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Pakistan woman in Arabic script dress saved from mob claiming blasphemy (www.bbc.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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An angry mob in Pakistan accused a woman who wore a dress adorned with Arabic calligraphy of blasphemy, after mistaking them for Quran verses.

She was saved by police who escorted her to safety after hundreds gathered. She later gave a public apology.

The dress has the word "Halwa" printed in Arabic letters on it, meaning beautiful in Arabic.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. Some people have been lynched even before their cases go on trial.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Part of that is so to a language gap, most people in Pakistan speak/write in Urdu not Aramaic.

So they may understand the scripture when it's spoken to them via a translating imam, but probably wouldn't be able to read it.

It's pretty similar to how Christians would react to Latin prior to the reformation. They're only real exposure to it would have been during church so Latin = God stuff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Pretty sure that no Christians, of any era, would lynch you for having "pulcha" on your clothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

And linguists call Urdu and Hindi different registers of Hindustani. Essentially, it's Hindi with a lot of Persian and Arabic loanwords.

So it's even more specifically like British people seeing Latin before the reformation.