More Victims of Pakistan’s Draconian Blasphemy Laws

pl43The Islamic Republic of Pakistan appears to be vying with a few other nations (also Islamic) for the title of most egregious human rights violator in the world. Much of the evil perpetrated is the fault of the country’s blasphemy laws, part of Pakistan’s Penal Code, that have victimized both Christians and Muslims. The long, drawn-out persecution and oppression of Pakistani Christian mother of five, Asia Bibi, sentenced to die under those egregious laws is just business as usual for Pakistan. But the November 4, 2014 torture and burning to death of a young Christian couple near Lahore has been called “the worst religiously-motivated hate crime in Pakistan’s history.”

That is saying something, in a nation where Christians are commonly treated like second-class citizens – if not animals, where mobs of extremists have attacked Christian villages forcing the residents to flee or die, and where the small minority of courageous Muslims who stand up for Christians also become victims of the enraged. But it is hard to imagine anything more horrific than the murder of Sajjad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi, the parents of four children. Accused of “desecrating the Koran,” the couple was held in a room next to the brick kiln where they were bonded laborers while the local mosques worked up the usual suspects, some accounts say 2,000, some say as many as 4,000. The Muslim mob dragged the couple outside, beat them, broke their legs so they could not get away, and threw them – still alive – into the kiln’s furnace.

Disturbingly, the same, or a similar fate, could await Asia Bibi, if Pakistan’s Supreme Court should overturn her death sentence. Her only hope would be to immediately flee the country with her family. Not sure what hope there would be for any Supreme Court justices who might pardon her. The High Court in Lahore did not venture into justice, most probably because they knew the repercussions they would face from Muslim “mobs.” Along with other religious freedom activists and human rights organizations we are outraged over the October 16, 2014 decision to uphold the death penalty against Bibi, who has been on death row for four years on the blasphemy charge. Bibi is the only woman this century to have been condemned to death for blasphemy. She also has a price on her head, offered by a radical Muslim cleric who is encouraging Pakistan’s Taliban to “finish her.”

What was the terrible crime for which Asia Bibi was arrested in June 2009? While picking fruit in a field, she stopped to get a drink of water from a nearby well. She offered a drink to another woman, but one of the Muslim women workers screamed that she was “contaminating” water that belonged only to Muslims. The situation escalated. Bibi was accused of making derogatory statements against Islam’s prophet Mohammed and dragged before the village imam. She was attacked and brutally beaten by a mob of outraged Muslims. Then she was thrown into prison where she has suffered from abuse, including more beatings by other prisoners as well as by guards. She now faces hanging unless charges against her are overturned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Meanwhile, her husband, Ashiq Masih, and their children are in hiding.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws prescribe the death penalty for both desecration of the Qur’an (Section 295-B) – hence the justification for the vile crime perpetrated against Christian couple Sajjad and Shama (first names, to distinguish between the two women named “Bibi”) – and blasphemy against Islam’s prophet Mohammed (Section 295-C). The law is inspired by Sharia law and has been entrenched in Pakistan for years. According to the very brave Pakistani activists campaigning to end the abuse of the blasphemy laws, “the draconian Blasphemy Law is used for the miscarriage of justice; it is exploited ruthlessly by fanatics to settle scores with rivals and by religio-political parties to gain political leverage over administrative apparatuses.”

Muslim radicals have often threatened, attacked, and even killed blasphemy suspects and their family members, although nothing like what was done to Sajjad and Shama on the trumped-up charge of burning Koranic pages. In almost every case, suspects who have been acquitted have had to flee the country with their families. Islamists have also threatened and attacked lawyers, judges and police for defending or acquitting the suspects. As hinted at earlier, activists believe that the Lahore High Court judges may have rejected Bibi’s appeal out of fear for their own lives. Many of the Islamists demanding angrily Bibi’s execution were present in the courtroom. Such extremists have even killed politicians that called for the reform of the blasphemy laws.

Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, opposed the blasphemy laws and defended Asia Bibi. He was murdered on January 4, 2011, shot 27 times by his own body guard, Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, for his outspoken defense of Bibi and condemnation of the misuse of the blasphemy laws. Qadri was celebrated as a “hero” by the Pakistan Taliban and other Islamists. In contrast, when Asia Bibi heard of Taseer’s death, she “wept inconsolably” and a prison source reported that she repeated, “That man came here and he sacrificed his life for me.”

Then on March 2, 2011, our own friend, Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet, was also killed for speaking out against the law and for Bibi. The cowardly gunmen (later the Taliban claimed credit for the murder) ambushed him just outside his mother’s home in Islamabad and riddled his car with bullets. In a video recorded just a few months before his assassination and released to the media after he was murdered, Bhatti, the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs said, “When I am leading these campaigns against the Sharia laws, for the abolishment of blasphemy law and speaking for the oppressed, marginalized Christians and other minorities these Taliban threaten me. … I am living for my community and suffering people, and I will die to defend their rights.”

In a soon-to-be-released book by one of us, (Darara Gubo) entitled Blasphemy and Defamation of Religions in a Polarized World: How Religious Fundamentalism is Challenging Fundamental Human Rights (Lexington Books, December 16, 2014), the danger of the blasphemy laws to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to life of those accused of violation like Asia Bibi and so many others is described in detail. Pakistan and other member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have made efforts to introduce internationally binding agreements to protect Islam and Mohammed from blasphemy. Such agreements would violate universal human rights and would make it even more of a nightmare for anyone charged with blasphemy.

The bid for an international protocol against defamation of religions has faced opposition from Western countries pressured particularly by human rights and religious freedom organizations as well as other activists. But although the OIC has not been able to get this sort of agreement enacted, it has not abandoned its push to protect Islam. In 2011, the United States actually joined Turkey in what was called the “Istanbul Process” to create HRC Resolution 16/18 to “combat intolerance, discrimination and incitement to hatred and/or violence on the basis of religion or belief.” Many believe that by doing this the United States has actually legitimized “the longstanding Islamic campaign at the UN to ban ‘defamation of religion,’ only with different terminology.”

And truly, as the cases of Asia Bibi, Sajjad and Shama, and other Christians and Muslims charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws prove, HRC Resolution 16/18 – if it were to become internationally binding – would only aid in the aggressive and abusive use of the blasphemy laws. Actions as innocuous as Asia Bibi’s taking a drink of water from a well that Muslims think is only for them, or of Shama allegedly burning pages of the Koran, could be considered “incitement” to violence.

In the wake of the horrific death of Sajjad Masih and Shama Bibi, we wonder what will become of Asia Bibi as she awaits her last appeal to the Pakistan Supreme Court. Both secular and religious human rights groups have launched petitions and letters on her behalf to bring justice and freedom to this Christian victim of religious persecution. Amnesty International, for example, has over 18,000 signatures so far on a petition to Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Christian organization the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has over 215,000 signatures on their petition to the Pakistani government. We can only hope and pray that Asia Bibi will be freed, and that she and husband, Ashiq Masih, and their daughters will be protected and provided with a place of safety where they can live in peace and freedom.

Faith J. H. McDonnell directs the Institute on Religion and Democracy’sReligious Liberty Program and the Church Alliance for a New Sudan in Washington, DC, and is the author of Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children (Chosen Books, 2007). Find her at fmcdonnell@theird.org.

Dr. Darara Gubo leads Their Blood Cries Out, a Birmingham, AL based Christian group that works for the persecuted church, and is the author of Blasphemy and Defamation of Religions in a Polarized World: How Religious Fundamentalism Is Challenging Fundamental Human Rights (Lexington Books, December 16, 2014). Find him at dansagubo@yahoo.com.

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  • truebearing

    May God’s retribution be swift and terrible. This kind of evil deserves no mercy.

    • tickletik

      Get your head out of your rear. Why should God lift a finger for us if we won’t do anything at all for ourselves? Do you think God is at our beck and call Iike a servant?!

      • truebearing

        Get your head out of yours. I didn’t say he was at our beck and call. I merely expressed a wish.

        Where did I say we shouldn’t do anything for ourselves? Where did my comment say God was like a servant?

        I find it interesting that you are more outraged at my expression of outrage than at the heinous actions of Pakistani Muslims. If you cared a whit about the victims, my comment would have hardly been your focus.

        • cree

          I got your meaning right away. tickletic took a cheap shot, because he didn’t agree to condemn the evil with you (unless he was for it). Likely he is as frustrated with the circumstances too, being that the fate of these persecuted people are to a large degree, out of most of ours’ control.

          The fate of these non-muslims is indeed dire. I can’t imagine the high Muslim authorities to back off in order for their people to back off the Sharia doctrine. Non-muslim’s status as dhimmis is bad enough; that status is becoming, not good enough. What terrible predicaments these people are in. What terrible predicaments we are in being helpless to do more (so far).

          It may be that God’s retribution will have to act through man’s ever present choice option between good and evil. Our world is in doom and gloom. The price that will again have to be paid for freedom will be high. War and mercy is a contradiction; with surrender and submission to good and the genuine rejection of evil, perhaps, depends.

          A lot of us on this site are seeing the same realities. They are many and harsh. May Providence help when our choice is for good. You are.

      • Steve

        Why the vulgarity, ick? Do you have a problem with those of us who are outraged by the murderous demons which are the most prominent aspect of Islam all over the globe?

      • catherineinpvb

        Indeed; God in action, requires our own ‘hands, feet’. . .minds and hearts.

  • Earthling

    Any response from the Presbyterian Church? No? How about the Methodists? No? How about the Episcopalians? No? Eastern Orthodox churches? No? Catholics? No? Hmmmm……..Anyone for BDS Israel? YES!

    • Bamaguje

      The conspiratorial silence of large sections of the non-Muslim world to Islamic atrocities is partly responsible for the global Islamist menace.
      Saudi Arabia can ban other religions, Muslims in Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt and Indonesia can oppress non-Muslims… because they’ll know they’ll get away with it.
      They know we infidels are unlikely to respond in kind. They know our fickle minded leaders will appease them, and make excuses for them… “nothing to do with Islam.”
      All the loud mouthed Israel bashers are nowhere to be seen or heard when it comes to gruesome Muslim-on-Christian atrocities.

      It’s long past time the non-Muslim leaders hold Muslim leaders accountable for violent religious intolerance in their domains… sanctions, boycotts, severing of diplomatic relations, and even military action should all be on the table.

    • Demetrius Minneapolis

      In my opinion, we share the same line of thinking, and I’d wager that is the opinion of the majority within each Christian sect. But to them, our concerns mean little to nothing. We are but mere benefactors who are weekly guilted into supplying them more $$$. They consistently water down the word of G-d, turn a blind eye toward the abuse of young children, and instruct us to love our enemies ie.islam, while they vilify Israel.
      Which begs the question, do THEY fear G-d. Do THEY truly believe in the teachings, because their actions prove otherwise. They almost appear to mimic the words and actions on an atheist, and those in theological circles and the pulpit who speak against it are branded crazy or out of touch with the modern age. It’s as if they are intentionally trying to destroy it from the inside, just as they have done to the free market system.
      Organized Christianity as it is is corrupted beyond hope, (and it pains me to no end to write that)- no man can reverse the flow, but Divine intervention is the only salvation we have, as it was written. Then all the smug atheists, politicians and false religious leadership will bear witness to the meek truly inheriting the world.

      • Earthling

        To Demetrius and Bamaguje: I have heard of instances where Christian witnesses to this horror have asked church officials to speak before their congregations in the West and were told they could not. In those instances where they would be allowed to speak, church officials told them that a Muslim would be present to refute everything they said. It seems to me that this is a deliberate attempt to hide the facts and promote Muslim propaganda. Outrageous!

  • Hank Rearden

    Conclusion?

    Keep ‘em out.

    Otherwise we will have to twist our legal system and our culture into knots to deal with them.

    Would that Allen West were president.

  • hellosnackbar

    How can a civilised person embrace Islam?

    • joe kulak

      Just embrace evil. But you will no longer be civilized. IOW, a civilized person cannot embrace Islam.

  • joe kulak

    And to think that Crapistan has nuclear weapons. That’s like giving a book of matches to an arsonist.

    • Bamaguje

      Thanks to Obama, Iran – the foremost Islamic terror state – is about to have them too.

      • Lightbringer

        Obama is not alone in the blame. Much as I respect George W. Bush, Iran’s early work on nukes started during his watch, or perhaps even earlier, and he never did anything about it.

        • Raymond_in_DC

          Bush did at least push for international sanctions on Iran, and the joint US-Israel project that led to Stuxnet was initiated on his watch. Not a lot, but more than Obama has done, which has been to fight against and ultimately weaken the sanctions regime.

    • Pete

      Well Pakistan gave nukes to Saudi Arabia.

      There was a deal. Look it up.

      Saudi Arabia also has nuclear capable missiles sold to them by the Chinese.

      So if Said Arabia or Iran feel threatened the skies could light up. I am not saying they will, but the potential is there.

      Meanwhile Obama is talking Amnesty, global warming treaties, net neutrality and whole bunch of other sh_t.

  • http://geoffreybritain.wordpress.com/ Geoffrey_Britain

    Comments on the internet are essentially anonymous. So, no real need to fear retaliation. Where are the ‘moderate’ Muslims speaking out against this atrocity?

    Where are the anonymous American Muslim moderates speaking out against this atrocity? And doesn’t that silence… speak volumes?

    • kafir4life

      The moderate muslims are right over there, feeding the unicorns.

  • OneManITDept

    Mohammed was tickling my nutz last night and all islamic mammys take it in the azz.

  • 2wotvet

    And to think President Reagan poured millions into that country.

  • Colt

    Pakistan is another place that world make a great parking lot.

    • UCSPanther

      Or a flood Basalt.

      The Pakistani Traps would be an improvement…

  • georgejochnowitz

    Nothing is more blasphemous than a law against blasphemy. What does such a law say? It says:
    Poor helpless God. He needs us to enact laws to prevent His feelings from being hurt.

    • faithmcdonnell

      Excellent point! G-D does not need anyone to defend His honor. He will have the last laugh, anyway!

      • Bamaguje

        An impotent fictitious god like Allah does.

        • faithmcdonnell

          True. And Islamists seem to have the most sensitive feelings in the world. Always getting them hurt.

          • Earthling

            Yes, you’re right. If Muslims don’t see themselves as victims then how could they be convinced to participate in jihad and commit such outrageous atrocities? They couldn’t. That’s why the religious authorities are always pushing this nonsense about how some ordinary action has somehow “offended Islam” and must be punished.

  • jenny

    God, have mercy on us…..

  • KyraNelson

    Why is everybody in Pakistan named Bibi?

  • catherineinpvb

    Am so sickened by this; as are all morally rationale human beings who read/hear such. It is tiresome to ask; but ‘where’ are the voices of sane, moral Leadership in the world; with condemnation so great; as to make a difference in the lives of these victims? Those already lost; (who may have been saved) and those who have yet to meet such a barbarous certainty.

    The ‘unconscionable’ is not just by the hands of those so barbarous.

  • Dan Knight

    Let’s get this straight: Sajjad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi, mother of 4, were murdered by a mob of thousands of Islamists, burned alive, … but they were also slaves. Asia Bibi, mother of 5, was picking fruit, and drank from a well. …

    If Christians murdered two slaves and imprisoned a woman who drank from a well, the Left would have us bombing them by the end of the week. We know this, b/c it’s already happened. Only the Left is allowed to decide who will be slaves, and who can drink from what fountain.

    What’s really shocking isn’t that Islamists murder, since it’s their ideology: What’s shocking is that we cannot see the parallels right in front of us. The blatant hatred, and every kind of phobia you can shove into the DSM-V: Yet, we pretend. As Gary Allen once put it, ‘None Dare Call It Conspiracy.’ … But it is. Either it’s that or there really are two kinds of human beings: Decent and Animal. As I’ve seen no evidence indicating any biological proclivity or explanation, so I believe it is a sort of conspiracy.

    When these fantasy ideologies are programmed they always come with enough differences to make one think they are independently derived: Yet the similarities are troubling. Why is it that war, rape, slavery, child murder, etc. always run with tribalism, hate mongering, and lies?

    If we allow them to pass laws regarding defamation or blasphemy, we will be the ones enslaved, and our children will be murdered. What are we going to do about it?

  • Craig Gorsuch

    This information needs to be sent to all the looney Western (and especially American) politicians that mistakenly believe that Sharia is compatible with Western Culture (and especially The US Constitution).

  • T.M.Menon

    The Western world is late to notice Pakistan getting worse in the treatment of its minorities. It had begun with the decimation of the Hindu minority which at time of establishment of Pakistan some 25% but is now hardly 1% thanks to forcible conversion and plain murder of men. Christians were more or less safe since the Americans funded the Pak regimes. American human rights movements were not worried about the sad plight of the Hindus. Jews were persecuted from time immemorial and still Frontpage magazine did not have in this article a single reference the largest minority group in Pakistan vanishing in 67years, leaving only a trace behind. Hindus are as much human as Jews and Christians are!

  • MushtaqDean

    Mushtaq Dean (Comment on article

    Murder of Christian couple in Pakistan

    The report of murder of Christian couple, labor at brick kiln, by unruly crowd has been circulated worldwide through national and international print and electronic media. The incident is said to be a result of blasphemous act that the couple had committed.

    It is grumbled that the blasphemous act, in many cases, is misused by powerful and influential persons when they want to settle their account with their foes who happen to be weak and feebly settled in society.

    The affected rather ruined family is grateful to those who shared with them their
    irreparable loss through words of sympathy. The message becomes more
    comforting, solicitous and consoling when we see it coming from a distinguished people including Ex-president Zardari, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, Chief of Islamic Counsil Moulana Tahir Ashrafi, MNAS, MPAS and many other renowned Islamic scholars.

    Thankfully, in such a disastrous situation, we have a sensitive and responsible government. Chief Minister, Shahbaz Shrif, reputed for his alertness towards the administration, went into spontaneous action. He has established a high powered inquiring squad, has granted prodigious amount of money for the distressed folks.

    Such timely, caring and generous attitude will not sooth the wounds of wounded only but also win applause and admiration from all quarters, in particular from the minorities.

    Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Shrif, is equally watchful of the incident taking keen
    interest. Many anxiously waiting for the outcome of the inquiry wishing the
    result to be full of retribution for the criminals.

    Mushtaq Dean