Private school ransacked over test blasphemy claims

Farooqi Girls School, Lahore, ablaze after attack over 'blasphemy' in test paper. Source

On 30th October, a mob including some students parents and religious extremist groups attacked one of Lahore's leading Schools, the Farooqi Girls School on Ravi Road.  The reason?  Alleged blasphemy in a test paper on 'The Holy Quran' set by a female teacher at the school.  It is unclear exactly what is alleged to have been done.  Some say the whole thing was made up by religious extremists to stir an incident and disrupt the school due to it's successful record teaching girls, others claim the teacher made an error because she was copying from a text with a torn page, or that in copying from the text she accidentally copied from the end of the next chapter about street beggars.



The mob burned the head-teachers car and pulled furniture out and burned it.  The police were only able to gain control by firing into the air.

However it came about, the result has been the head teacher sacking the teacher in question, and with the same head teacher, Asim Farooqi, aged 77, being arrested at the demand of the mob, and - surprise, surprise - the Islamic religious leaders behind the mob.  However, parents and students have counter-demonstrated, demanding his immediate release.

This incident illustrates the mentality that Christians and other minorities have to face.  Extremists will deliberately foment or use incidents to brutally attack innocent victims.  On the barest hint of a rumour, they take the law in their own hands, and as in this case, typically, the police will arrest the
victim - oh, sorry, perpetrator - rather than those rioting, burning, looting and torturing.

Sources 1 2 3 4, 5 and 6.