli security police around the Temple Mount, the holiest site in the Jewish religion, which is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam (after Mecca and Medina). When Israel temporarily shut down access to the Al Aqsa mosque compound for two days last week, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas called it "tantamount to a declaration of war."

Jordan's announcement was followed by further clashes, and a terrorist act, when a Palestinian drove his van into a crowd of bystanders, and then got out of his vehicle and began attack people with a crowbar. He was shot and killed by police. Hamas has claimed credit for the terrorist attack. A similar incident occurred two weeks ago, raising concern that this will be a new pattern of repeating terrorist attacks.

There is a clear trend line of increasing violence in and around Jerusalem, ever since the bodies of three Israeli teenage settlers were found weeks after they were abducted on June 10 by terrorists that Israelis believe were commissioned by Hamas. This was followed by a spiral of violence, as well as the Gaza war. Tensions and violence continue to increase almost every day, and violence between Jews and Arabs is the worst it's been in over a decade. This has led some Israeli officials to believe that a "third intifada" is here, and that Palestinians will increasingly attack Jews in the months to come. Irish Times and Jewish Press

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 6-Nov-14 World View -- Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (6-Nov-2014) Permanent Link
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Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge

Jordan recalls Israeli envoy as violence increases in Jerusalem

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 6-Nov-2014
6-Nov-14 World View -- Pakistan mob lynches Christian couple over alleged blasphemy charge