generalspeaking

Insulting The Prophet

"This is a landmark verdict. Justice has finally prevailed."
"Despite her protest of innocence, and despite the lack of evidence against her, this case was used to rouse angry mobs, justify the assassination of two senior officials and intimidate the Pakistani state into capitulation."
"The message must go out that the blasphemy laws will no longer be used to persecute the country's most vulnerable minorities."
Omar Waraich, deputy South Asia director, Amnesty International

Asia Bibi

"They've made a mockery of Islam with this verdict, and we will hold them accountable."
"Her freedom means all others who want to say anything against Islam know they will be protected by the courts."
Saqib Ali, 30, protester

"Do not take the state to a point where it has no option but to take action."
"They [protesters organized by Tehreek-e-Labaik] are not serving Islam, but trying to increase their vote bank."
"They are doing their politics."
"You are not aiding Islam by talking about killing judges and by killing our generals who have sacrificed so much for our country."
"I am appealing to our people: Do not get caught up by the worlds of these people who only want to increase their vote bank." 
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan

A supporter of a radical Islamic group stands guard as protesters block a highway. Photograph: Muhammad Sajjad/AP

And in doing 'their politics' they have roiled Pakistani society with protests across Punjab province. In Islamabad protesters blocked a main highway connecting the capital to Rawalpindi, burning tires, chanting their rejections of the court decision to free the woman known as Asia Bibi, on death row, in solitary for the past eight years on charges of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, punishable by death. In Karachi, Tehreek-e-Labbaik members blocked traffic intersections in mob-rule.

The now-50-year-old farm worker and mother of five from Ittan Wali, a farming village, became the centre of Pakistan's long-standing persecution of its Christian minority when she was accused by two co-workers of insulting the Prophet. She did so, they claim, after they refused to drink water out of a communal bowl after she had herself slaked her thirst, then offered the bowl to them. It was she, after all, who had brought along the water to begin with on a hot summer day as they picked berries.

When an argument broke out the women claimed Bibi had spoken abusively against Islam and the Prophet, and she insisted she had not and was being victimized by false accusations brought against her by those deploring her religious devotion. A mob hauled her to a local police station where she was charged with blasphemy and where she remained incarcerated in isolation for the next eight years. Pakistan's supreme court ruled on an appeal against her conviction, setting it aside.

Her plight, in its early years, was one that brought two high-placed officials to her defence; Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, campaigned for her release, demanding the country's blasphemy laws be lifted. His police bodyguard became a celebrated figure by shooting the governor to death in Islamabad. This was followed by the minister of minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti the only Christian to hold such a position in the government being shot and killed when he too called for changes to the blasphemy law.

Her release from prison and her presence at an undisclosed location for her safety is said to be  temporary; a lawyer representing her stated she will soon leave the country. An absolute necessity to guarantee her security since so many good Muslim citizens of Pakistan are furiously calling for her death. The court's ruling absolving her of all charges, ordered her "released forthwith" issued by a three-member bench of the court. Chief Justice Mian Saqih Nisar is himself now a death target.

Pakistan's religious extremists will go to any means to achieve their end, the wish to destroy the lives of any who are rumoured to have been critical of Islam or the Prophet. For Asia Bibi asylum in France or Spain, both offering to give her haven, is in her future, though with the prevalent numbers of Muslims that have recently established themselves there and past attacks against critics of Islam she might be better off elsewhere than Europe.

Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a hardline religious political party chant slogans during a protest against the court decision to overturn the conviction of Christian woman Asia Bibi in Lahore on October 31, 2018.

Labels: Accusations, Asia Bibi, Christian Minority, Conviction, Islamism, Pakistan, Release

posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 02, 2018