Crazy World: Parents praise 15-year-old son after he cuts off his own hand

A couple in Pakistan was filled with pride after their 15-year-old son cut off his hand for allegedly committing blasphemy.

According to Al Jazeera, Shabbir Ahmed, a preacher, posed a question to a congregation he was preaching to that the boy misunderstood and was thus said to have committed blasphemy.

Ahmed had told a village mosque in the east of Pakistan’s Punjab province that those who love the Prophet Mohammad always say their prayers and asked who among the crowd had stopped praying and did not love the prophet.

Mohammad Anwar, 15, raised his hand after apparently mishearing the question. The imam quickly singled him out and called him a “blasphemer” in front of the congregation.

The teenager then went home, cut off the hand he had raised, put it on a plate, and presented it to the cleric, police chief Nausher Ahmed said.

The act was welcomed by his father who told police he was proud of his son and did not want the imam arrested. Nausher added that he saw a video in which the boy was greeted by villagers in the street as his parents proclaimed their pride.

The incident took place at a village in Hujra Shah Muqeem town, about 125km south of Punjab’s capital Lahore where police on Saturday, January 23, arrested and filed anti-terrorism charges against the imam.

“Such illiterate imams should not be allowed to deliver speeches,” Nausher said. “His arrest is under the National Action Plan that hate speech inciting violence is no longer allowed in this country.”

Blasphemy is a highly controversial issue in Pakistan and angry mobs have killed many people accused of insulting Islam in the Muslim-majority country.

The law does not define blasphemy but stipulates that the penalty is death, although a death sentence has never been carried out.

Since 1990, more than 65 people have been extra judicially killed as a result of blasphemy claims.