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Showing posts with label Muslim Rioting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Muslim Rioting. Show all posts

Friday, July 14, 2023

Intro to Shamim Mehmood Opinion of Pakistan Mobilizing Muslim Protests Over Sweden and France

Shamim Mehmood (Photo from Daily Parliament Times 3/22/21)

 

Intro by John R. Houk, Blog Editor

Opinion by Shamim Mehmood

© July 14, 2023

 

These days as an American concerned about the Globalist/Marxist path the USA has openly hurdled toward since Barack Obama gained the reins of power, I have focused on American Liberty and resisting the despotism seeping into American government and resisting the Marxist Critical Race Theory transforming America away from its Christian moral roots.

 

THERE WAS A TIME my focus was on Islam as an anti-Christian threat to the American heritage of Liberty and Christianity. During those days I focused much time on persecuted Christians in Muslim dominated nations. A huge source of information came from Shamim Mehmood – a Christian-Pakistani national. In those early days I knew him more as Shamim Masih and later (I don’t recall how) as Shamim Mahmood. I suspect much of the names are cultural thing for Christians trying to live and survive in an openly Islamic State. A few days ago, he contacted me on Telegram under the name Shamim Mehmood.

 

Shamim sent a brief journalistic opinion on how his homeland – Pakistan – is officially fomenting hostile protest of the actions on non-Muslims in France and Sweden.

 

Since many in my circles ignore the press these days recognizing it more as a propaganda mouthpiece for Globalist-Marxist transformation, I am convinced many are unaware that massive Muslim immigration to Europe has began wake up ethnic Europeans that Islam exists to force conversions or submit to the rules of Islamic Supremacy or else.

 

As such, those who demonstrate a dislike of Islam’s cultural impositions on the various European cultures of independent nations have been labeled by governments and the international press as Islamophobic racists (though I don’t fear Islam in a phobic manner, I do resist its culture as abhorrent to my Christian faith. THAT MEANS, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT I’M LABELED AN Islamophobic racist).

 

I don’t want to take too much away from Shamim’s July 10 opinion he sent to me to share, but many who think as I do and those ridiculed awakened Europeans have either read the hate in Islamic revered writings (Quran, Hadith & Sira) or have experienced the violence of Islamic Supremacism.  

 

For context on Shamim’s opinion on Pakistan government actions over occurrences in France and Sweden. France exploded into George Floyd-style rioting by Muslim youths over French Police shooting 17 year old Nahel Merzouk after fleeing in his car. If you listen to the Press and Globalist-Marxists, the shooting was the result of pervasive anti-Muslim racism in France. My guess is the shooting resulted closer to the Muslim Immigrant reputation for violence against non-Muslims. The kid may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and may have fled due to French Police beginning to become aggressive to Muslim Immigrants which are now becoming generationally indigenous. Opinions on the French situation which you might have to sift through the Left-Wing view: HERE, HERE & HERE.

 

The incident in Sweden that really chap the hide of Muslims causing massive protests and Muslim outrage – particularly in Muslim dominated nations – when a Christian from Iraq (Salwan Momika) living as a refugee in Sweden torched a Quran outside a Stockholm Mosque and actually got Swedish government permission to do so. AGAIN, you may have to sift through the Left-Wing perspective: HERE, HERE & HERE.

Salwan Momika torching Quran in Sweden 6/28/23 (Photo from Free Press Journal)

 

After the Shamim Mehmood opinion piece I’m going to share some videos relevant to Pakistan Muslim persecution of Christians which I pray enlightens readers to the hypocrisy of Muslim going nuts when they believe their faith has been blasphemed according to their so-called revered writings. The first video is a Facebook video interview I placed on my Bitchute Channel from March 2021 of Shamim describing his abduction, interrogation and torture by four Pakistani-Muslims.

 

JRH 7/14/23

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Anti-Islam Events in France & Sweden Displeases Pakistan

 

By Shamim Mehmood

Sent July 10, 2023

[All source Links are by the Blog Editor]

Sent via Telegram Message

Visit Telegram Channel SlantRight 2.0 (https://t.me/slantrigh2)

 

Pakistan officially declared to arrange protests against the anti-Islam events happening in France and Sweden in the past few days led by the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. [Blog Editor: Wikipedia Profile, Recent speech of political double-speak at Pro-CCP SCO Council Meeting – 7/4/23]

 

The state officially condemned the incident and said any anti-Islam move can't be tolerated in any shape of the freedom of speech/expression.

 

Different religious groups (some of them are called or declared militant by the government from time to time) have taken part in aggressively and have arranged protest rallies against the burning of the Quran in Sweden and France. [Blog Editor: I have not been able to locate recent Quran-burning in France. HOWEVER, Growing dislike for Muslim immigrants (some of which now can claim generational habitation) undoubted led to a police shooting resulting in the death of 17 year-old Nahel Merzouk sparked Muslim youth rioting in France a la George Floyd style. The Pakistan-government rabble rousing of its Muslim population is so full of hypocrisy since Pakistan is one of world’s biggest perpetrators of violence against its own Christian population.] The protesters raised slogans demanding the action should be taken against those involved in that incident and have expressed their anger by chanting anti-Christians' slogans and desecrating the sign of the cross at various places.

 

Reportedly, some Christians' religious leadership in Gujranwala (city of Punjab province) have been part of these rallies as well.

 

Principally I am not in favor of such actions, the reason behind that is that people living in the developed countries are neither aware nor can imagine the problems of the Christians people living in the Muslim dominated countries. And by such acts, their lives can become hell there. (A video clip can be seen in which the followers of Islam are recording their protest by desecrating the sign of the cross [Blog Editor: I attempted to locate a recent video clip of Pakistani-Muslims desecrating a Christian Cross with no luck. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist because Pakistani-Christians have experienced decades of Muslim violence over the most trivial perceptions of insults against Islam. AND it doesn’t take much to insult Islam because Islamic revered writings call for abhorrent violence against non-Muslim resistance to submission. You can do a Youtube search of your choice of wording and find decades of Muslim violence against Pakistani-Christians that had zero World mass protests against Western located Mosques or Muslim Embassies. Here is one news article example from 2005 under the title, “Christians hold open-air mass after Muslims torch churches”.]) Well, let me try to present an overview and practical steps can be taken by the state or people in large against such kind of incidents rather than this show.

 

It is to remember that the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) [Blog Editor: Of possible information Interest: OIC organization in relation to India (2/16/22); Video on OIC censorship Jihad (4:51-minutes 7/8/15) & 65 page PDF dated 6/5/15 entitled – “THE ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION’S JIHAD ON FREE SPEECH”] emergency meeting was called in and displeasure showed there as well. It can be considered that OIC members agreed and were settled-down by just issuing a statement.

 

Pakistan being an OIC member did not raise any question there though Pakistan [Pakistan to OIC 7/7/23: “Pakistan asks OIC to chalk out strategy against rising Islamophobic incidents”] can do that, but they staged protest rallies across the country and to show more love than others. Realistically it looks just formalities, because Pakistan can take some practical steps to show their love for Islam for example: Pakistan can officially call off its diplomatic relations with both European countries France and Sweden. And can demand to [not] restore its relations until they punish those individuals under blasphemy [of insulting Islam].

 

But it will not happen because Pakistan cannot face the damages taking such steps.

 

Secondly all those Pakistani [nationals] wanting to show their love for Islam, they can right away leave French and Swedish nations and move to their respective homelands. But I am sure neither state nor individuals will do so due to their personal benefits.

 

If this is not the case, should it be understood that the love and contempt of Islam is exhibited only when poor Asia Bibi  [SlantRight 2.0 & CPCR] or Sawan Masih or Zafar Masih [Blog Editor: After conducting a search on Duck Duck Go, I found a Christian Post story of the brother Zafar Masih telling the story of his sister Shazia Imran being kidnapped and gang raped then murdered by four Pakistani-Muslims: Christian woman abducted, killed for refusing to convert to Islam in Pakistan; By Morning Star News; The Christian Post; 7/4/23] [are] accused.

 

In fact, it is called hypocrisy! Isn't it?

 

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Bitchute VIDEO: INTERVIEW SHERAZ KHAN WITH SHAMIM MEHMOOD – DESCRIBES ABDUCTION, INTERROGATION & TORTURE IN PAKISTAN

Posted by SlantRight2

First Published July 14th, 2023 16:42 UTC

 

“A Pakistani Christian journalist was allegedly abducted and tortured by unidentified people in Islamabad on March 19.” The quote is from the original Facebook Video title in 2021: https://fb.watch/lNaikACTVA/

 

I’ve noticed in this interview there was polite but a little incredulity by the interviewer. You can decide. Notice in Sheraz Khan frame there is a Barack Obama photo. ANYWAY, Shamim relays his version of abduction, interrogation and torture in March 2021 in Pakistan. THANKFULLY, I’ve discovered Shamim now lives in the USA.

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Blog Editor: Below are links to a couple of posts on Shamim’s abduction by Muslims. The second post is a PDF from Persecution.org that implies a 3-month government Muslim crackdown against Christians perceived maybe embarking on breaking Pakistan’s stringent Blasphemy Laws:

 

o   Assaulted for hours after being kidnapped, Shamim Mehmood; By Staff Reporter; Daily Parliament Times; 3/22/21

 

o   Factsheet: Christian Persecution in Pakistan; Persecution.org; Quarter January 2021 PDF (8 pgs.)

 

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Bitchute VIDEO: 5 REASONS CHRISTIANS SUFFER IN PAKISTAN

Posted by SlantRight2

First Published July 13th, 2023 18:53 UTC

 

Original video from Youtube Channel Global Christian Relief (https://www.youtube.com/@globalchristianrelief/videos). Youtube video under shorts: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mvy32E7Fy_4
Date posted: 6/16/23.

 

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Blog Editor: Here is a 3 and half minute of hypocritical support for Muslims protesting the burning of their Quran in Pakistan:

 

Youtube VIDEO: Pakistan Protests Against Quran Burning Despite Sweden's U-Turn As Outrage Envelopes Muslim Nations


 
Posted by TIMES NOW

Posted on Jul 5, 2023

 

MORE DESCRIPTION

 

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Blog Editor: AND NOW the actual face of Muslims in Pakistan toward Christians displaying their FULL hypocrisy when it comes to desecration and blasphemy:

 

Youtube VIDEO: 'Forced Conversion' Row: Mob Vandalises Church, Damages Statues in Chhattisgarh | The Quint


 
Posted by The Quint

Posted on Jan 3, 2023

 

On Monday, 2 January 2023, a protest organised by a group of tribals, led by right wing leaders, in Narayanpur district over alleged ‘forced ‘conversion of members of tribal community into Christianity turned violent, leaving a church vandalised.

 

An FIR has been lodged against 40+ people, and 9 others, including BJP's Narayanpur district president Roop Sai Salam, have been arrested so far.

 

A video of the incident captured a man vandalising a statue of Virgin Mary installed on the premises of the church. Another statue of Jesus Christ was damaged in the incident, too.

 

MORE TO READ

 

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Youtube VIDEO: Christian in Pakistan Given Death Penalty Over Blasphemy as Persecution Expert Reveals Awful Details


 
Posted by CBN News

Posted on Jun 15, 2023

 

A persecution watchdog is voicing profound concern about a Pakistani man who was reportedly given the death penalty after being accused of blasphemy. David Curry, CEO of Global Christian Relief, told CBN's Faithwire "Pakistan has some of the most difficult and stringent blasphemy laws in the world."

 

He described these regulations as "vigilante-type laws" that open the door to false accusations against Christians and other groups — claims that can lead to the death penalty. "[It] allows anybody to accuse somebody else of blasphemy within the Islamic law," he said. "And the reason why it's so problematic is because of the court system and the way these are adjudicated. You have somebody who's making a claim that, in most cases, can't be substantiated."

 

Beyond that, Curry said the definition of "blasphemy" is overly broad, meaning any offense deemed problematic by the accuser is all that's needed to wage a charge. Being a Christian, alone, could spark problems for some in places like Pakistan, with false claims also being perpetuated. "Punishment in Pakistan is the death penalty, so there's no proportionality to a particular situation," he said. "Anybody can make a charge that can't be validated."

 

Curry said blasphemy charges unfold "regularly" in Pakistan. As CBN's Faithwire previously reported, the most recent case involves Noman Masih, 22, who was recently handed the death penalty by a court in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, after being found guilty of blasphemy. Listen to Curry discuss his story and blasphemy more broadly.

 

MORE TO READ

 

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Youtube VIDEO: Gravitas: The Abysmal state of Christians in Pakistan


Posted by WION

Posted on Apr 10, 2023

 

Pakistan's Christian community is increasingly coming under attack. The Pak mission at the UN is facing calls to take concrete action. Molly Gambhir reports.

 

MORE TO READ

 

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Blog Editor: AND I RAN into this Jihad Watch post as I was preparing this today:

 

Germany: Qur’an burned, thrown out window of moving vehicle outside mosque

 

By CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

July 14, 2023 9:00 AM

Jihad Watch

 

The intense reaction of multitudes across the Muslim world (including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) demonstrates the expectation that free societies can and will be pressured into conforming to Islamic blasphemy laws. Most recently, the UN Human Rights Council passed a Pakistani resolution calling for action against “hatred of religion” (a.k.a. offense to Islam). Now it’s backfiring. More specifically:

 

The resolution calls for the “review” of Western laws and calls on Western nations to “plug gaps that may ‘impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred.’”

 

Islamic leaders globally continue to condemn a Qur’an burning while turning a blind eye to the widespread persecution of Christians in Islamic countries. But how well is this strategy working, as the Muslim world and the West stand at a crossroads?

 

Many people recognize the danger of submitting to Sharia blasphemy tenets, and so the pressure that is being put on Western societies may well backfire.

Mosque-Germany

 

“Quran burnt, thrown from moving vehicle outside mosque in Germany,” Anadolu Agency, July 10, 2023:

 

Quran was burned and thrown from a moving vehicle in front of a mosque in southwestern Germany, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) confirmed Monday.

 

The incident happened in front of the Mimar Sinan Mosque in the town of Maulbronn, located in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, from a moving vehicle.

 

Osman Adıbelli, director of the mosque association, said the incident took place on the night of Saturday, July 8.

 

“After the incident, when we reviewed surveillance footage of our mosque, we saw that an object was thrown in front of the mosque from a vehicle on the main street. Around 4:45 a.m. (0245GMT), our congregation members who came for morning prayers noticed a burned Quran at the entrance of the mosque,” he explained.

 

Adıbelli said they have filed a criminal complaint over the incident and added: “Due to the reflection of the headlights of the vehicle approaching the front of the mosque we do not know the license plate number or how many individuals were involved in the attack.”…

 

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries…Content copyright Jihad Watch…


Friday, November 16, 2018

Persecuted Asia Bibi NEEDS ASYLUM after Release from Pakistan Prison


John R. Houk
© November 16, 2018


I have followed the plight of persecuted Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi for many years now. In case you haven’t heard of her, here is the simple outrageous circumstances Asia has faced for nearly a decade.

Asia Bibi (aka Aasiya Noreen) was sentenced to death because she defended Jesus to fellow Muslim laboring women angry Asia was drinking from a Muslim designated well (a description from a 2016 post):

Asia was raised in Ittan Wali, a small, rural village in the Sheikhupura District of Punjab, thirty miles outside of Lahore, and one day in 2009, she was picking berries in the sweltering heat, in a field with a group of Muslim women, who worked on the farm of Muslim landowner, Muhammad Idrees. Her family was one of only three Christian families in the village of more than 1,500 families

During this time, she was asked by some of the other women, to get some water for them from a well. On the long and dusty walk back, she took a sip of water from the vessel, and when the Muslim women discovered this they became extremely angry, and in an exchange, she told them: “Our Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for our sins.... Our Christ is alive.”

After uttering these words that she used to defend her faith against the mocking co-workers who tried to make her convert to Islam, she could never have dreamed the shocking consequences that would follow.

The Muslim women began to beat Asia. Then some men took her and locked her in a room. They announced from mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey.


“Local Christians informed the police, who took Asia into protective custody before the Muslims could carry out their plan. Christians urged the police not to file blasphemy charges, but the police claimed they had to go forward because of pressure from local Muslim leaders.”

After a lengthy trial, on Nov. 8, 2010, Asia Bibi was sentenced to death by a judge. The judge also fined Asia $1,190 (U.S.) and told her she had seven days to appeal the decision. …. (FRESH CALL FOR RELEASE OF ASIA BIBI; By Dan Wooding [Intro by John R. Houk]; SlantRight 2.0; 5/17/16)  

She language in prison for eight years not knowing if the death sentenced would be carried out, fearing for her life from prison guards & prison inmates as well as existing in squalid conditions that threatened her life. On October 31, 2018 Pakistan’s highest court finally resisted Muslim death threats and overturned her death sentence due to inconsistent evidence. BUT the Pakistan government kept Asia languishing in prison fearing Muslim bloodthirsty Muslim rioting.

Protests among bigoted Muslims wanting to hang Asia Bibi for blaspheming their false prophet became rampant anyway. Indeed, the so-called religion of peace Muslims began attacking Pakistani Christians because the government was hiding Asia Bibi from Islamic Supremacist Muslim mobs:

 

These Muslims are so mad for the blood of one poor Christian woman, who has already suffered on death row for eight years, that they are taking out their bloodlust on random Christians within the country. This is a human rights abuse of monumental proportions, but you won’t hear a word about it from the United Nations or the world “human rights” organizations. They’re too busy looking for new ways to condemn Israel.

“Report: Unable to Reach Asia Bibi, Pakistan’s Islamists Attacking Random Christians,” by Edwin Mora, Breitbart, November 12, 2018 (Unable to Reach Asia Bibi, Pakistan’s Muslims Attacking Random Christians; By Pamela Geller; Geller Report; 11/14/18)

I am finding out from the National Review that the Pakistan government has finally released Asia Bibi from prison but – so far – has kept her and her family’s location secret from the Pakistani public.

Asia Bibi and family need asylum outside of Pakistan if their survival is to prevail. The so-called tolerant Brits and EU Multiculturalist governments have refused asylum because they all have admitted so many Islamic Supremacists into their nations, THEY ALL FEAR bloody Muslim rioting!

I have discovered that Senator Rand Paul has taken up Asia Bibi and Family’s asylum cause calling on President Trump to grant asylum:

A top Republican Senator has urged US President Donald Trump to grant asylum and refugee status to Pakistani national Asia Bibi, a Christian woman recently freed from prison after her blasphemy conviction was overturned.

Bibi, a 47-year-old mother of four, was released from Multan jail earlier this month after the Supreme Court in its landmark decision acquitted her of blasphemy charges.

Senator Rand Paul said that he was worried that Bibi won’t survive and he personally took up the matter with President Trump last week.

“I’ve been fighting for them to free Asia Bibi. I’ve talked to the President about granting her asylum and refugee status here,” Paul told CNN in an interview.

A senior member from an American think-tank has also suggested that Bibi should request asylum.

“President Trump should invite Ms Bibi to come to America and request asylum. To do so would be just, moral and wise,” Clifford D May, president of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said in an op-ed in The Washington Times this week. (US Senator seeks political asylum for Asia Bibi; By PTI; The Indian Express; 11/16/18 12:44:33 pm)

Below is the National Review article that has a great update on Asia Bibi.

Further Reading:





JRH 11/16/18

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chipping in a few bucks for enjoying this Blog.
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The Lessons of the Asia Bibi Case

November 16, 2018 6:30 AM



The daughters of Asia Bibi pose with an image of their mother outside their residence in Sheikhupura, Pakistan, in 2010. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Pakistan has released the purported blasphemer against Islam. Now what nation will have the courage to grant her asylum?

Asia Bibi, the Catholic mother imprisoned in Pakistan for nine years and condemned to hang for violating that country’s strict blasphemy law, has drawn broad sympathy throughout the West. Lacking credible evidence, and despite her denials, lower courts plainly yielded to Islamist pressure in making the illiterate field hand the first Pakistani woman to be given a death sentence for insulting Islam’s prophet, Mohammed. Then on October 31, Bibi finally received justice in an acquittal by Pakistan’s supreme court. But when she was released a week later, she found that mobs were baying for her blood throughout Pakistan — and, most surprisingly, that the West held out no firm offer of a safe haven.

Islamabad has given assurances that Bibi has been taken to a secret, secure location inside Pakistan, pending a permanent place of refuge. But her escape seems stalled. The West’s response so far of passive hand-wringing while Bibi faces mortal danger indicates more than poor planning; it shows a failure to fully comprehend the deeply radicalizing effects of the blasphemy taboo within the world’s second-largest Muslim nation — and the inroads it has made in the West.

Western leaders have consistently expressed concern for Bibi during her nearly decade-long ordeal. Human-rights advocates, such as the indefatigable Lord David Alton, who just last month met personally in Pakistan with the chief justice, have vigorously championed Bibi in the British parliament. Yet when the moment of truth arrived, London quickly decided it would not give her asylum owing to security concerns. The U.K. has its own radical Islamist leaders within its million-strong Pakistani community to worry about, including Anjem Choudary, paroled last month following a terror-law conviction. Lord Alton called the British decision “craven.”

In Paris, the city hall had an enlarged photo of Bibi by its front entrance when I last visited several years ago, and France has long been discussed as a place of asylum for her. But deadly Islamist attacks against Charlie Hebdo’s editors for blasphemy, and most recently against French Jews, make asylum there unthinkable. Last week Italy and Canada revealed their engagement in “sensitive” multilateral talks on Bibi’s case, but so far neither has offered an actual legal grant of asylum. Also last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for Canada’s turning away the MS St. Louis and its 907 desperate Jewish passengers seeking refuge from German Nazis 79 years ago. Hopefully, he will apply the St. Louis lesson to throw a lifeline to Bibi.

recent appeal on Bibi’s behalf by 190 European parliamentarians demands her safe passage from Pakistan but says nothing specific about where she can go next. The European countries most welcoming to refugees — the Scandinavian states, Germany, the Netherlands — all have a recent history of Islamist rioting and murder over perceived blasphemy against Islam: by irreverent cartoons, Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s film on the treatment of women, a papal speech at Regensburg University, etc. Providing indefinite, round-the-clock security to a marked person such as Bibi would be costly, as the U.K. learned with Salman Rushdie. And Amsterdam has already had to withdraw much of its embassy staff from Pakistan this week following threats received after the nation granted asylum to Bibi’s lawyer and the Dutch politician Geert Wilders mocked the Muslim prophet on Twitter.

In a landmark blasphemy case in October, the European Court for Human Rights upheld an Austrian court’s conviction of a political activist on charges similar to Bibi’s, albeit they don’t carry the death penalty. For the sake of keeping social peace, Europe’s highest civil-rights court validated that country’s interest in criminalizing speech that “defames” the prophet Mohammed and in establishing a right to have “religious feelings protected.” The Austrian defendant had criticized the prophet as a “pedophile” for marrying a six-year-old; Bibi’s alleged insult is not disclosed, since repeating it would be deemed another act of blasphemy in Pakistan.

In truth, the anti-blasphemy movement went international several decades ago. After Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 against anyone connected with Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses, several of its editors, translators, and sellers were either attacked or murdered in Japan, the United States, Norway, and Turkey. The Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation leveraged the 2005 Danish cartoon crisis to get Europe to police speech to protect Islam. Since then, the EU has adopted hate-speech bans on anything deemed Islamophobic by anyone. (Charges in the Austria case were brought by a secular magazine, not Muslims.)

Europe is trying to placate the Islamists by giving in on the blasphemy issue, but Bibi’s experience is a case study on how legitimizing religious speech taboos only fans the flames.

Bibi was arrested in 2009 after she triggered a dispute with Muslim women when she, an “infidel,” took a sip of water from a communal cup while harvesting a hot field. The Muslim women accused Bibi of blaspheming their prophet during the course of this heated exchange. At trial, the Muslim berry pickers gave conflicting testimony and were manipulated by a local imam — facts that were overlooked by the trial court and Bibi’s devastatingly inexperienced trial attorney but would be determinative for the supreme court. In 2010, Bibi was convicted and sentenced under section 295-C of the 1986 blasphemy law. For her own protection, she was confined in an isolation cell, where she cooked her own food to avoid poisoning.

With the blasphemy law already infamous as an oppressive tool for settling personal scores against Christians and other minorities, Asia Bibi attracted the sympathy of Punjab’s governor, Salman Taseer, and Pakistan’s minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti. Both were assassinated in 2011. The murder of Bhatti, a Christian, occurred with impunity, while Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of the Muslim governor, was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death, whereupon he became lionized as a martyr for the faith.

Qadri’s fans include a large part of the Pakistani lawyers’ association, whose members, in their trademark black suits, showered rose petals on him as he entered the courthouse. They volunteered by the hundred to defend him pro bono. In 2008, this same lawyers’ association was enthusiastically cited by the New York Times as a hopeful sign for upholding Pakistan’s “liberal tradition,” and as “perhaps the most consequential outpouring of liberal, democratic energy in the Islamic world in recent years.” But as lawyers rallied around the blasphemy issue, it became deeply illiberal. Saiful Mulook, one of the last of the true liberals, who represented Bibi in her appeal, had to flee for his life last week and go to the Netherlands.

Another figure inspired by Qadri is hardline cleric Khadim Rizvi, who organized Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a burgeoning political party centered on fighting blasphemy against Islam. Last week TLP incited massive protests against Bibi in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, paralyzing key transportation routes. To restore order, the government blocked cellphone service and social media throughout the country for three days. Prime Minister Imran Khan also reportedly gave Rizvi a chance to appeal the supreme court’s decision to release Bibi and promised to block her from leaving the country. Meanwhile, Rizvi has been calling for the murder of the judges, It’s not clear what the prime minister will do if Bibi gets an actual visa and promise of asylum from the United States, for example. So far he hasn’t had to cross that bridge.

Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Massih, told me two and a half years ago, after a conference — held in New York and sponsored by the Holy See — on persecution that Pakistan’s supreme court wanted to release his wife but, concerned about anti-blasphemy rioting, was waiting “until things cooled down.” The court, tired of waiting, finally released Bibi last week, and Pakistan’s ensuing descent into radicalism, wholly separate from the Taliban, has been on full display. Asia Bibi is the litmus test of whether the United States and the rest of the West are really willing to defend persecuted religious minorities around the world.

NINA SHEA — Nina Shea is the director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and a co-author of Silenced, How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (Oxford University Press, 2011).
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Persecuted Asia Bibi NEEDS ASYLUM after Release from Pakistan Prison
John R. Houk
© November 16, 2018
________________
The Lessons of the Asia Bibi Case




Friday, March 28, 2014

Blasphemy Law in Pakistan Slaughtered another Accused

Sawan-Masih-accused-of-Blasphemy
Sawan Masih – Framed for Breaking Blasphemy Law

Here is Shamim Masih with another report of Muslims persecuting Christians by using Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws to manipulate a Muslim hidden agenda.

JRH 3/28/14
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Blasphemy Law in Pakistan Slaughtered another Accused

By Shamim Masih
Sent: 3/27/2014 12:30 PM

ISLAMABAD: During the tenure of Pakistan Muslim League (N), Joseph Colony was the second incident [Muslims attacking Christians] in the province Punjab. Earlier a Christian colony in Gojra was set in ablaze and a family was burnt alive. In Joseph Colony, there were no casualties in the Christian community during this incident but around 200 house dwellings, two churches and many shops were burnt including found Holy Bible and Holy books belonging to Christians.

The blasphemy suspect was identified as Sawan Masih 26 years of age. Police took him into custody and placed him on judicial remand. After a year of the case trial, Sawan Masih is reportedly been given the death sentence by the trial judge. What about those who burnt Bibles and holy Books of the Christians?

On March 09, 2013, a highly charged mob of a few thousand Muslims set ablaze around the 200 houses, shops and two churches of this more than 50 years old locality over the allegation of blasphemy against Sawan Masih. The violent mob, locals say, asked the Christian community to hand over the accused to them or get ready for the consequences. The mob burned their houses after looting all [the Christians’] valuables from almost every house, they said.

The Government has given reasonable financial compensation, but the scars are still there. Now Sawan Masih becomes another victim of the blasphemy law in the country.

Actually Sawan Masih (accused) [Blog Editor: Initial Shamim report] and Shahid Imran (complainant) were friends for the last ten years and the complainant used to run his stall in front of the colony. The residents claimed that local influential traders wanted to vacate the colony and turned it into godams (stores) to expand their business.

Furrakh H Saif, chief of World Vision in Progress (WVIP) considers it a kangaroo justice with the victims of blasphemy law. He said that judges are biased and are under pressure from Islamists. In its routine order, they will soon award death sentences to Shagufta with her husband Shafaqat and Pastor Adnan, he added.   

Be Blessed,
Shamim Masih
_____________________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Brackets edited content by Editor

© Shamim Masih
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Secretary General of Information

Shamim Masih’s Donate/Support info:

Editor: For Americans especially, I have discovered the best way to donate to Shamim Masih is via Western Union sending to a Western Union agent in Islamabad.

FOR USD TRANSFER.
Intermediary Bank:
                        MASHREQ BANK, NEW YORK
Intermediary Bank SWIFT BIC:
        MSHQUS33
Beneficiary Bank:
                        JS BANK LIMITED
Beneficiary Bank SWIFT BIC:
                JSBLPKKA
Bank A/c # at Intermediary bank:
        70008227
Title Of a/c
                               Shamim Masih
Beneficiary Account Number:
             
  405527
Top of Form
IBAN #                                        pk80jsbl9530000000405227


FOR GBP TRANSFER.
Intermediary Bank:
                        MASHREQ BANK, LONDON
Intermediary Bank SWIFT BIC:
        MSHQGB2L
Beneficiary Bank:
                        JS BANK LIMITED
Beneficiary Bank SWIFT BIC:
                JSBLPKKA
Bank A/c # at Intermediary bank:
        00010855
Title Of a/c
                               Shamim Masih
Beneficiary Account Number:
                405527
IBAN #
                                       pk80jsbl9530000000405227



FOR EURO TRANSFER.
Intermediary Bank:
                        MASHREQ BANK, LONDON
Intermediary Bank SWIFT BIC:
        MSHQGB2L
Beneficiary Bank:
                        JS BANK LIMITED
Beneficiary Bank SWIFT BIC:
                JSBLPKKA
Bank A/c # at Intermediary bank:
        10847
Title Of a/c
                               Shamim Masih
Beneficiary Account Number:
                405527
IBAN #
                                       pk80jsbl9530000000405227 Bottom of Form