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by littletimmy 3344 days ago
This is absolutely false. Pakistan has a system of laws that is based on the British system - it is very obviously not a theocracy.

Pakistan created the Taliban out of political necessity, and the United States is to blame for it. When the USA and Russia fought a proxy war in Afghanistan, it left the country in tatters. Pakistan got millions of refugees (1/5 of the population of Afghanistan was living in Pakistan at one time). Think of how Americans start to hyperventilate even at the thought of accepting a few thousand refugees. Pakistan took in millions - and it had to stabilize Afghanistan to restore order and stop the flow. At that time, Pakistan supported the Taliban so that the mess that the United States and Russia made could be controlled. Blame the Cold War, not Pakistan.
2 comments
int_19h 3344 days ago
> Pakistan has a system of laws that is based on the British system

It also has a different set of laws, added later, that is based on Sharia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudood_Ordinances

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littletimmy 3344 days ago
An addition to a system of constitutional law does not make a country a theocracy.
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int_19h 3344 days ago
I didn't say that it does. But it seems to be an important addition to the claim that "Pakistan has a system of laws that is based on the British system". Hudood Ordinances are certainly not based on the British system. And they're a big part of the problem being discussed here.
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selimthegrim 3344 days ago
Nevertheless, the question of whether any given act of blasphemy is automatically deserving of a hadd punishment is by no means an open and shut case.
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int_19h 3343 days ago
I think for most westerners, the real WTF is the notion that any act of blasphemy can potentially deserve punishment at all.
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selimthegrim 3342 days ago
As the child of an Pak expatriate, believe me I'd love to get there too. Unfortunately, you don't eat a cow like this all at once.
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flukus 3344 days ago
I'm not convinced the British system isn't a theocracy, at a very technical level anyway. The head of state is the head of the church after all. On a purely structural level it's almost a mirror of Iran.
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