Asia Bibi - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-29T12:58:27Zhttp://4freedoms.com/forum/topics/asia-bibi?groupUrl=pakistan&commentId=3766518%3AComment%3A206300&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noShe describes being chained a…tag:4freedoms.com,2020-02-18:3766518:Comment:2063002020-02-18T13:40:02.586ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em><strong>She describes being chained and wearing an iron collar that prison guards could tighten with a huge nut.</strong></em></span></p>
<p>In autobiography, Asia Bibi speaks of iron collar, ‘depths of darkness’<br></br>Catholic News Service</p>
<p>Feb 2, 2020</p>
<p>In this 2018 file photo, Pope Francis walks with family members of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan, during a private audience at the Vatican."My heart broke when I had…</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em><strong>She describes being chained and wearing an iron collar that prison guards could tighten with a huge nut.</strong></em></span></p>
<p>In autobiography, Asia Bibi speaks of iron collar, ‘depths of darkness’<br/>Catholic News Service</p>
<p>Feb 2, 2020</p>
<p>In this 2018 file photo, Pope Francis walks with family members of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan, during a private audience at the Vatican."My heart broke when I had to leave without saying goodbye to my father or other members of the family," Bibi said in a new autobiography. (Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media.)</p>
<p>Asia Bibi, the Catholic woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan, described herself as “a prisoner of fanaticism” in her newly published autobiography.</p>
<p>The mother of five was sentenced to death on insubstantial evidence in 2010 after being accused of blasphemy in a dispute over a cup of water with a Muslim co-worker on a farm.</p>
<p>Salman Taseer, the Punjab states governor, and Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister of minority affairs, were murdered for publicly supporting her and criticizing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.</p>
<p><br/>Bibi, 47, was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 and now lives in exile in Canada at an undisclosed location after moving there last May.</p>
<p>Ucanews.com reported Bibi’s autobiography, Enfin libre! (“Free at Last”), has been written in French by journalist Isabelle-Anne Tollet, who campaigned for Bibi’s freedom and is the only reporter to have met her during her stay in Canada. An English version is due out in September.</p>
<p>“You already know my story through the media. But you are far from understanding my daily life in prison or my new life. I became a prisoner of fanaticism. Tears were the only companions in the cell,” Bibi says in the book.</p>
<p><br/>She describes being chained and wearing an iron collar that prison guards could tighten with a huge nut, ucanews.com reported.</p>
<p>“Deep within me, a dull fear takes me toward the depths of darkness. A lacerating fear that will never leave me,” she says. “I am startled by the cry of a woman. ‘To death!’ The other women join in. ‘Hanged!’ ‘Hanged!'”</p>
<p>In Muslim-majority Pakistan, an unsubstantiated allegation of insulting Islam can lead to death at the hands of mobs.</p>
<p>Bibi’s acquittal resulted in violent protests, led by cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, that paralyzed Pakistan.</p>
<p>Bibi argues in her book that the Christian minority still faces persecution in Pakistan.</p>
<p>“Even with my freedom, the climate does not seem to have changed, and Christians can expect all kinds of reprisals,” she says.</p>
<p>While she is grateful to Canada for giving her security and a fresh start, she regrets that she will probably never set foot in her homeland again.</p>
<p>“In this unknown country, I am ready for a new departure, perhaps for a new life. But at what price?” Bibi asks.</p>
<p>“My heart broke when I had to leave without saying goodbye to my father or other members of the family. Pakistan is my country. I love my country, but I am in exile forever.”</p>
<p>She refers to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws as a “Damocles sword” hanging over the head of religious minorities.</p>
<p>From 1987 to 2017, at least 1,500 people were charged with blasphemy in Pakistan, while at least 75 people accused of blasphemy were murdered, according to the Center for Social Justice.</p>
<p><a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/02/in-autobiography-asia-bibi-speaks-of-iron-collar-depths-of-darkness/" target="_blank">https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2020/02/in-autobiography-asia-bibi-speaks-of-iron-collar-depths-of-darkness/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Asia-Bibi/e/B00EKLWK5I?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Asia-Bibi/e/B00EKLWK5I?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000</a></p> http://www.ncregister.com/dai…tag:4freedoms.com,2019-09-17:3766518:Comment:2051452019-09-17T15:25:11.801ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<p><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/asia-bibi-modern-confessor-of-the-faith" target="_blank">http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/asia-bibi-modern-confessor-of-the-faith</a></p>
<p>COMMENTARY | SEP. 16, 2019<br></br>Asia Bibi, Modern Confessor of the Faith<br></br>COMMENTARY: A drama of faithfulness, courage and perseverance, in which good ultimately triumphs. It is also a window into the importance of the struggle to defend religious freedom.<br></br>Nina Shea<br></br>Asia Bibi, at last, has…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/asia-bibi-modern-confessor-of-the-faith" target="_blank">http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/asia-bibi-modern-confessor-of-the-faith</a></p>
<p>COMMENTARY | SEP. 16, 2019<br/>Asia Bibi, Modern Confessor of the Faith<br/>COMMENTARY: A drama of faithfulness, courage and perseverance, in which good ultimately triumphs. It is also a window into the importance of the struggle to defend religious freedom.<br/>Nina Shea<br/>Asia Bibi, at last, has spoken.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the Catholic mother from Pakistan who, for the past decade, became this century’s international face of persecuted Christians and stirred governments throughout the West into action on her behalf, released several short video tapes from a secret refuge in Canada. In them, she expresses her love for Jesus Christ, forgiveness for her persecutors and concern for other prisoners languishing unjustly in her native land.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Bibi also reflects on her nearly 10-year ordeal of imprisonment on death row in a Pakistani prison on charges that she committed blasphemy against Islam. Her experience is unimaginable to most of us in the West, where we still have rights to religious freedom unknown in most of the world. Living under the constant threat of execution, the loneliness of solitary confinement, ordered for her own safety, was its own form of torture. She explained:</p>
<p>“When my daughters visited me in jail, I never cried in front of them, but when they went after meeting me in jail, I used to cry alone filled with pain and grief. I used to think about them all the time, how they are living.”</p>
<p>She is a modern version of what the early Church once called a “confessor of the faith” — Christians who, during the time of persecution in ancient Rome, were imprisoned or tortured for professing their faith but not martyred.</p>
<p>A quick recap of her case may be helpful to appreciate why the fate of one impoverished berry picker in Pakistan moved the world:</p>
<p>Bibi’s ordeal, which, she told British newspaper The Telegraph, caused deep suffering to her and her children, ignited in the flash of a moment in 2009, when she took a sip of water from a communal cup while harvesting berries in a hot field near her village. The other field hands, also poor women but who were Muslims, accused Bibi of being a dirty “infidel,” who defiled the cup and blasphemed their prophet. A heated exchange ensued. Bibi was dragged into town, beaten by a mob and soon arrested.</p>
<p>At trial, the Muslim women gave conflicting testimony and were found on a final appeal to have been manipulated by a local imam. The alleged blasphemy itself was never fully explained in court, for to do so would be to repeat the offense. Nevertheless, in 2010, the mother was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging under section 295-C of Pakistan’s 1986 blasphemy code.</p>
<p>As the case wended its way through the court system, it gained critical international attention, which helped keep her alive. This was initially undertaken by key Pakistani actors, whose courage cannot be overstated. Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic who was a lifelong advocate for the rights of religious minorities in his home country, was then the minister for minorities in the government’s cabinet. He quickly took up her case, making it a cause célèbre internationally. In retaliation, he was shot to death on his way to the office one morning in 2011 by assailants who have yet to be arrested.</p>
<p>Salman Taseer, the Muslim governor of Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, was also assassinated by his security detail around the same time after he spoke up for Bibi. Mohammad Amanullah, an influential human-rights advocate, is an unsung hero who helped Bibi and other blasphemy-law victims and has had to flee abroad.</p>
<p>These and other Pakistanis knowingly put their lives on the line, as Farahnaz Ispahani and I have written, because of the deeply corrosive effect on Pakistan of its blasphemy laws. There are high stakes: The blasphemy codes — as much as any terror group — empower extremists, undermine the rule of law and destabilize the society. They have been used to victimize hundreds of other Christians, Ahmadiya Muslims, Shia and even members of the majority Sunni population. According to human-rights groups, those cases brought to court are often motivated by personal score settling. More often, the charges, sometimes a mere rumor of a Quran burning, result in rioting, including pogroms that torched the Christian St. Joseph’s colony neighborhood in Lahore and in a lynch mob that burned alive a young married couple.</p>
<p>The flimsiness of the trial evidence eventually led the country’s supreme court — which prides itself on upholding British rule-of-law traditions — to acquit Bibi in October 2018. The judges, as well as her lawyer — all Muslims — were threatened by fanatics. Angry protesters organized by Islamist militant groups demanded Bibi’s execution and paralyzed the country’s major highways for days, forcing the government to partially shut down cellphone service, social media and even schools. Bibi went into hiding in a safe house, still unable to reunite with her children.</p>
<p>After intensifying international diplomacy and the soft power pressure of American aid and European trade sanctions always a possibility, Prime Minister Imran Khan acted to rein in militant ring leaders, who had long held the previous government hostage. Six months after the acquittal, Pakistan’s political climate cooled. Last May, Bibi was finally given safe passage to leave Pakistan and was offered asylum by Canada (and several other European countries), where her family had fled after her acquittal. Bibi left incognito on a private plane, arranged by Western religious-freedom advocates and donated by an anonymous wealthy European Christian. Islamabad’s willingness to finally uphold justice, albeit belatedly, was vigorously supported by pivotal influential figures, notably, the European Union and American ambassadors on religious freedom, Jan Figel and Sam Brownback, respectively, and British Lord David Alton. Many other governmental actors, such as U.S. members of Congress, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), journalists, broadcasters, church groups and others played key roles.</p>
<p>It was a sustained international effort, spanning over a decade, that kept the Asia Bibi case in focus, saving her life and ultimately allowing her to be free to begin a new life with her family in another part of the world. It has helped make Pakistan a more moderate place by the fact that the government finally took on prominent extremists. And, while not succeeding in ending the injustices of the blasphemy laws or even securing the release of the some remaining 77 prisoners accused of blasphemy, this effort has drawn attention and built pressure for the need to do so.</p>
<p>Over the years, Bibi had been offered opportunities for pardon and immediate release if she recanted her faith and converted to Islam. She always refused. The tapes make evident that she remains spiritually strong and her faith, intact. At the outset of the tapes, which are translated by Aid to the Church in Need from her native tongue of Urdu, she identifies herself as one who “believes in Jesus” and states, “I was granted my freedom through Jesus, and I never let my faith weaken.”</p>
<p>She also professes her love for her children, those who helped her and her country, for which she asks blessings. She states, “I did not do anything wrong to deserve what I suffered for 10 years.” Her most important message is selfless — that the world not forget other prisoners left behind: “Please think positively about the prisoners of blasphemy, on death row. Go visit them and listen to them … do something. … Do not punish anyone without listening [to their defense].”</p>
<p>Asia Bibi should inspire us all. Hers is a drama of faithfulness, courage and perseverance, in which good ultimately triumphs. It is also a window into the importance of the struggle to defend religious freedom.</p>
<p>Nina Shea is director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author,</p>
<p>with Dr. Paul Marshall, of Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are</p>
<p>Choking Freedom Worldwide (Oxford University Press, 2011).</p>
<p>View Comments</p> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/…tag:4freedoms.com,2019-05-10:3766518:Comment:2031632019-05-10T12:26:13.312ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/world/asia/asia-bibi-blasphemy-pakistan-canada.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/world/asia/asia-bibi-blasphemy-pakistan-canada.html</a></p>
<h1><span><em>Asia Bibi, Christian Cleared of Blasphemy Charges, Leaves Pakistan for Canada</em></span></h1>
<p><span>Protests erupted in Lahore, Pakistan, in February after a court upheld Asia Bibi’s acquittal on blasphemy charges.</span><span>CreditRahat Dar/EPA, via…</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/world/asia/asia-bibi-blasphemy-pakistan-canada.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/world/asia/asia-bibi-blasphemy-pakistan-canada.html</a></p>
<h1><span><em>Asia Bibi, Christian Cleared of Blasphemy Charges, Leaves Pakistan for Canada</em></span></h1>
<p><span>Protests erupted in Lahore, Pakistan, in February after a court upheld Asia Bibi’s acquittal on blasphemy charges.</span><span>CreditRahat Dar/EPA, via Shutterstock</span></p>
<p><span>Protests erupted in Lahore, Pakistan, in February after a court upheld Asia Bibi’s acquittal on blasphemy charges.</span><span>CreditCreditRahat Dar/EPA, via Shutterstock</span></p>
<p>By <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/salman-masood"><span>Salman Masood</span></a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/mike-ives"><span>Mike Ives</span></a></p>
<ul>
<li>May 8, 2019</li>
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<p>ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on death row after being found guilty of blasphemy — a conviction that was later overturned — has arrived in Canada, her lawyer said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The woman, Asia Bibi, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010 after being accused, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/asia/pakistan-blasphemy-asia-bibi.html?module=inline">based on little evidence</a>, of speaking against the Prophet Muhammad during a heated argument with Muslim women. She insisted she had not done so and that she was the victim of false accusations prompted by bigotry.</p>
<p>Ms. Bibi, a former farmworker in her early 50s, was cleared of the charges last year and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/world/asia/asia-bibi-pakistan-blasphemy-released-prison.html?module=inline">released from prison under government protection</a>. That led to calls for her execution and violent protests by hard-line Islamists that paralyzed large parts of the country.</p>
<p>Her family appealed for asylum in Canada, Britain and the United States, saying that Ms. Bibi was in grave danger. Her lawyer briefly left Pakistan, citing threats to his life.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The lawyer, Saiful Malook, confirmed through text messages that Ms. Bibi had left Pakistan for Canada on Tuesday.</p>
<p>In a brief telephone interview from Pakistan, Mr. Malook said Ms. Bibi was in Ottawa, where her two daughters have lived since December.</p>
<p> “Now they should let her live in peace,” he said, referring to people generally and Muslims who live in Canada in particular.</p>
<p><span>Asia Bibi in 2010, at a prison in the city of Sheikhupura, near Lahore.</span><span>CreditAssociated Press</span></p>
<p>Omar Waraich, the deputy South Asia director at Amnesty International, welcomed the news that Ms. Bibi had left Pakistan.</p>
<p>“She should never have been imprisoned in the first place, let alone endure the constant threats to her life,” he said. “This case horrifyingly illustrates the dangers of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and the urgent need to repeal them.”</p>
<p>The Pakistani Foreign Ministry was not immediately available for comment, and the Canadian Embassy in Islamabad referred questions about Ms. Bibi to Global Affairs Canada, the nation’s foreign ministry. But Global Affairs Canada did not comment, either.</p>
<p>The original verdict convicting Ms. Bibi drew worldwide condemnation and calls for overturning Pakistan’s contentious blasphemy law, which was passed under the military dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s as a way to promote Islam and unite the country.</p>
<p>The law prescribes a death sentence for anyone convicted of insulting Islam or the prophet Muhammad. Rights groups say the law has been used by extremists as a bludgeon against religious minorities.</p>
<p>One outspoken critic of the blasphemy law was Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province at the time of Ms. Bibi’s conviction. In 2011, he was assassinated by his bodyguard, who later suggested to the police that he had killed Mr. Taseer because of his opposition to the law.</p>
<p>Hard-line Islamist parties have opposed any changes in the law, and Ms. Bibi’s acquittal in October led to days of violent protests by members and supporters of Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, a religious political party led by a firebrand cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi.</p>
<p>Mr. Rizvi was arrested in November in a government crackdown, along with hundreds of his party workers, in the wake of protests over Ms. Bibi’s fate. He and other party leaders were later charged with sedition and terrorism.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Mike Ives from Hong Kong.</p> If she ever writes her autobi…tag:4freedoms.com,2019-05-09:3766518:Comment:2031602019-05-09T20:04:34.508ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>If she ever writes her autobiography, I bet we’ll hear of some horrific abuse and conditions in prison. After all, it was bad enough for Tommy surrounded by Muslims in a UK prison, think what it was like for her, with Muslim guards as well, in a Pakistani prison. And God knows what they did to her food.</p>
<p>If she ever writes her autobiography, I bet we’ll hear of some horrific abuse and conditions in prison. After all, it was bad enough for Tommy surrounded by Muslims in a UK prison, think what it was like for her, with Muslim guards as well, in a Pakistani prison. And God knows what they did to her food.</p> Asia Bibi leaves Pakistan, ar…tag:4freedoms.com,2019-05-09:3766518:Comment:2032402019-05-09T12:56:24.391ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<h1>Asia Bibi leaves Pakistan, arrives in Canada</h1>
<p><a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/asia-bibi-leaves-pakistan-arrives-in-canada-50242">https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/asia-bibi-leaves-pakistan-arrives-in-canada-50242</a></p>
<div class="byline">By<span> </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114887397344970150345?rel=author" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Hannah Brockhaus…</a></div>
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<h1>Asia Bibi leaves Pakistan, arrives in Canada</h1>
<p><a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/asia-bibi-leaves-pakistan-arrives-in-canada-50242">https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/asia-bibi-leaves-pakistan-arrives-in-canada-50242</a></p>
<div class="byline">By<span> </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114887397344970150345?rel=author" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hannah Brockhaus</a></div>
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<div class="at-share-btn-elements"><span class="noticia_byline">Ottawa, Canada, May 8, 2019 / 03:11 am (<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/" target="_self">CNA</a>)</span>.- Asia Bibi, the Catholic wife and mother who spent 9 years on death row on blasphemy charges in Pakistan, has left the country and arrived safely in Canada.</div>
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<div class="story_body"><div><div id="noticia_contenido"><p>According to Spanish news agency COPE, Bibi, a Pakistani, has arrived in Canada, which has offered asylum to her and her daughters. Her health is reportedly in a delicate condition.</p>
<p>Pakistani government officials confirmed that Bibi left the country, but did not state her destination.</p>
<p>Bibi, 53, had been in protective custody in Islamabad since her death sentence was overturned at the end of October. The verdict and her subsequent release from prison sparked protests from Islamic hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws in the country.</p>
<p>Bibi's imprisonment began in 2010 when she was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death by hanging. The charges stemmed from 2009 accusations that she had made disparaging remarks about the Islamic prophet Muhammad after an argument over a cup of water.</p>
<p>Bibi immediately appealed the conviction, but in 2014 the Lahore High Court upheld the original conviction. She then appealed to the country’s Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal in 2015, acquitting Bibi on Oct. 31, 2018.</p>
<p>Since her arrest, Bibi has garnered international support from numerous world leaders calling for her immediate release, including Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. In 2015, Pope Francis met with her daughter and offered prayers.</p>
<p>In Pakistan, Islamic hardliners have been calling for her execution since her initial conviction. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he supports the country’s harsh blasphemy laws.</p>
<div id="div-gpt-ad-1441212700470-1" class="ad-inline-2 square-ad"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/1319756/CNA_Article_2_0__container__">Pakistan’s blasphemy laws impose strict punishment on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad. Pakistan’s state religion is Islam, and around 97% of the population is Muslim.</div>
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<p>Although the government has never executed a person under the blasphemy law, accusations alone have inspired mob and vigilante violence.</p>
<p>Blasphemy laws are reportedly used to settle scores or to persecute religious minorities; while non-Muslims constitute only three percent of the Pakistani population, 14% of blasphemy cases have been levied against them.</p>
<p>Many of those accused of blasphemy are murdered, and advocates of changing the law are also targeted by violence.</p>
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</div>
</div> How Immigration Changes Brita…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-11-12:3766518:Comment:1987072018-11-12T14:01:09.391ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<p>How Immigration Changes Britain<br></br> By DOUGLAS MURRAY<br></br> November 11, 2018 11:41 AM</p>
<p>Asia Bibi at a jail in Sheikhupura, located in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, November 20, 2010 (Reuters/Asad Karim/File Photo)<br></br> Almost nothing is discussed as badly in America or Europe as the subject of immigration. And one reason is that it remains almost impossible to have any sensible or rational public discussion of its consequences. Or rather it is eminently possible to have a discussion…</p>
<p>How Immigration Changes Britain<br/> By DOUGLAS MURRAY<br/> November 11, 2018 11:41 AM</p>
<p>Asia Bibi at a jail in Sheikhupura, located in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, November 20, 2010 (Reuters/Asad Karim/File Photo)<br/> Almost nothing is discussed as badly in America or Europe as the subject of immigration. And one reason is that it remains almost impossible to have any sensible or rational public discussion of its consequences. Or rather it is eminently possible to have a discussion about the upsides (“diversity,” talent, etc.) but almost impossible to have any rational discussion about its downsides.</p>
<p>When I wrote The Strange Death of Europe, I wanted to highlight the sheer scale of change that immigration brings. Some people might be happy with it, others unhappy: but to pretend that the change doesn’t occur, or won’t occur, or isn’t very interesting so please move along has always seemed an error to me. For instance, as I noted then, an internal document from the Ministry of Defence that leaked a few years back said that Britain would no longer be able to engage militarily in a range of foreign countries because of “domestic” factors. It takes a moment to absorb this. We’re used to wondering about how immigration changes domestic politics. But foreign policy as well?</p>
<p>All of this is to say that the latest news from the U.K. is both thoroughly predictable and deeply disturbing. Readers of National Review will be familiar with the case of Asia Bibi. She is the Christian woman from Pakistan who has been in prison on death row for the last eight years. Her “crime” is that a neighbor accused her of “blasphemy.” As Mairead McArdle wrote:</p>
<p>In 2009, Bibi found herself in a quarrel when she went to get water for herself and other farm workers and two Muslim women objected to drinking from a container used by a Christian. A mob later came after Bibi, accusing her of insulting the prophet, and she was beaten up in her home. She was subsequently arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.</p>
<p>Her case has had ramifications throughout Pakistani society in the years since. For instance, it provoked the statement by the brave governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, which led to his own murder by one of his own bodyguards. In the days since her release from jail, there have been mass protests in Pakistan where thousands of enraged fanatics have called, literally, for Asia Bibi’s head. The case has amply demonstrated the type of country that Pakistan is these days. But who would have guessed that her case would also throw so much light on the type of country Britain now is?</p>
<p>There are clearly international efforts underway to get Bibi out of Pakistan. If anybody in the world deserves asylum it is her. And any civilized country should be queuing up to give asylum to her and her family. Among those reported to have done so is the Netherlands.</p>
<p>But today there are reports that the British government has said that it will not offer asylum to Asia Bibi. The reason being “security concerns” — that weasel term now used by all officialdom whenever it needs one last reason to avoid doing the right thing. According to this report, the government is concerned that if the U.K. offered asylum to Bibi it could cause “unrest among certain sections of the community.” And which sections would that be? Would it be Anglicans or atheists who would be furious that an impoverished and severely traumatized woman should be given shelter in their country? Of course not. The “community” that the British government will be scared of is the community that comes from the same country that has tortured Asia Bibi for the last eight years.</p>
<p>COMMENTS<br/> The government is right to expect a backlash. There have been cases before of this “community” expressing its views. From the book-burnings and protests over The Satanic Verses affair in 1989 to the mass protest against cartoonists, which was the “community’s” response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015, the Pakistani Muslim community in the U.K. has never been shy of expressing its views. Occasionally you even get a case like that at Easter 2016, when a Muslim from Bradford drove up to Glasgow to kill another Muslim (a shopkeeper called Asad Shah) because Mr. Shah came from a minority Muslim group that his killer deemed heretical. Which you might say is another example of “diversity.”</p>
<p>In any case, if it is true that the British government has declined to offer Asia Bibi asylum for this reason, then it should lead to a huge national and international outcry. Among other things, it suggests that the British government has got its priorities exactly the wrong way around. For it is not Asia Bibi who should not be in Britain. It is anyone from the “communities” who would not accept Asia Bibi being in Britain who should not be in the country. Though I wouldn’t expect any British politician to express that simple truth any time soon.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/how-immigration-changes-britain/" target="_blank">https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/how-immigration-changes-britain/</a></p> We should cut off all aid and…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-11-05:3766518:Comment:1983962018-11-05T01:29:06.004ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>We should cut off all aid and trade with Pakistan, and of course, block every single immigration request, including family re-unification.</p>
<p>It is a pariah state, as bad as North Korea.</p>
<p>We should cut off all aid and trade with Pakistan, and of course, block every single immigration request, including family re-unification.</p>
<p>It is a pariah state, as bad as North Korea.</p> Her torture is endless and sh…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-11-04:3766518:Comment:1982772018-11-04T10:02:08.819ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<p>Her torture is endless and should convince everyone that the 'Land of the Pure' is a terrorist State and Islam a terror inducing ideology. </p>
<p>Her torture is endless and should convince everyone that the 'Land of the Pure' is a terrorist State and Islam a terror inducing ideology. </p> Asia Bibi's lawyer has had to…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-11-03:3766518:Comment:1983902018-11-03T18:07:42.779ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>Asia Bibi's lawyer has had to flee Pakistan before he is killed.</p>
<p>The lawyer who represented a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after eight years on death row in Pakistan has fled the country in fear for his life.</p>
<p>Saif Mulook said he had to leave so he could continue to represent Asia Bibi, whose conviction was overturned by judges on Wednesday. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-46082324" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Mr Mulook told the…</a></p>
<p>Asia Bibi's lawyer has had to flee Pakistan before he is killed.</p>
<p>The lawyer who represented a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after eight years on death row in Pakistan has fled the country in fear for his life.</p>
<p>Saif Mulook said he had to leave so he could continue to represent Asia Bibi, whose conviction was overturned by judges on Wednesday. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-46082324" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mr Mulook told the BBC</a><span> </span>earlier this week she would need to move to a Western country for her own safety. </p>
<p>Several countries have offered her asylum however Pakistan's government has capitulated after days of protests by hardline Islamists and blocked her from leaving the country.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm?blog_id=67847" target="_blank">https://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm?blog_id=67847</a></p>
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<p>Pakistani Islamists struck a deal with the government that Asia Bibi must not leave Pakistan until the Supreme Court's ruling is reviewed. Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri announced that authorities will now not allow Bibi to leave the country until the Supreme Court makes a final review of its verdict. A petition had already been filed for the review. </p> JIHAD WATCH
Exposing the role…tag:4freedoms.com,2018-11-01:3766518:Comment:1984732018-11-01T14:26:04.236ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<p>JIHAD WATCH</p>
<p>Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts</p>
<p>Pakistan: Muslim group calls for death for judges who freed Christian woman on blasphemy charges<br></br>NOV 1, 2018 8:38 AM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS </p>
<p><br></br>Jihad Watch reported earlier that Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman who has been imprisoned since 2010 for blasphemy, was finally acquitted. This acquittal was followed by Muslim riots and calls for her…</p>
<p>JIHAD WATCH</p>
<p>Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts</p>
<p>Pakistan: Muslim group calls for death for judges who freed Christian woman on blasphemy charges<br/>NOV 1, 2018 8:38 AM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS </p>
<p><br/>Jihad Watch reported earlier that Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman who has been imprisoned since 2010 for blasphemy, was finally acquitted. This acquittal was followed by Muslim riots and calls for her death. We may hope that Asia Bibi will be able to leave Pakistan, given the ongoing fury her case has generated. In Pakistan, which is well known for its barbaric blasphemy laws, Christians are often falsely accused of blasphemy. Christians often walk on eggshells to avoid such charges, since once they’re levied, no Christians are safe — even the families of the accused.</p>
<p>Now those who want to kill Asia Bibi are also threatening the judges who freed her. The judges who acquitted her are being targeted for death as a result of their ruling.</p>
<p>The Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party called for the death of the chief justice and two other judges in Pakistan’s highest court after they spared the life of Asia Bibi, 47, who was convicted of blasphemy in 2010….The party also demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government be ousted following the court’s order.</p>
<p>There is a point worth remembering, however, about Imran Khan. In his first address to the Pakistani senate after being sworn in as Prime Minister in July, Khan vowed to take the matter of blasphemy to the United Nations, adding that “few in the West understand the pain caused to Muslims by such activities.” He was referring to the “offense” caused to Muslims by Muhammad cartoons. So while Khan upheld the decision of the court to free Asia Bibi, he still promotes Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, and not only in Pakistan. He aims to expand those laws internationally, in keeping with the Sharia, and consistent with the goals of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“Pakistan’s Islamist party says judges who acquitted Christian woman ‘deserve death,’” RT, October 31, 2018:</p>
<p>A hard-line Islamist party in Pakistan has called for the death of the country’s Supreme Court judges responsible for overturning the death sentence of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, Reuters reports.</p>
<p>The Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party called for the death of the chief justice and two other judges in Pakistan’s highest court after they spared the life of Asia Bibi, 47, who was convicted of blasphemy in 2010.</p>
<p>The party also demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government be ousted following the court’s order.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of the release of Bibi, who was eight years ago accused and sentenced for “insulting Islam.” As long as she faces no other charges, the woman should be released, the court ordered.</p>
<p>TLP two weeks ago organized a mass anti-blasphemy rally calling on Bibi to be executed as the court waited to release its verdict on her final appeal. The protests took part mainly in the city of Lahore, but demonstrations took place in other areas too, including Karachi and Rawalpindi.</p>
<p>Bibi’s case started when, according to her autobiography, she sought to get some drinking water out of a well on a hot fruit-picking day.</p>
<p>She was then told off by a Muslim neighbor, who turned to other Muslim women in the area to tell them the Christian devotee had dirtied the water by drinking from their cup. Several women called Bibi a “filthy Christian” and told her to convert to Islam.</p>
<p>Bibi refused, saying: “I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammad ever do to save mankind? And why should it be me that converts instead of you?”…..</p>