{"id":1034,"date":"2012-09-10T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/"},"modified":"2012-09-10T19:33:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T19:33:00","slug":"pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe court\u2019s decision to release Rimsha on bail gives courage to other judges to act in a similar way,\u201d Bishop Sebastian Shaw of the Lahore Archdiocese told Aid to the Church in Need.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cMany Muslims were thinking in a positive, sympathetic way but weren\u2019t able to say as much openly,\u201d he added. \u201cWith this precedent, they may be encouraged to say what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tRimsha Masih was released after two individuals posted a bond against assurances that she would again appear in court, according to the BBC. She has been united with her family, who have been taken into protective custody, and was flown by helicopter to her family's location Sept. 9.<\/p>\n

\tHer bail was set at 1,000,000 rupees, or about $10,500. Although bail is not normally available to those held under the blasphemy laws, the evidence against her was deemed inadequate to continue to hold a minor with Down's syndrome. Her case will be transferred to a juvenile court.<\/p>\n

\tMasih, who has Down's syndrome, was arrested Aug. 16 and had been held at a high-security prison in Rawalpindi.<\/p>\n

\tMany Christians have fled the poor neighborhood where the Masih family lived, fearing mob violence.<\/p>\n

\tIn 2011, two Pakistani politicians \u2013 Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim, and Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic \u2013 were assassinated for opposing the blasphemy laws under which Masih was being held.<\/p>\n

\tMasih's case has garnered attention from Western governments and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. It has also sparked discussion of the blasphemy laws and human rights within Pakistan itself.<\/p>\n

\tPakistan\u2019s blasphemy laws are said to be often used to settle scores or to persecute minorities. Christians make up two to four percent of the country\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

\tOn Sept. 2 an imam from Masih's neighborhood, Khalid Chishti, was arrested on suspicion of having planted pages of the Quran among burnt pages in a bag she was carrying. Chishti will also face charges under the blasphemy laws.<\/p>\n

\tChisti allegedly told his companions that \u201cthis is the only way to expel the Christians from this area.\u201d Several people, including his own deputy, have testified to his action of planting the Quran pages in Masih's bag.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

\t“The court’s decisi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nPakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8. “The court’s decisi...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8. “The court’s decisi...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-10T19:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/\",\"name\":\"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-10T19:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-10T19:33:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8. “The court’s decisi...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case","description":"Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8. “The court’s decisi...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case","og_description":"Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8. “The court’s decisi...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2012-09-10T19:33:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/","name":"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-09-10T19:33:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-10T19:33:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Islamabad, Pakistan, Sep 10, 2012 \/ 01:33 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A 14-year-old Christian girl with Down's syndrome who has been held on suspicion of burning pages of the Quran was released on bail Saturday, Sept. 8. “The court’s decisi...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/pakistani-teen-released-on-bail-in-blasphemy-case\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pakistani teen released on bail in blasphemy case"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}