generalspeaking

Aasia Is Out! Free to Join Her Daughters in Canada

"She is finally free form all ordeals."
"Her daughters are in Ottawa. They landed in December last year so naturally she must have been joining them."
"If you're in hell and somebody would say you're soon to be in paradise there is no question to ask."
"The Supreme Court of Pakistan has announced that the allegation against her for blasphemy was false. Please don't follow her. Let her lead the rest of her life in peace."
Saif-ul Malook, lawyer, Islamabad, Pakistan

"Aasia Bibi bravely held on to her faith through the most brutal of incarcerations that involved her having access to sunlight for two hours per month."
"Now she finally travels to Canada to be reunited with her children."
"She must be treated with utmost care and receive appropriate medical care now she is free."
Wilson Chowdhry, British Pakistani Christian Association 

In January, a three-judge Supreme Court panel in Pakistan ruled there to be no compelling reason to overturn the court's earlier acquittal of Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman who had been held for eight years on death row on charges of blasphemy in Pakistan. That ruling cleared the way for her to leave the protective custody she was being held in. Despite that she had been acquitted of charges and finally set free, the uproar her acquittal caused in riots and death threats led the government to wait for several months until tensions diminished before allowing her to leave.

Tellingly, for a repressive, Islamist nation where a significant proportion of Pakistanis called for her death, believing she had blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammad, that same three-judge Supreme Court panel affirmed and upheld the blasphemy law. It is a law that is draconian in the extreme. A law that is often used as a bludgeon to cudgel the Christian population with vicious threats, and where false charges can be brought to destroy the lives of people, sometimes in settlement of land disputes.

Aasia Bibi was part of a farm working crew of women sent out to gather fruit on a sweltering day. She had taken water from a communal bowl, but because she was Christian and the others Muslim she was accused of defiling the bowl and the other women refused to drink from it. She lashed back, defending her religion, asking what Mohammad had ever done for humankind, comparing him to the ultimate benevolent sacrifice that Christ had lent himself to, to advance the fortunes of humanity.

She was reported to the village police, arrested, taken into custody, imprisoned and found guilty then sentenced to death. And she lived on death row for eight long tortuous years, her family unable to see her as she languished because of a sharia-led Islamist system that victimizes minorities. Other Christians came to her defence as did a few Pakistani Muslims who abhorred the blasphemy law and the divisiveness of extreme Islamism, rampant through the country.



The Christian governor of Punjab province, shot to death by one of his Islamist guards in 2011 for his defence of Bibi criticized the misuse of the blasphemy law and the assassin, hanged for the killing of Salman Taseer, is a celebrated martyr, millions of devotees taking to making a pilgrimage to a shrine dedicated to Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin. Shahbaz Bhatti, then minister for minorities in Pakistan, later that same year of 2011 was assassinated when he sought justice for Bibi.

Aasia Bibi's 2009 conviction of blasphemy exposed the woman to a dreadful ordeal. Her cause, however, was made public and people across the world became aware of the situation, espousing justice on her behalf. When Pakistan's Supreme Court overturned her conviction a year ago she was taken into protective custody. The rioting by Islamist fundamentalists, enraged at her release and imminent departure from Pakistan have threatened anyone who supports her.


Lawyer Malook knows his life is in danger because of his association with Aasia Bibi, but feels he is needed in Pakistan by others placed in danger for the very same reasons that Bibi experienced. Anyone who knows her, who befriended her, speaks anonymously for fears of reprisal. Because of the suffering meted out to this woman through captivity in prison and the isolation she suffered, she is in poor health.

Finally, however, Aasia Bibi and her husband, Ashiq Masih, have left Pakistan after spending weeks putting together documents they require to accompany them. She spoke with her daughters in Canada almost daily from the secure location she was placed in, guarded by Pakistani security forces. And though no one is really addressing where she is with any certainty it is widely believed that Aasia Bibi has finally been reunited with her daughters in Canada where the family will be enabled to live in peace and security.

Labels: Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Canada, Pakistan

posted by Pieface @ Friday, May 10, 2019

Finally ... Asia Bibi Free to Flee Pakistan

"I am really grateful to everybody."
"Now after nine years it is confirmed that I am free and I will be going to hug my daughters."
Asia Bibi, Christian, Pakistan

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic accused of blasphemy, is pictured in a 2010 file photo Photo: CNS photo/Punjab Governor House handout via EPA

"This case does not have as many honest witnesses as it should have had ... and the petitioner has failed to point out any mistakes in the court’s earlier verdict."
"How is this a matter of religion?"
Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa 

"After nine years behind bars for a crime she didn’t commit, it is difficult to see this long-overdue verdict as justice."
"But Bibi should now be free to reunite with her family and seek safety in a country of her choice."
Rimmel Mohydin, Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner

Finally, on appeal Pakistan's supreme court has upheld its original acquittal of the woman whom global public attention has been riveted on for the past eight years as she languished on death row, convicted in Pakistan of blaspheming against the Prophet Mohammad. Pakistan's Islamist fundamentalists staged numerous violent mass protests after her original acquittal, demanding she be executed to satisfy their outrage that anyone might question the sacred name of the Prophet much less cast aspersions on Islam.

A friend with whom Asia Bibi was temporarily staying not only feared for her life, but his own for sheltering her, asking for anonymity as he related her first thought on hearing the news of her final acquittal: she would soon be enabled to join her daughters in Canada, where asylum was offered to the family. The dire need for circumspection in the interests of safety was made clear by the fact that the Supreme Court judges who freed her, Bibi's lawyer and her family were all recipients of death threats.

Necessitating that a contingent of police and paramilitary Rangers be on hand guarding the courthouse and the area surrounding it in Islamabad when the court once again acquitted Bibi of all charges in a country where blasphemy laws wield the harsh penalty of execution for any who dare question Islam or its Prophet. The mere accusation of blasphemy is enough to ensure that mobs will gather to violently demonstrate, and if the opportunity exists, to kill the blasphemer.

Two high-placed authorities, one a provincial governor who defended Bibi, another a government minority minister who questioned the blasphemy law were both shot and killed in revenge by Islamist fundamentalists. The heightened security presence around the court prevented a renewal of the original clashes when Islamists violently opposed police back in October, as well as the nationwide arrest of hundreds of supporters of radical religious parties the day before the court hearing.

Saif-ul-Mulook, right, the lawyer of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, leaves the Supreme Court building after the court rejected the review appeal against Asia Bibi, in Islamabad on Jan. 29, 2019. (AFP)

Asia Bibi has been confined to protective custody guarded by Pakistani security forces since her original October acquittal, changing hiding places constantly with the knowledge that neighbourhood searches have been carried out from house to house by fanatics whose dearest wish is to murder her and her family. Her lawyer, Saiful Malook, forced to flee Pakistan as a result of virulent death threats, returned to Islamabad to be present for the hearing.

Mr. Malook called the decision of the supreme court validating their original acquittal a victory for the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan, describing the three-judge Supreme Court panel that had "insisted on very strict proofs of blasphemy", finding none, as a deterrent against future false allegations.

Still from video of rampaging, protesting fundamentalist Pakistani Islamists insisting on execution for Asia Bibi

Labels: Acquittal, Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Canada, Pakistan

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 31, 2019

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