Covering Ghulam Abbas's Indelicate Murder

Al Jazeera's lede on this story: "A mentally unstable homeless man was beaten to death before his body was set on fire for allegedly burning pages from the Quran in central Pakistan, police said." [1]

[Picture Removed by Author: However, here is its location on the web:  Sanson, Rodrick.  "Pakistan: burned to death for Islamic blasphemy."  Spero News, July 6, 2012].

Above (I'm assuming you've clicked on the link): does that look like a man "beaten to death" to you?

The tip for this story came from a Pakistani Facebook acquaintance (now friended), and it appears the more accurate description and interpretation came from a Catholic news source, Spero, which covers Catholic interests worldwide.  Here is the lede from that source: 

"A man accused of blasphemy, according to Islamic religious law, was extra-judicially killed in Pakistan outside a police station in the Chani Ghoth area of theBahawalpur region in the Punjab." [2]

At least the framework moved from "beating" to "killing". 

Note on the photograph: I was not able to find IPTC creator and copyright information, but added to the jpeg file the Spero News link.  It's as compelling a photo as war photography ever serves and may be further scrutinized (technically) for authenticity.

Always my first complaint and secret relief as regards my own blog: I'm "reporting" from the second row seat to history!

Thank God.

But however I may feel about my fringe journalism career,  it's not the "front row seat to history" and that creates some problems for vetting the details of dramatic imagery and news.

In any case, according to Spero News, " . . . mobs surrounded the police station baying for the life of the alleged blasphemer. The mob blocked the main highway through the town and broke down the gates of the police station, attacking the officers and injuring Station House Officer Ghulam Mohudin Gajjar along with four guards.  Superintendent Ahmedpur also sustained injuries. All told, some 15 officers were injured in the melee and are now in hospital."

Nothing like the completely unjust lynching of an innocent ("mentally ill" -- the two stories agree on that) for trivial cause, the burning of a few pages of a book, never a good thing -- my people don't burn books -- but weight the "who" against the "what" and "what happened next".

Islam's clerical, news, and security communities must take ownership of this not-so-godly primitive insanity that they themselves have been instrumental in installing and encouraging to the point where it has the power -- as at Lal Masjid not too many years ago -- to eat them alive.

Not that being beaten to death would have been better, AJ, but why not report this death for what it was -- an unwell man, Ghulam Abbas, God rest his soul, wrested from police protection (and held for a thing so small on a pretense so stupid I don't even wish to type about it), soaked with kerosene, and set on fire to burn alive?

 Of course, only say so if that's the truth.

This is all I have:

Photographer: unknown.

Victim: Ghulam Abbas

Location: police station, Chani Ghoth, Pakistan.

Date: around July 6, 2012

POC: Deputy Superintendent of Police Ahmedpur.

Veracity: Experience plus a Google-based search suggests the story is making the rounds via Facebook and the Blogosphere.

My contact's complaint: where is Big Media on this?

For my part, I'm less worried about Big Media missing the story and more concerned with the special interest Catholic and Islamic (and other) press concocting, promoting, modifying, painting whatever has happened Out There -- even in Pakistan, this is Out There -- to suit agendas revolving around their own legitimacy and growth.

To my Muslims friends on Facebook and elsewhere: I am sorry, but God has put you on the frontier in humanity.  The Jews and Israel are old establishment: we've been working on this business (you know the analog: " . . . God favors those who restrain themselves") for a few thousand years.  What's going on in Chani Ghoth is the edge, and it should not be confused with anyone's future.

Reference

1. Al Jazeera.  "Pakistan man beaten to death for 'blasphemy'.  July 9, 2012.

2. Sanson, Rodrick.  "Pakistan: burned to death for Islamic blasphemy."  Spero News, July 6, 2012.

Comments

[J. S. Oppenheim]

Amen, Tammy. Most egregious: the victim's helplessness, both in his alleged "misconduct" and then through the lynching. At least the police appear to have at their own peril resisted the mob, but there one wonders if they were not equipped for riot and able to communicate with military reinforcements. Where, in fact, was Pakistan, the state power? Answer: apparently disinterested, late, or plain dumb and unprepared.

[Tammy Swofford]

Congratulations on the new masthead. It looks nice!

Now as to the story at hand, my usual comment applies. Which is worse? Burning molecules or killing a man? The book can be recreated, reprinted, redistributed. The human being is one-of-a-kind, unique, different than all others. He cannot be resurrected from the ashes of violence.

Tammy