Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan - overturned! [Archive] - Debate Policy

jimnyc

10-31-2018, 07:29 PM

And now the judges that did the overturning better be the ones sleeping with one eye open. I see a bloody head being carried down the street before too long, and if so, that's a shame.

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Hardline Islamists in Pakistan call for death of judges who overturned Christian woman's death sentence for blasphemy

A hard-line Islamist party in Pakistan has called for the death of the judges who overturned the death sentence of a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy.

Asia Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 on blasphemy charges. She had gone to fetch water for herself and fellow farm workers on a hot day the previous year, but two Muslim women had refused to drink from the same container and she was accused by a mob of blasphemy.

She was convicted and sentenced to death, but in a landmark ruling Pakistan’s top court has now acquitted Ms Bibi and order she be released.

The judgement has sparked a backlash from hardline Islamists who have called for the death of the chief justice of the Supreme Court and two other judges behind the ruling.

The leader of the Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party, which has launched street protests in reaction to the ruling, also called for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government to be ousted over the case.

Party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi said: “The patron in chief of TLP, Muhammad Afzal Qadri, has issued the edict that says the chief justice and all those who ordered the release of Asia deserve death.”

Paramilitary troops have been deployed in Islamabad to prevent protesters from reaching the Supreme Court, where security has been stepped up up to protect the judges and authorities have also put security in place at churches around the country.

Rest - https://www.yahoo.com/news/hardline-islamists-pakistan-call-death-judges-overturned-christian-womans-death-sentence-blasphemy-101334380.html

jimnyc

10-31-2018, 07:35 PM

'Justice has been done': Pakistan's Christians laud acquittal of blasphemy accused

Pakistan's beleaguered Christian community rejoiced Wednesday at the acquittal of Asia Bibi, who spent years on death row for blasphemy, saying their prayers had been answered after years of begging for justice.

Christians make up around two percent of the country's 210 million population and have long been discriminated against in Muslim majority Pakistan, often living in downtrodden slums and forced to work menial jobs.

Wednesday's acquittal of the illiterate mother represented a rare victory for the community -- with Christians in Pakistan's capital Islamabad hailing the Supreme Court's decision.

"Justice has been done," said Reverend Javed Masih, who heads a Presbyterian church in a Christian slum in the capital.

"We are happy that the law is still ruling in this country and that's why Asia Bibi has been set free," added another Christian resident Shafaqat Masih.

Rest - https://www.yahoo.com/news/justice-done-pakistans-christians-laud-acquittal-blasphemy-accused-131802067.html

Asia Bibi: Huge protests in Pakistan over Christian woman released after eight years on death row for blasphemy

Protesters have taken to the streets after a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan on blasphemy charges was acquitted.

The country’s top court ordered Asia Bibi should be released after the evidence against her was deemed insufficient.

In response to the verdict, supporters of Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) condemned the ruling and blocked roads in major cities, pelting police with stones in the eastern city of Lahore.

Ms Bibi, a farm labourer and 47-year-old mother-of-four, angered fellow workers, who were Muslim, by taking a sip of water from a cup she had got for them.

They refused to use a cup from which a Christian had drunk, and demanded she convert to Islam.

When she refused, it prompted a mob to later allege that she had insulted the prophet Mohammed. She was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death in 2010.

Ms Bibi and her family have always maintained her innocence and denied that she made any derogatory remarks about Islam.

The case has been a source of division within Pakistan, where two politicians who sought to help Bibi were assassinated.

Following the verdict street protests and blockades of major roads spread, paralysing parts of Islamabad, Lahore and other cities.

Rest - https://www.yahoo.com/news/asia-bibi-huge-protests-pakistan-160739330.html

A look at Pakistan's blasphemy law over the years

A series of anti-blasphemy measures introduced in Pakistan in the 1980s made it illegal to insult Islam.

People have been accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, tearing pages of the holy Quran or writing offensive remarks on the walls of mosques. Sometimes, the law has been used to settle a personal dispute.

Asia Bibi, a Christian who spent eight years on death row under Pakistan's divisive blasphemy law, had her conviction overturned Wednesday in Islamabad by the country's highest court. She was convicted in 2010 under the law after she was accused of insulting the Prophet. But days earlier, two fellow female farm workers had quarreled with her after she drank from a cup. They argued that the cup was unclean because of her faith.

At least 1,472 people were charged under the law between 1987 and 2016, according to the Center for Social Justice, an advocacy group. Of those, 730 were Muslims, 501 were Ahmedis — a sect that is reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics — while 205 were Christians and 26 were Hindus.

Some other cases over the years:

— In 2002, the high court ordered the release of Ayub Masih, a Christian sentenced to death four years earlier for blasphemy. His attorney said Masih had never made the allegedly blasphemous statements, but instead was a victim of a plot to steal his land.

— In 2012, a man accused of desecrating a Quran was dragged by a crowd from a police station in Bahawalpur, a city in the deeply conservative central Pakistan. They beat him to death and then burned his body. They also burned several police cars, as well as the possessions and furniture of a local police chief.

— Mohammad Mansha, from a village in south Punjab, was targeted because he had fought with members of one village who accused him of blasphemy. He served nine years before authorities decided he was innocent but they couldn't release him in 2017 because they feared a riot.

— An 11-year-old girl with Down syndrome was accused in 2012 of burning pages of a booklet used to learn the basics of the Quran. The charges were later dropped and the cleric who made the accusation arrested.

— In 2013, police arrested as many as 45 Muslims in connection with the killing of a Christian couple for allegedly desecrating the Quran. Hundreds of Muslims took part in the attack in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab province in which a mob killed the couple and burned their bodies in a brick kiln in a shop where the man and his wife worked.

— Police opened a case in 2014 against Junaid Jamshed, a pop singer-turned-preacher in Karachi, over a video in which he appeared to insult one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad while commenting about women. Jamshed swiftly apologized in a video statement, but the court rejected his statement.

— In 2017, Mashal Khan a student at a university in northwest Pakistan was killed by a mob after a rumor spread that he had posted blasphemous material online. It was later proven that he hadn't made the post, and more than 50 people were arrested. It was believed the accusation came after he criticized the university administration.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/look-pakistans-blasphemy-law-over-years-195904493.html