Pakistani Woman Appeals Death Sentence For "Blasphemy"

From The Christian Post and Alliance Defense Fund:

World

Mon, Nov. 15 2010 02:48 PM EDT

Pakistani Woman Appeals Death Sentence for 'Blasphemy'

By Compass Direct News


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Text DiggFacebookStumbleUponRedditdel.ico.usYahooBuzzG-bookmarksTechnoratiNewsVineMySpaceLAHORE, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – Attorneys for a Christian mother of five sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly speaking ill of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, have filed an appeal of the verdict, they said.



Related

Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan's 'Blasphemy' Laws

Christian Pakistani Woman Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy

Christian Group Tries to Draw Int'l Attention to Persecuted Pakistani

Bowing to pressure from Muslim extremists in Pakistan, according to the Christian woman’s husband and rights groups, a district court judge handed down the stunning sentence to Asia Noreen on Monday (Nov. 8). Additional District and Sessions Judge Naveed Ahmed Chaudhary of Nankana Sahib district delivered the verdict under Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy” statute, the kind of law that a resolution before the United Nations condemning “defamation of religions” would make legitimate internationally.



Noreen is the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s widely condemned law against defaming Islam.



Noreen’s lawyer, Chaudhry Tahir Shahzad, said that among other allegations, she was accused of denying that Muhammad was a prophet.



“How can we expect a Christian to affirm a Muslim belief?” Shahzad said. He added that he and lawyer Manzoor Qadir had filed an appeal against the district sessions court’s verdict in the Lahore High Court.



Asia (alternately spelled Aasya) Noreen has been languishing in isolation in jail since June of last year after she argued with fellow field workers in Ittanwali village who were trying to pressure her into renouncing Christianity. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, told Compass that the argument began after the wife of an Ittanwali elder sent her to fetch water in Nankana Sahib district, about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Lahore in Punjab Province.



The Muslim women told Noreen that it was sacrilegious to drink water collected by a non-Muslim, he said.



“My wife only said, ‘Are we not all humans?’ when the Muslim women rebuked her for her faith,” Masih, a field laborer, told Compass by telephone. “This led to an altercation.”



The women told Muslim cleric Muhammad Salim about the June 14 incident, and he filed a case with police on June 19, 2009, according to police. On that day (June 19), Masih said, the Muslim women suddenly raised a commotion, accusing Noreen of defaming Muhammad.



“Several Muslim men working in the nearby fields reached the spot and forced their way into our house, where they tortured Asia and the children,” said Masih, who confirmed that his wife is 45 years old and that they have five children – four girls and a boy, the oldest daughter 20.



Police arrived and took his wife into custody, presumably for her own protection, he said.



“They saved Asia’s life, but then later a case was registered against her under Sections 295-B and C [blaspheming the Quran and Muhammad, respectively] at the Nankana police station on the complaint of Muhammad Salim, the local imam [prayer leader] of the village,” he said. “Asia has been convicted on false charges. We have never, ever insulted the prophet Muhammad or the Quran.”



Salim reportedly claimed that Noreen confessed to speaking derogatorily of Islam’s prophet and apologized. Under immense pressure from local Muslims, according to Masih and Sohail Johnson of Sharing Life Ministry, local judge Chaudhary ruled out the possibility that Noreen was falsely accused. In spite of repeated efforts by the Muslim women to pressure her into renouncing her faith, the judge also reportedly ruled “there were no mitigating circumstances.”

 
And this, related, from the U.S. Department of State:
 
Secretary Clinton to Release Annual Report on International Religious Freedom




Office of the Spokesman

Washington, DC



November 15, 2010



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will release the 2010 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom on Wednesday, November 17, at 1:20 p.m. in the Press Briefing Room at the U.S. Department of State.



Secretary Clinton will introduce the report and Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner will take questions.



This event will be open to credentialed members of the media.



The Annual Report on International Religious Freedom covers the legal status of religious freedom, as well as societal attitudes towards it, in almost 200 countries and territories around the world.



Preview copies of the report will be available online two hours before the event. Instructions for access to preview copies will be forthcoming.



Press should use the 23rd Street entrance of the Department of State. Media representatives may attend this event upon presentation of one of the following: (1) a U.S. Government-issued identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress, Department of Defense or Foreign Press Center), (2) a media-issued photo identification card, or (3) a letter from their employer on letterhead verifying their employment as a journalist, accompanied by an official photo identification card (driver's license, passport).





PRESS CONTACTS:

Department of State

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

Evan Owen

(202) 647-4747



Department of State

Office of Press Relations

(202) 647-2492



PRN: 2010/1641
 
 
And lastly, this, also related, from The Guardian:
 
Repeal Pakistan's blasphemy lawIf Pakistan is serious about freedom of speech its blasphemy law must go




Share239 Comments (212)

Michael Nazir-Ali The Guardian, Saturday 13 November 2010 Article historyAsia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five, is the first woman to have been convicted under Pakistan's notorious blasphemy law. But numerous Christians like her and others have been victims of it, either because they have made a comment which has been construed as critical of the prophet of Islam or as a way of settling property and business disputes. Now she has become the first person to be sentenced to death under it.



Did she blaspheme Muhammad? It seems more likely that she angered her tormentors in a theological discussion about the relative merits of Christianity and Islam. Such debates take place all the time among adherents of different faiths. Whichever it may have been, the law has created intolerable injustice for often powerless people and quite unacceptable restrictions on freedom of speech to which the state of Pakistan is committed.



In undivided India, the British had laws which were meant to prevent incitement to religious hatred (yes, that is where this approach was first tried). The penalties, however, were generally moderate and proportional to the offences. Increasing Islamisation in Pakistan has made these laws more and more draconian. Thus there is now a mandatory life sentence for desecrating the Qur'an and a mandatory death sentence for blaspheming the prophet.



We need to know urgently from our Muslim friends whether these laws are really Islamic. The different formal schools of medieval sharia were unanimous that anyone who insults the prophet is to be put to death and differ only about the method of execution. It is this unanimity which has led the federal shariat court to rule that the death penalty is mandatory and left the judges with little discretion in particular cases.



Against this, the Qur'an only threatens those who insult God or the prophet with a curse and a humiliating punishment in this life and the next. It is claimed sometimes that the execution of poets, such as Ka'ab ibn al-Ashraf, for insulting the prophet is a precedent for executing blasphemers. On the other hand, it is said that they were put to death not for blaspheming but for sedition. The Hadith also tells us that while some were punished, others were freely pardoned by Muhammad himself. The question is, which of these attitudes is to prevail in Muslim nations and communities today?



It may be that a country like Pakistan needs laws to prevent religiously aggravated hatred discrimination. Such laws would be very different from the present ones and would protect religious minorities equally with Muslims.



How can Asia Bibi and others be saved from the gallows? The blasphemy law is a bad law enacted under pressure from extremists who threaten violence if the government does anything to lessen its impact or to ameliorate the lot of those who have fallen victim to it. A bad law will always come back to haunt us and that is why our ultimate aim must be its repeal.



Pakistan is a signatory to international agreements which prohibit cruel and degrading punishment. It is time for it to honour its commitments and to stand up to extremist purveyors of hate, if it is to have a respected place in the family of nations. The international community, the UN, the Commonwealth and the EU must do everything they can to make sure this vulnerable woman does not suffer the extreme penalty and that others, like her, are not subjected to months and even years of harassment, imprisonment and anxiety as they await a final verdict on their cases.