RAYMOND IBRAHIM
On Oct 9, Pakistan's Supreme Court heard the lastly appeal of a Christian adult woman who has been on decease row for nearly a decade on the accusation that she insulted Islam's prophet Muhammad. The woman's fate is at nowadays sealed: "They [judges] receive got come upward to a decision, but it has been reserved," reported Mehwish Bhatti, an officeholder amongst the British-Pakistani Christian Association, from the courthouse. Aasiya Noreen -- ameliorate known every bit "Asia Bibi" -- is a 47-year-old married woman bring upward of 5 children who was charged amongst violating Pakistan's notorious blasphemy law nearly a decade ago. According to her autobiography, Blasphemy: H5N1 Memoir: Sentenced to Death Over a Cup of Water, on June 14, 2009, Bibi went to move picking berries inwards a field. Although she was accustomed to beingness ostracized past times the other woman someone pickers on line of piece of occupation organisation human relationship of her Christian faith, things came to a caput when, on a sweltering summertime day, she drank H2O from a mutual well.
"Don't drinkable that water, it's haram [forbidden]!" shouted a adult woman nearby.
She thence turned to the other women working inwards the land workers together with said, "Listen, all of you, this Christian has dirtied the H2O inwards the good past times drinking from our loving cup together with dipping it dorsum several times. Now the H2O is soiled together with nosotros can't drinkable it! Because of her!" (Such beliefs are non uncommon inwards the Muslim world. In 1 video, an Egyptian cleric expresses his bully disgust at Christians, together with how he could non drinkable from a loving cup that was simply touched past times a Christian.)
The declaration spiraled, together with the women began calling on Bibi to convert to Islam inwards lodge to salvage herself. "What did your Prophet Mohammed e'er produce to salvage mankind?," Asia Bibi shot back.
A report summarizes what happened next:
After this, Bibi said the women started screaming, spitting at her together with physically assaulting her. She ran abode inwards a fright. Less than a calendar week later, she went fruit-picking inwards some other land when she was confronted past times a rioting crowd, led past times the adult woman who had initially shouted at her.
The crowd surrounded her, musical rhythm out her together with took her to the village, screaming: "Death! Death to the Christian!"
The hamlet imam said: "I've been told you've insulted our Prophet. You know what happens to anyone who attacks the holy Prophet Mohammed. You tin give the axe redeem yourself entirely past times conversion or death."
She protested: "I haven't done anything. Please, I beg you, I've done zilch wrong."
Bibi was taken to the hamlet law station, covered inwards blood, where law interrogated her together with seat a study together. She was thence seat into a law van together with taken straight to prison.
She has been inwards that jail cellular telephone e'er since.
Despite inconsistent witness testimonies, a Panjabi courtroom sentenced her to decease past times hanging earlier cheering crowds inwards belatedly 2010. Since then, "I've been locked up, handcuffed together with chained, banished from the basis together with waiting to die," says Bibi inwards her smuggled memoirs. "I don't know how long I've got left to live. Every fourth dimension my jail cellular telephone door opens my pump beats faster. My life is inwards God's hands together with I don't know what's going to tumble out to me. It's a brutal, cruel existence."
There has also been the suffering of her husband, Ashiq Masih, together with 5 children: "I really honey her together with fille her presence. I cannot slumber at nighttime every bit I fille her," Masih, a brick laborer, in 1 trial explained:
"I fille her smile; I fille everything well-nigh her. She is my soulmate. I cannot encounter her inwards prison. It breaks my heart. Life has been non-existent without her... My children call for their mother, they are broken. But I endeavor to give them promise where I can."
All of this for quest a rhetorical inquiry -- "What did your Prophet Mohammed e'er produce to salvage mankind?" -- variants of which non-Muslims receive got been quest for centuries. In the belatedly 1390s, for instance, Roman Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos responded to a grouping of Muslim scholars bent on converting him to Islam past times saying:
"Show me precisely what Mohammed brought that was new, together with at that spot you lot volition discovery things entirely evil together with inhuman, such every bit his ascendancy to spread past times the sword the faith he preached."
Over 600 years later, inwards 2006, when Pope Benedict passingly quoted this assertion, anti-Christian riots erupted around the Muslim world, churches were burned, together with an Italian nun who had devoted her life to serving the sick together with needy of Somalia was murdered there.
In Pakistan, however, such "vigilante justice" is precisely 1 means of avenging the award of Muhammad. According to Section 295-C of Pakistan's penal code:
"Whoever past times words, either spoken or written, or past times visible representation or past times whatever imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, straight or indirectly, defiles the sacred get upward of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace live upon him) shall live punished amongst death, or imprisonment for life, together with shall also live liable to fine."
Because non-Muslims -- especially Christians, who past times Definition are known to decline Muhammad's prophecy -- are to a greater extent than probable to live suspected of blasphemy, together with because the give-and-take of a Christian is not valid against the give-and-take of a Muslim, blasphemy accusations past times Muslims against Christians are mutual together with routinely number inwards the imprisonment, beating together with fifty-fifty killing of Christians (as when 1,200 Muslims deliberately burned a immature Christian couple to decease inwards 2014 for allegedly insulting Islam).
In other words, Asia Bibi's floor is the notorious tip of a large but hidden iceberg. Seemingly non a calendar month -- sometimes non fifty-fifty a calendar week -- goes past times inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan without some Muslims accusing some Christians of insulting Muhammad, oftentimes precisely to settle a personal score (video, an Egyptian cleric expresses his bully disgust at Christians, together with how he could non drinkable from a loving cup that was simply touched past times a Christian.)
The declaration spiraled, together with the women began calling on Bibi to convert to Islam inwards lodge to salvage herself. "What did your Prophet Mohammed e'er produce to salvage mankind?," Asia Bibi shot back.
A report summarizes what happened next:
After this, Bibi said the women started screaming, spitting at her together with physically assaulting her. She ran abode inwards a fright. Less than a calendar week later, she went fruit-picking inwards some other land when she was confronted past times a rioting crowd, led past times the adult woman who had initially shouted at her.
The crowd surrounded her, musical rhythm out her together with took her to the village, screaming: "Death! Death to the Christian!"
The hamlet imam said: "I've been told you've insulted our Prophet. You know what happens to anyone who attacks the holy Prophet Mohammed. You tin give the axe redeem yourself entirely past times conversion or death."
She protested: "I haven't done anything. Please, I beg you, I've done zilch wrong."
Bibi was taken to the hamlet law station, covered inwards blood, where law interrogated her together with seat a study together. She was thence seat into a law van together with taken straight to prison.
She has been inwards that jail cellular telephone e'er since.
Despite inconsistent witness testimonies, a Panjabi courtroom sentenced her to decease past times hanging earlier cheering crowds inwards belatedly 2010. Since then, "I've been locked up, handcuffed together with chained, banished from the basis together with waiting to die," says Bibi inwards her smuggled memoirs. "I don't know how long I've got left to live. Every fourth dimension my jail cellular telephone door opens my pump beats faster. My life is inwards God's hands together with I don't know what's going to tumble out to me. It's a brutal, cruel existence."
There has also been the suffering of her husband, Ashiq Masih, together with 5 children: "I really honey her together with fille her presence. I cannot slumber at nighttime every bit I fille her," Masih, a brick laborer, in 1 trial explained:
"I fille her smile; I fille everything well-nigh her. She is my soulmate. I cannot encounter her inwards prison. It breaks my heart. Life has been non-existent without her... My children call for their mother, they are broken. But I endeavor to give them promise where I can."
All of this for quest a rhetorical inquiry -- "What did your Prophet Mohammed e'er produce to salvage mankind?" -- variants of which non-Muslims receive got been quest for centuries. In the belatedly 1390s, for instance, Roman Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos responded to a grouping of Muslim scholars bent on converting him to Islam past times saying:
"Show me precisely what Mohammed brought that was new, together with at that spot you lot volition discovery things entirely evil together with inhuman, such every bit his ascendancy to spread past times the sword the faith he preached."
Over 600 years later, inwards 2006, when Pope Benedict passingly quoted this assertion, anti-Christian riots erupted around the Muslim world, churches were burned, together with an Italian nun who had devoted her life to serving the sick together with needy of Somalia was murdered there.
In Pakistan, however, such "vigilante justice" is precisely 1 means of avenging the award of Muhammad. According to here, together with here). These are followed past times the usual riots, home- together with church-burnings, beatings together with expulsion of Christians, and, finally, arrest together with imprisonment of the supposed "blasphemer."
Although Bibi's example has sparked scandalize throughout the international community, all calls for her publish receive got for nearly a decade fallen on deaf ears. This dismissal is non thence much because the nation's regime are determined to execute her -- 1 pagan is certainly non worth the world's criticism together with contempt -- but because excusing her inwards lodge to salvage aspect amongst the basis would forthwith brand them lose aspect amongst many of their own. That consideration is why, whenever at that spot is whatever serious speak that Bibi powerfulness live spared, protests together with riots often ensue. As Bibi's husband, Ashuq Masih, in 1 trial explained, "The Maulvis [clerics] desire her dead. They receive got announced a [monetary] prize ... for anyone who kills Asia. They receive got fifty-fifty declared that if the courtroom acquits her they volition ensure the decease judgement stands."
Authorities sympathetic to or siding amongst such "blasphemers" are also targeted. Two of Asia Bibi's prominent advocates, for instance, Governor Salmaan Taseer together with Minority Affairs Minister Shabaz Bhatti, were both assassinated inwards 2011. Taseer was shot 27 times past times Mumtaz Qadri, his ain bodyguard. After the murder, to a greater extent than than 500 Muslim clerics voiced back upward for Qadri, together with showered him amongst rose petals.
This is arguably why Pakistani regime move along to delay issuing a lastly verdict -- to give Bibi fourth dimension to snuff it "naturally" inwards prison theatre every bit other Christians have, nether "mysterious" circumstances. Instead of placating the basis but angering Islamists past times releasing her, or placating Islamists but horrifying the basis past times executing her, the Pakistani judicial organisation abandoned Bibi to a deathtrap of a prison theatre jail cellular telephone for a decade, where wretched conditions, severe maltreatment, unattended illnesses, psychological abuse together with beatings should receive got killed her, every bit they did many others earlier her.
Much to their vexation, however, "She is psychologically, physically together with spiritually strong," Bibi's hubby announced a few days ago. "Having a real potent faith, she is laid upward together with willing to snuff it for Christ. She volition never convert to Islam."
In her memoirs, Bibi wonders "whether beingness a Christian inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan today is non precisely a failing, or a grade against you, but really a crime." Her inquiry is finally well-nigh to live answered past times Pakistan's supreme court.
"All around Islamic Republic of Pakistan together with fifty-fifty many parts of the world, the feel of anticipation... regarding Asia Bibi's lastly appeal hearing are at nowadays at fever pitch," said Leighton Medley of the British-Pakistani Christian Association concerning Bibi's recent together with lastly hearing. "There is a feel hither inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan that in 1 trial again, battle lines are beingness drawn: the battle betwixt those who back upward hatred together with intolerance together with those who struggle for peace together with justice."
Accordingly, inwards the lastly few days, Christians around the basis prayed together with fasted, fifty-fifty every bit extremist Muslims on social media called for riots should the "blasphemer" escape death. Either way, "There volition live protests on both sides together with you lot tin give the axe bet at that spot volition live problem ahead," Medley continued.
"It genuinely is D-Day for Asia, this is the lastly countdown together with nosotros volition before long know whether the extremists win or lose. And whether at that spot volition live peace together with justice inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan or precisely to a greater extent than hatred, prejudice together with intolerance which sadly has come upward to typify Islamic Republic of Pakistan today."
Raymond Ibrahim, writer of the novel book, Sword together with Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War betwixt Islam together with the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute together with a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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