Bashiran Masih is a Christian maid who was asked by a regular Muslim client to clean his home. When she told him that she was overbooked, he attacked her and fractured her shoulder, beating her until she was unconscious and then leaving her to die. After the Muslim was arrested, he said that he should not be charged because of ‘mental illness’:
An elderly woman of 58 years was pushed to the floor and beaten and kicked till he fell into unconsciousness, after she refused to clean a Muslim man’s home, because her workload was already overscheduled.
On September 24, 2016, Bashiran was throwing out garbage after a cleaning job with a regular client when Muhammad Afzal, a prominent Muslim landlord in her village of Pattoki (near Lahore), asked her to visit his home so that she could estimate the costs of working at his home too.
When Bashiran arrived at Mr Afzal’s home she realized that the size of the home meant it was beyond her abilities to clean alone. She offered to come back another day with a team of a further two cleaners, however the landlord wanted his home cleaned immediately. When Bashiran refused, stating that she was too old to take on another job especially of this size on her own, Afzal became angry. He glared at Bashiran and accused her of disrespect as Christians should not be refusing to take orders from Muslims.
Bashiran was pushed to the floor, and Mr Afzal began kicking and punching her until she became unconscious. The brutality of the attack was so severe that Bashiran recalls hearing Afzal’s wife pleading for her husband to terminate the beating. Mr Afzal refused to stop and only stopped when Bashiran stopped moving. When Bashiran regained consciousness she sluggishly picked herself of the ground and somehow walked painfully back to her home, where she was received by her family.
Bashiran’s son, Paras Masih (28 years), rested his mother as he tended to her wounds, he then took her to Pattoki District police station to register a crime. but the police refused to register it. Police in Pakistan often refuse cases registered by Christians due to prejudice and receipt of bribes from wealthy perpetrators of crime.
The attack left Bashiran with a badly fractured shoulder and combined with her trauma this kept her away from work for two months.
On October 20, 2016, after obtaining the required medical reports, a petition was fled with the Pattoki District court, seeking an order to the police to file criminal charges against Muhammad Afzal. The court issued a notice to Pattoki police to submit comments.
After police failed to submit any comments at the next hearing the court delivered a judgement based on Bashiran Bibi’s medical report. During the hearing however, Muhammad Afzal’s brother, Muhammad Ali, told the court that Afzal was mentally ill and asked for leniency from the court.
The court allowed some time to the defendant to reach a settlement (allowed under Pakistani Hudood law) with Bashiran Bibi. The defendant tried to offer a very paltry figure of compensation and Bashiran refused the money stating she wanted to press charges, so that other Christians would not suffer as sh had.
On December 9, 2016, the court ordered the investigation officer of Pattoki Police to file charges against the Mr Afzal. (source)
As the article states, fortunately she did not die and thankfully she is pressing forward with charges. However, the greater point here to be made is not that she is pursuing this case, but that it happened in the first place.
Islam will always be Islam, and the Muslims act as they do because this is what Islam teaches them to do. In his mind, he was justified in attacking her because as a “Muslim” man he can “demand” that “non-Muslims” do what he say. This is because Islamic theology teaches that man is not made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), but that man is a mere creation whose dignity is proportionate to his belief in and practice of Islam.
All men are made in God’s image and likeness. We are not created equal in function (i.e. men are different from women, etc.), but in our nature. Islam denies this explicitly.
People say sometimes that “theology” or “philosophy” doesn’t matter. That could not be further from the truth. Theology and philosophy do matter, because as with any religion and in the case with Islam, the beliefs of Islam translate into the behaviors of the Muslims, and as we have documented in this and numerous other stories, the behavior of Muslims towards non-Muslims is characterized by an almost indescribable hate.