The whole business with Asia Bibi has displayed the rank intolerance of the Extreme Muslims in Pakistan.
For a supposedly civilised country this has been an appalling display of intolerance and injustice.
What started as a minor dispute was escalated into a death sentence. Asia is a Christian and was working with in the fields Muslim women from her village. These women refused to drink from a water bucket that Asia had touched because they claimed it was now unclean. They demanded she convert to Islam and she refused. In the heated argument that followed they claimed she insulted the prophet Muhammad.
Asia was arrested under blasphemy laws and absurdly sentenced to death.
This is not the only travesty of justice. In 2009, politician Salman Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, after he spoke out in support of Ms Bibi and openly condemned Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The loathsome Qadri was celebrated as a hero!
She has now served eight years in prison before an appeals court released her.
Now we have thousands of extreme Muslims taking to the streets demanding her execution!
What is going on!! These religious extremists need locking up!! The blasphemy laws need repealing!!
No civilised country can allow this extreme violence and mob rule!! Intolerance of this nature cannot be permitted!!
It is time for Imran Khan to use the army to stamp down on this appalling extremism!
Pakistan needs to move into the 21st Century. Religious intolerance cannot be allowed to exist.
It depends on what you mean by stamp down ; do you a similar arrangement that the Chinese call re-education regarding the million or so Uighur Muslims? or perhaps arrest and imprisonment , maybe go in with guns like we have with ISIS.
It would be like asking the UK to stamp down on fundamentalist Christian sects since the Pakistani government has Islamic sensitivities.
I mean by stamping down – they should stop people advocating violence and do away with the blasphemy laws. They should lock up people who are violent.
No I’m not looking at re-education programmes.
The same thing should apply to Christian and Hindus extremists.
Religion should be a personal thing, not in State politics and neither schools – that is my view.
Calling for the death of someone for blasphemy, killing politicians or threatening people should not be tolerated.
Reblogged this on 61chrissterry and commented:
Intolerence in any religion should not be tolerated and there needs to be universal freedom of speech.
Pakistan needs to be brought into the 21st century, but also do many other countries.
Thanks for the reblog Chris. Much appreciated!
We should also have offered asylum here. It sound that we have been to lily-livered to do this.
I agree Hena!!
I agree with the general tenet of your piece but your suggestions for remedying the situation are impractical. Responding with violence would likely spark more extreme violence and other Christians in Pakistan would be targeted and killed. That is the reality. To change the situation would require a fundamental shift in education of children and that is unlikely to happen, certainly within the near future, I agree with the comment that Asia Bibi should have been offered asylum here just as Malala Yousafai was. Our government is too cautious in dealing with possible protests and it’s sentencing policy for those who advocate religious intolerance and violence is weak.
Yes – I can see that. But surely this extremism cannot be tolerated? To use education is a very sound method, but slow. Can we wait a generation or two for justice and common sense?
Yes our government is far too slow to act. She and her family should be whisked to safety right away.