Pakistan to execute Christian mother who verbally insulted Muhammed

I didn't know that many Arabs lived in Pakistan....

 

After Taseer was murdered, Rehman was in the USA.

Now the Supreme Court is going after Rehman for alleged "blasphemy" allegations (punishable by the death penalty)...because she was in favor of no longer punishing "blasphemy" by death.

So much for freedom of religion and freedom of opinion in one of the biggest Muslim majority countries.

Alleged blasphemy: SC admits petition filed against Sherry Rehman for hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday admitted a petition filed against Sherry Rehman over allegedly committing blasphemy, DawnNews reported.

The petition was heard by a two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Ejaz Afzal.

The bench directed CPO Multan Amir Zulfiqar to take action in accordance with the law.

The petition against Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, was filed by Faheem Akhtar Gill, a citizen of Multan.

Gill had requested to the court to register a case against Rehman for allegedly committing blasphemy.

The petition claims that Rehman had committed blasphemy while speaking on a news channel two years ago.

In Nov 2010, Rehman had submitted a bill to the National Assembly Secretariat seeking an end to the death penalty under the existing blasphemy laws.

Later in Feb 2011, the then prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, had categorically stated that the government had no intention to amend the law.

After Gilani’s rejection, Rehman had told AFP she had “no option” but to abide by the decision after the premier had ruled out any discussion.

In Nov 2011, Rehman was appointed Pakistan’s ambassador to the US after Husain Haqqani had tendered his resignation over the memogate controversy.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive subject in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the 180 million population are Muslims, and allegations of desecrating the Holy Quran or insulting Islam often provoke public fury.

http://dawn.com/2013/01/17/sc-admits-petition-against-sherry-rehman-over-alleged-blasphemy/

 

Condemned Christian woman to take blasphemy case to top Pakistani court

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan plans to take her case to the country's highest court after a high court last week rejected her appeal, her attorney says.
Asia Bibi, a mother of five from Punjab province, was accused of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed during a 2009 argument with Muslim fellow field workers.
The workers had refused to drink from a bucket of water she had touched because she was not Muslim.
In November 2010, a Pakistani district court found Bibi guilty of blasphemy. The offense is punishable by death or life imprisonment, according to Pakistan's penal code, and Bibi was sentenced to hang.
Read: Family waits to see if mother will be hanged
Teen blasphemy suspect speaks out Reaction to girl's blasphemy arrest
On October 16, the Lahore High Court upheld the verdict.
Human Rights Watch described the court's decision as a "disgrace to Pakistan's judiciary."
"Asia Bibi's case is an example of how Pakistan's vaguely worded blasphemy law has led to discrimination, persecution and murder since its imposition almost three decades ago," spokesman Phelim Kine told CNN.
Bibi's attorney, Naeem Shakir, told CNN on Monday that he would file an appeal once he had received a detailed copy of the judgment.
"I have a very strong case, I am sure the Supreme Court will provide us with relief. There is no concrete evidence against Asia Bibi, and the courts are only relying on the statement on those two women," Shakir said.
Blasphemy allegations
At a 2010 media conference, Bibi said the allegations against her were lies fabricated by a group of women who didn't like her.
"We had some differences, and this was their way of taking revenge," she said.
An investigation by Shahbaz Bhatti, who was then Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, also found the charges stemmed from religious and personal enmity, and he recommended Bibi's release.
Bhatti was the only Christian member of the Cabinet in Pakistan, where 95% of people are Muslim, and had opposed the blasphemy law. In 2011, he was assassinated in Islamabad.
The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the killing was "a message to all of those who are against Pakistan's blasphemy laws."
Two months earlier, the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, had been shot dead by his security guard because he, too, had supported Bibi and spoken out against the law.
Court reaction
Speaking Monday after last week's verdict, Shakir admitted also feeling that his life was in danger.
"I do feel threatened. Even in the court, there were some two dozen people who were against Asia Bibi. I have not received any threats literally, but the presence of people there makes the environment very hostile toward us," he told CNN.
Read: Petition to free Pakistani Christian woman
Those calling for Bibi's execution welcomed the court's ruling, Shakir said: "Some of them were so overjoyed and happy that they started crying in delight on hearing the decision of the court."
Qari Saleem, one of the clerics pursuing the case, told CNN via phone that Bibi deserved the punishment. "I am very happy at the decision of the court, and justice has been done," Saleem said, adding that sweets had been distributed in court after the ruling "out of joy and happiness."
Human rights groups' reaction
Initial news of Bibi's death sentence sparked outrage among international human rights groups, which condemned Pakistan's blasphemy law as a source of violence and persecution against religious minorities.
Read: My appeal to liberal Muslims
Human Rights Watch's Kine said the law largely targeted religious minorities and was "all too often manipulated to seek personal disputes."
"Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should use the power granted to him under Pakistan's Constitution to end Asia Bibi's nightmare of years of imprisonment and the threat of a death sentence by pardoning her and repealing or reforming the country's blasphemy law to prevent such tragic mockeries of justice from occurring in (the) future," he said.
Amnesty International last week described the decision as "a grave injustice."
"Asia Bibi should never have been convicted in the first place -- still less sentenced to death -- and the fact that she could pay with her life for an argument is sickening," an Amnesty spokesman said.
Read: Pakistan is sliding toward extremism
In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI called for Bibi to be released, and in 2012, activists presented a petition to the U.N. Human Rights Council calling on Pakistan to free her.
Bibi wrote about her ordeal in a 2012 book called "Get Me Out of Here." It includes a letter she wrote to her family urging them to have faith in God. "My children," she wrote, "don't lose courage or faith in Jesus Christ."

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/20/world/asia/pakistan-asia-bibi/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

 

That article reads like a fake, but it's real.

Amazingly sad.

 

http://electronicintifada.net/conte...r-driver-murders-american-peace-activist/4449

Terrible things happen everywhere...specially in this place

 

She insulted Muhhamad and knew it was a crime. She was tried and convicted. What's the story here?

 

It isn't a competition yo

 

Do you have an article of a country executing a Muslim for insulting Jesus or Yaweh?

 

Some 'laws' are so ridiculous that they should be purposefully broken to bring awareness and change. This is definitely one of those instances. Intolerant religion should be combated at every turn.

Rosa Parks knew it was a crime to sit in the front of the bus as well...

 

Rosa Parks didn't have threat of death and execution.

 

Really?

 

OK.

Rosa Parks didn't have threat of government sanctioned death and execution.

 

I don't think that would even happen as Jesus is a highly respected and honored prophet in Islam and Yahweh is basically Hebrew for God/Allah.

As for the topic thread. I always say it, separate the Doer from the Doctrine. Despite all the vast array of Islamic learning materials, books and teachings, a good segment of the Muslim population is totally ignorant to Islamic teachings.

Rather than reading for themselves they blindly follow a local Imam who most likely doesn't have credible scholarly credentials. They don't question where he got his certification (IF said person even has certification to begin with), who taught them, what school, what university, what seminary etc.

But he's a "holy man" so lets go with whatever he says. Then these same loony holy men influence the incompetent people in power who don't know any better because they got into politics for power and status rather than actually making a positive change to society. Those idiots then ratify laws and put the local rules into place basing it off their local consultation of irrational unsophisticated scholars who are probably extremely unqualified but they're the most vocal or charismatic or whatever so what they say goes.

When this happens, THAT is when stupid pathetic excuses for "Muslim" countries go nuts and get all emotional and foolish when someone insults a religious figure, or wants people dead when they leave the religion or when they draw a picture of Muhammad and talk smack or whatever, or freak out when a woman is driving a car.

None of those countries truly depict or present shariah law correctly. Period. Thats why mainstream Muslims feel there truly isn't a "Muslim" country because no one's doing it right when it comes to governance, law and etc.

It's a mixture of cultural baggage, and under-qualified and poorly-educated religious leaders. And it's because of those people that Islam looks bad and those countries don't prosper and improve. Those influential zealots become the most vocal and get the biggest following from the sheep who don't think logically or read crap from themselves.

The quote I always go back to is “I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and Muslims, but not Islam.”

The quote basically means that overseas there's a LOT of Muslims but Islamic principles are not implemented and upheld properly there. And in the west there is a very minuscule population of Muslims but what Islam is based on is seen abundantly in the communities and organizations: social justice, camaraderie, tolerance, mutual respect, civility and caring for your fellow man, woman and child regardless of their background etc.

 

Which makes what this woman did even more ballsy. I'd like to see more people stand up like this. I am sick and tired of religious people ****ting on everyone.

This is also why I am adamant about keeping religion out of our system at all costs. Religion and politics combined is toxic.

 

“I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam.”

correction on the quote.

 

I would agree, but I don't think anyone should feel obligated to sacrifice their life for it. This is certainly not an issue that will be settled with a few martyrs. It'd be refreshing if humans could one day settle these matters without bloodshed on either side.

 

First of all, thanks for your post. It's a world of a difference to the nonsense Exiled or New Yorker post.

But in my opinion, at some point you will have to ask yourself whether it is systemic. The countries you are talking about make up the vast majority of the total following of Islam. As you could see from the Pew polls, 250 million people from 5 predominantly Muslim countries alone demand the death penalty for "apostasy" from Islam. Can you really say it's just "cultural/because of the ignorance of local preachers"? When so many people, in fact the majority in these countries, believe such things - in my opinion, it defines the religion/ideology itself.

Have you considered the possibility that Muslims in the West are actually already so infused with Western values that that might be one of the reasons that they live what you think should be the "better" Islam than those in predominantly Muslim countries? So that what you perceive as the most positive aspects actually comes from Western values + camaraderie?

 

Although I dont know if truly there is 250 million Muslims who reflect the ideas of the pew I feel if there is that large a number that believes this sort of stuff, that reflects a severe education problem and less a problem with the ideology. It starts with the household and goes all the way to the government. Im sure a lot of those folks are going with the flow when it comes to those ideas because again, they dont truly educate themselves in regards to their religion.

A lot of the folks in those less developed countries are just trying to put food on the table and stay under a roof and are less interested in learning the ins and outs of their religion. Do their prayers, read/recite/learn the Qur'an in Arabic (a large majority of Muslims don't speak/understand fluent Arabic at least learn to read/recite the Qur'an without understanding/comprehension ala me learning all the words to the Spanish song "Gauntanamera" without knowing what the hell that song even means or is talking about) without really grasping or understanding whats being said.

It's like an Evangelical just going to Joel Osteen every week and listening to him rather than opening the Bible up for himself. "I hardly read the Bible, Joel Osteen is my Bible". Overseas more often than not, folks can get away with being Imams or Scholars on Islam just by throwing a few Arabic phrases here and there. That's enough for a person to lend their ear. So if these pseudo-Imams and scholars and religious wannabe leaders start trying to police everything and hammer into peoples heads THEIR version of Islam, you're going to get a lot of stupid people or people that just go with the flow because they dont make time to learn independently or check sources and the credibility of who teaches them.

And in regards to the quote. I actually wanted to add that I think the quote actually is also a compliment to the West/America because they at a rudimentary level are upholding values that Islam stresses ie: social justice, compassion, tolerance etc. As in saying "America does Islam better than the Muslim overseas do Islam"

 

Muslims respect Jesus and Yaweh( yahia), part of the faith. If you insult them then you are not a Muslim , and you can see many Muslims around the world killed for being Muslims , China,Russia,India ,Porma endless list