A Christian woman in Pakistan has been sentenced to death by hanging for presumably making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. We’re talking about Mohammed here, who’s been dead for 1400 years! Obviously this can only occur in a country governed by Muslims, who collectively are without question the most ignorant and backward religious group on the planet. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – A Pakistani cabinet minister on Thursday called for a thorough re-investigation and fair appeal for a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy after the Pope called for her release.
On November 8 Asia Bibi was sentenced to hang in Pakistan’s central province of Punjab after being accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed in 2009.
She has filed an appeal at Lahore high court, the top court in Punjab.
“We have requested the Punjab government that the trial should be fair in the high court. She must also be provided security in jail,” said Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti.
Asia’s supporters say the case is baseless and that her first trial “was not heard properly,” Bhatti told AFP.
“We have, therefore, asked the Punjab government that the case be reinvestigated properly.”
Pope Benedict XVI this week called for her release and said Christians in Pakistan were “often victims of violence and discrimination.”
“I feel close to Asia Bibi and her family and I ask that she be released as soon as possible,” he said on Wednesday.
Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights a controversial law which rights activists say encourages Islamist extremism in a Muslim country on the front line of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he was told during a visit to Islamabad last week that Pakistan was committed to changing the blasphemy law and has promised to join the fight to save Asia.
Asia’s lawyer said the appeal had been filed. Neither he nor her husband, Ashiq Masih, said there had been any contact from the government.
“The Lahore high court will take up the case. It can order a fresh inquiry, a fresh trial or a fresh investigation,” lawyer S.K. Chaudhry told AFP.
“We will move a bail application for Asia next week and we hope the court will grant her bail,” Chaudhry said.
In June 2009, Asia was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. But Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl.
A few days later the women went to a local cleric and alleged that Asia made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.
She was arrested in Ittanwalai village and prosecuted under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death penalty.
Rights activists and minority pressure groups said it was the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistan for blasphemy, although a Muslim couple were jailed for life last year.
Only around three percent of Pakistan’s population of 167 million is estimated to be non-Muslim.
