[BITList] Pakistan - Sentenced to Death for being a Christian

[Michael Feltham]

Sentenced to death for being a Christian
Posted: 29 Sep 2013 04:57 AM PDT
Recently, Asia Bibi released her book “Blasphemy: A memoir”. For those  
of you who have not read Asia’s account of her treatment as a  
Pakistani Christian in the press, it makes for a damning indictment of  
a country that already has problems curbing its Islamist image.

This is only heightened in light of the horrific attack on a church by  
two suicide bombers by the Pakistani Taliban only last week.

In July 2009, mother-of-five Asia, 46, went to the fields to pick  
strawberries in the Pakistani summer heat for 250 rupees (under $2.50  
USD). When she went to get a cup of water from the nearby well, one of  
the locals screamed at the others not to drink the “haram” (forbidden  
in Islam) water after it had been drunk from by a Christian.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the women picking berries to go on  
the attack. When her religion was insulted and she was threatened if  
she did not convert to Islam, Asia was unrepentant. She told them in  
no uncertain terms “I’m not going to convert. I believe in my religion  
and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind”.  
Jesus is not considered the son of god in Islamic mythology and is not  
believed to have died on the cross. Asia’s statement of her position  
alone was taken as an insult to Islam and sent her tormenters into a  
frenzy of hatred and abuse.

Five days later, Asia was attacked by the same mob again. She was  
taken to the village holy man. Unfortunately for Asia, this man  
preached an ultraconservative brand of Islam and had a hold on the  
local population. Asia was beaten, sworn at, spat on and told she must  
renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam. After an ordeal  
that lasted hours, the police came and made arrests. Not of Asia’s  
would be lynchers of course, but of Asia herself: on the charge of  
blasphemy.

Asia was being charged on the grounds that her words, including a  
proclamation of her Christianity, were blasphemous. If Asia were to be  
found guilty, she would face the death penalty.

For four years now, she has languished in jail facing the gallows  
under 295c of Pakistan’s penal code. Even if released without charge,  
she is almost certain to end up the victim of vigilante violence like  
those who have fallen foul of the law before her.

And many have done so. Whilst Asia was arrested and jailed four years  
ago, the blasphemy law continues to claim victims.

In July, Sajjad Masih, another Christian targeted by the law was  
sentenced to life imprisonment for a supposedly blasphemous mobile  
phone text message despite the conviction being based on flimsy if not  
non-existent evidence.

To add to this, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom  
recently released its report detailing Pakistan’s poor history on  
religious freedoms. In the last year and a half alone, the report  
documents 203 acts of violence in the name of religion. This led to  
over 1,800 casualties and 700 deaths in no small part due to the witch  
hunts of minorities enabled by the blasphemy law.

What happened next in Asia’s case is even more frightening. The  
governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest, most populous and richest  
province, openly showed his support for Asia calling for the scrapping  
of what he called a “black law”. Salmaan Taseer was eventually shot by  
his own bodyguard, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, whilst his other bodyguards  
looked on.

It didn’t end there. Minister of minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, a  
Christian himself, was also gunned down in his car having just visited  
his mother. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the  
attack saying Bhatti was a “known blasphemer” as he had many times  
proclaimed his Christian faith and stated his belief in Jesus not as a  
prophet, as in Islam, but as the son of god.

Unfortunately, the blasphemy law is so vague and broad that it can be  
applied to even proclamations of faith antithetical to Islam and  
perversely, is based on the offence taken by others. In Asia’s case,  
she was arrested for offending the Muslims around her for voicing a  
difference of opinion on a matter of theology.

The final horror was the way in which Mumtaz Qadri, Salmaan Taseer’s  
assassin, was greeted by Pakistanis. After Taseer’s murder, there was  
a noticeable chilling effect. Asif Ali Zardari, the president at the  
time, suddenly went quiet. His hints of pardoning Asia stopped. Talk  
of rescinding 295c were nowhere to be heard. In death, Salmaan Taseer  
had been abandoned by his own political party. There is no talk of the  
new Pakistani administration rescinding the law.

On Christmas Day 2010, 200 people, exclusively Christians, marched in  
support of Asia calling for her release and the scrapping of the  
blasphemy law. Weeks later, 40,000 Pakistanis marched in support of  
the law which could see Asia killed. They threatened nationwide  
strikes and vigilante justice if the law was changed. The government  
cowered in fear at this show of Islamist force arranged by the  
political religious parties. Banners included “Mumtaz Qadri is our  
hero” and “We salute the courage of Qadri”.

A sobering fact: as Mumtaz Qadri left court, Pakistani lawyers  
showered him with rose petals. Meanwhile, Asia Bibi sits in jail  
waiting for her food to be poisoned, for her to be murdered by would  
be vigilantes or, horrifyingly, by the state itself.

At the time of partition, Pakistan’s non-Muslim population (which  
included modern day Bangladesh) stood at 23 percent. Today, it is down  
to as low as 3 percent. That figure is quite telling. In not  
challenging Islamism, Pakistanis have all but forced their non-Muslim  
countrymen to leave the country. Pakistani Christians today still look  
for a place where they can hope to not be burnt alive in their homes,  
have their churches attacked by grenades and suicide bombers like last  
week’s attack or their children arrested for perceived insults to  
Islam. This all stands in stark contrast to the way things had begun  
for this country back in 1948.

The founder of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah said “you are free; you  
are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or  
to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may  
belong to any religion, caste or creed – that has nothing to do with  
the business of the state”.

A secularist appeal for freedom of religion from the father of a  
nation. A far cry from a Pakistan now where Mumtaz Qadri is garlanded  
with roses as he leaves court a murderer. It was only this summer that  
one of the members of the most popular opposition party, Pakistan  
Tehreek-i-Insaf, shocked Pakistan’s national assembly by demanding the  
pardon and release of Qadri. Support for the assassin remains.

Asia’s story and the aftermath makes for frightening reading and  
reminds us of one of the consequences of Pakistan’s unchecked drift  
towards an inward looking tribalism that doesn’t include non-Muslims.  
Pakistan has over the decades shaped its identity through everything  
non-Muslim, non-Western and ultimately non-Pakistani. Of course the  
tragedy here is that Asia Bibi is just that: Pakistani. Her detractors  
seem to forget that the white of the Pakistani flag represents the  
country’s minorities.

Asia’s future does not look hopeful. Pakistan’s death penalty was  
suspended under a 5 year moratorium by the last premier, Asif Ali  
Zardari. The EU expressed its concern over the government’s having  
allowed the moratorium to expire. However, faced with a surge in  
violence from Islamist militants including the Pakistani Taliban, new  
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reinstated the death penalty to try  
and curb the growing threat.

Ironically, in a bid to deal with militants, reinstating the death  
penalty may allow Asia to be hanged by a blasphemy law that only  
continues to exist to appease Islamists to be found on Pakistan’s  
television screens politics. In a country of such contrast and  
contradictions, this doesn’t seem all that out of place.

Asia has said “I am given raw material to cook for myself, since the  
administration fears I might be poisoned, as other Christians accused  
of blasphemy were poisoned or killed in the jail”. If Pakistan cannot  
be pressured into either pardoning Asia or scrapping the blasphemy  
law, she may not even make it to the gallows.

Unfortunately, this is a much more likely possibility than her  
actually completing her appeal. Which only highlights the urgency of  
her plight and that of Pakistan’s persecuted minorities.

Zaheer Rayasat is a freelance writer

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