Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan Thu Nov 11 LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – A Pakistani court has sentenced to death a Christian mother of five for blasphemy, the first such conviction of a woman and sparking protests from rights groups Thursday. Asia Bibi, 45, was sentenced Monday by a local court in Nankana district in Pakistan's central province Punjab, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) west of the country's cultural capital of Lahore. Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights the Muslim country's controversial laws on the subject which rights activists say encourages Islamist extremism in a nation wracked by Taliban attacks. Bibi's case dates back to June 2009 when she was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. But a group of 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 made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. The cleric went to local police, who opened an investigation. She was arrested in Ittanwalai village and prosecuted under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death penalty. Sentencing her to hang, Judge Naveed Iqbal "totally ruled out" any chance that Asia was falsely implicated and said there were "no mitigating circumstances", according to a copy of the verdict seen by AFP. Husband Ashiq Masih, 51, told AFP that he would appeal her death sentence, which needs to be upheld by the Lahore high court, the highest court in Punjab, before it can be carried out. "The case is baseless and we will file an appeal," he said. The couple have two sons and three daughters. 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. Human rights activists want the controversial legislation repealed, saying it is exploited for personal enmity and encourages Islamist extremism. "The blasphemy law is absolutely obscene and it needs to be repealed in totality," Human Rights Watch spokesman Ali Dayan Hasan told AFP. "It is primarily used against vulnerable groups that face social and political discrimination. Heading that category are religious minorities and heterodox Muslim sects," he said. Around three percent of Pakistan's population of 167 million is estimated to be non-Muslim. Last July, two Christian brothers accused of writing a blasphemous pamphlet critical of the Prophet Mohammed were shot dead outside a court in Punjab. Pastor Rashid Emmanuel, 32, and his brother Sajjad, were killed as they left a court hearing in Faisalabad city, where hundreds of Muslim protesters had demanded they be sentenced to death. Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan - Yahoo! News
muslims make me angry....whats wrong with live and let live. If i demanded death to those who didnt agree with my beliefs you'd all be dead. These people are a close minded, arrogant, war mongering, useless, moronic, fear instigating, pathetically foolish blight on the world. I only prefer most other religion's beliefs because they are the lesser of two evils. Im glad religion is becoming less mainstream. But the bitch should've been aware of the stupid laws.
this has been my opinion of the entire middle east since i was old enough to understand the socio-political spectrum of the area.
crazy terrorists and their crazy laws. we should bomb them until they have the same laws as the USA.. that or leave them alone and let them be crazy people if they choose
Incidents in the OP while tragic, unjust, and disgusting are not cautions against the Muslim faith but can be directly attributed to what happens when religion is not kept out of government. There are those in the United States that would dismiss the concept of "separation of church and state" and look for loopholes in the First Amendment that allow them to govern from a pulpit. We are not a Christian nation and in fact our founding fathers made sure that we would not become one and situations like this are exactly why. There is a lesson that we need to learn but it is not which religion is more bloodthirsty or which religion is the most capable of corruption, (because they all are) but it is only when they are allowed to be a governing force that the full impact of that damage is felt.
So when reading the article, you did not even begin to have the thought that maybe she DIDN'T blaspheme against Muslim religion? You did not think maybe the other women were just pissed that she was living life outside of their beliefs happily? Men that blow up building with bombs on their chest are not the only extremists out there.
Is God a christian? I'm not seeing the contradiction. Blasphemy can only happen when people assume they know what a god is offended by. There is no evidence of the fact that god is offend-able by water carriers. No matter what this person is, or that one, it would be wrong to kill someone as punishment, for a crime against nothing. I hope she wins her appeal.
Every founding father was some denomination of christianity or anti-clerical, which according to wiki- "Anti-clericalism in one form or another has existed through most of Christian history".
It can be said with relative certainty that none of the Founding Fathers would have supported the prosecution of anybody for blasphemy.