generalspeaking

Iqra Khalid, Here's a Cause Awaiting Your Devotion

"The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws present a continuous threat to religious minorities. In particular, section 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code (PPC) states: “Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine”."

"In 1991, the death penalty became the mandatory punishment for blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad’s name. Since the enactment of these laws, over one thousand cases of blasphemy have been registered, over fifty people have been extra-judicially killed by Muslim mobs or individuals, and at least forty people are currently on death row or serving life sentences. Hundreds more have served or are serving prison terms ranging from three to ten years. Yes, most blasphemy charges are false."

"One prominent case is that of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five who was convicted of blasphemy for offering her co-workers water from her cup. The coworkers told Asia that she had made the cup ceremonially unclean by drinking from it. They ordered her to convert to Islam, but Asia refused and expressed her faith in Jesus Christ. She was charged with blasphemy, convicted, and sentenced to death. She has been in prison for the last nine years, waiting for the Supreme Court of Pakistan to hear her appeal. In spite of this clear injustice, the Pakistani government has generally remained indifferent to Asia Bibi’s harsh and unjust situation and to others similarly situated within Pakistan’s borders."

European Centre for Law & Justice

"Asia Bibi shar[ed] a bowl of water with fellow workers in a field, about 30 miles (48km) from Lahore, where they were working as farm labourers. It's alleged that an argument erupted after some of the women felt it was sacrilegious for Muslims to share the cup with a Christian. Within weeks, the allegations had escalated to the charge of blasphemy, with some fellow workers accusing her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. She was arrested and imprisoned."
BBC

"I think it is not a very high priority case for the [Pakistani Supreme] court."
"The last time I met the Supreme Court registrar, he told me that over two thousand appeals against death sentences were pending before the court."
Saif-ul-Malook, lawyer for Asia Bibi, Christian-Pakistani

Asia Bibi is a a minority Christian in a Muslim-majority country that takes its religion seriously. Religious minorities live in Pakistan under sufferance, they are discriminated against and their lives fraught with the danger of being accused of blasphemy against Islam. Bibi, a mother of young children, has been in prison for eight years, awaiting execution, although she has appealed to the Pakistan Supreme Court, against the judgement of the Lahore High Court which upheld her death sentence, imposed because the charge of blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan.

In Canada, a Muslim woman was given legal permission by the Supreme Court of Canada to wear a niqab, the full face covering effected by some Muslim women of Pakistani origin, when she swore her oath of allegiance to Canada at a citizenship ceremony so she could be presented with her citizenship papers. She had originally been denied participation in the ceremony, requested to bare her face, but she refused. In so doing, giving ample indication that her values and her loyalties do not align with that of Canadian society in general.

A Liberal Member of Parliament, Iqra Khalid, saw fit to change Canadian social and cultural values by tabling an anti-Islamophobia motion, M-103, that in essence declares anyone who criticizes Islam for any reason -- be it its goal of achieving a supreme global caliphate by converting the international community to Islam and Sharia law, or striving to accomplish that same goal by terrorism, or inflicting carnage on women and girls through the cultural imperative of female circumcision, or belittling and slandering other religions -- as Islamphobic and to be condemned in a breathtaking display of sanctimonious hypocrisy.

This woman who achieved her goal because of a majority Liberal government led by a prime minister whose pandering support of elements within society who roil the common weal but who present as appreciative voting blocs when their foreign-nationalist tendencies, contriving to wreak unrest within Canada and violent mischief outside the country in their former countries of birth, has been enabled like the Pakistani-Canadian who insisted on her charter-right to shield her facial identity from public view at a ceremony meant to award citizenship on the deserving, undermines Canadian values.

While striving to change Canada to more closely resemble the country they left where strictures on personal freedom are rife, they have no interest whatever in coming to the defence of a woman whose 'crime' was to defend her own religious belief while refusing to convert to Islam. The notion of justice and fairness and human rights is not in these peoples' lexicon of values. Pakistan formally denies recognition to Ahmadi Muslims as Muslim, making it a crime for that Islamic sect to declare themselves Muslim.

Other Pakistanis did come to the defence of Asia Bibi, the Christian governor of Punjab state Salman Taseer who visited Asia Bibi in her jail cell then went on to publicly state his opinion on the erroneous judgment and the dangerous laws that support that judgment. He was rewarded by being murdered by his trusted bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri. And Mumtaz Qadri received his reward by the support and adulation he received from joyful Pakistanis, commending him for his religious devotion. The Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti also spoke out against the blasphemy laws and for his trouble was assassinated.

"My Jesus died for me. What did your Muhammad ever do for you?", Asia Bibi demanded to know, scandalizing the other women she was with, all Muslim, who had complained that in offering them water from her bowl on a hot day after working in the fields, she had desecrated the bowl and the water, as a Christian, demanding she convert to Islam. Her response failed to please them, so they accused her of blasphemy and she was held to be guilty of the charge and condemned to death.