Pakistan overturns death sentence of “blaspheming” Christian

Of all the countries I wouldn’t want to live in because of government and civil repression, the first is, of course, North Korea. The second, however, is Pakistan. Not only did they ban my website because I “offended the sentiments of Muslims”, but, as a vociferous nonbeliever (and a secular Jew), I’d be a goner.

And that was supposed to be the fate of Aasia Bibi, as this Guardian article—as well as Wikipedia—report (click on screenshot):

The details of her case show a country steeped in hatred, ignorance, and faith (some of these words might be redundant). The story started in June of 2009 (9 years ago!), when Bibi was bringing water to a group of farm workers in her village. Bibi was a Christian, a mother of four, and then 38 years old. The other workers, who were Muslim, objected to Bibi touching the bowl, and she might even have taken a sip from it.

The details of the altercation then are unclear, but Bibi was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. (As the Supreme Court just ruled, this claim was probably fabricated as a form of revenge or denigration.) She was arrested, and in December of 2010 was sentenced to hanging for that blasphemy. She would have been the first woman executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

She’s been in prison now for almost 8 years, and in solitary confinement on death row. During that time, various organizations have pressed for her release, but that only resulted in two people being assassinated. As Wikipedia reports:

The verdict, which was reached in a district court, needed to be upheld by a superior court, had received worldwide attention. Various petitions advocating for Noreen’s [this is another name of Bibi] release were created by organisations aiding persecuted Christians such as Voice of the Martyrs, including one that received 400,000 signatures, were organized to protest Noreen’s imprisonment, and Pope Benedict XVI, and later Pope Francis, publicly called for the charges against her to be dismissed.  She received less sympathy from her neighbors and Islamic religious leaders in the country, some of whom adamantly called for her to be executed. Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer were both assassinated for advocating on her behalf and opposing the blasphemy laws. Noreen’s family went into hiding after receiving death threats, some of which threatened to kill Asia if released from prison.

In 2014, the Lahore High Court upheld the death sentence, but the next year the Supreme Court suspended the death sentence pending appeals. Her hearing the next year was postponed because several judges, also threatened with assassination unless they voted the “right way” (for death, of course), refused to be present at the hearing, which was suspended. Jebus! What a country!

Yesterday, though, Bibi was finally acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court of the blasphemy charge (you can see the verdict at the link). To show you how dysfunctional that country is, here’s what happened after her acquital (from the Guardian). There was widespread rioting, hatred, and calls for various deaths. The “TLP” referred to below is, as the Guardian notes (my emphasis), the “Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a fast-growing political party dedicated solely to the punishment of blasphemy.” Double Jebus!

The court, in a three-member bench led by the chief justice, Saqib Nisar, ordered Bibi’s release on Wednesday morning in Islamabad. By the afternoon, thousands of club-wielding demonstrators had blocked highways, burned tyres and pelted police with stones in major cities including Islamabad and Karachi.

Publication of the 56-page ruling was delayed for three weeks after blasphemy campaigners promised to “paralyse” the country and kill the judges if they did not uphold Bibi’s death sentence.

. . . Justice Asif Khosa, in a verdict widely praised for its courage and rigour, noted that the two sisters who accused Bibi “had no regard for the truth” and that the claim she smeared the prophet in public was “concoction incarnate”.

“It is ironical that in the Arabic language the appellant’s name Asia means ‘sinful’,” Khosa went on, “but in the circumstances of the present case she appears to be a person, in the words of Shakespeare’s King Lear, ‘more sinned against than sinning’.”

Authorities have removed Bibi from Adiala jail, in Rawalpindi, as they seek to get her out of the country as quickly as possible. In a phone call with AFP before her release, she said: “I can’t believe what I am hearing. Will I go out now? Will they let me out, really? I just don’t know what to say, I am very happy, I can’t believe it.”

The media has been prevented from discussing the case since the verdict was reserved on 8 October and footage of the spreading protests on Wednesday was avoided by increasingly censored TV stations.

In the past 24 hours, paramilitary security forces have deployed across the capital, protecting the judges’ enclave and the diplomatic zone. About 300 police were stationed to guard the supreme court. The southern province of Sindh has imposed a 10-day ban on rallies of any kind.

Thousands of club-wielding supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a fast-growing political party dedicated solely to the punishment of blasphemy, took to the streets.

Khadim Rizvi, the TLP leader, announced he would “paralyse the country within hours” if Bibi was freed and acolytes returned to the Faizabad interchange in Islamabad, the site of a three-week-long protest camp held by the party last year that crippled the capital.

One TLP chief, Afzal Qadri, said all three judges were now liable for death and called for the army to mutiny against its leaders if they supported the decision.

Today in Pakistan, the schools are closed, the roads are deserted, and troops have been deployed throughout the country. All because a woman was acquitted of blasphemy after a false accusation, and then languished in prison for over 7 years. And in solitary confinement (there are reports that she’s become mentally unstable)! This video from the Guardian shows the loons protesting the acquittal:

So to those like John Gray and Sean Illing, who say that countries cannot survive without religion, and that religion fulfills various essential human needs, I ask, “Have you considered Islam?” Even Republicans, whipped up to a frenzy by our own loony “President,” don’t call for death in this way (though they have called for Hillary to be locked up).

Only religion or hyper-extreme political ideology can inspire this kind of lunacy. And so the New Atheists and anti-theists are right to call for religion to be mocked, denigrated, and eventually eliminated (not by force, of course!).

Of course, thanks to WordPress’s helpful censorship of this site, no Pakistani will get a chance to read this post, but they already know about the Bibi affair because their whole country is in turmoil.  And it’s just about as likely to become a sane country as is North Korea.

ADDENDUM: If you want to hear another horrifying story of someone falsely accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, but this time tortured and killed (by students!), go read about the death of Mashal Khan. He was murdered just last year.