As I reported yesterday, taking my news from the HuffPo UK, Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian falsely convicted of blasphemy and then freed after eight years on death row in solitary confinement, appeared to have been denied asylum in the UK. The denial was reportedly based on the possibility that Bibi’s presence in the UK would cause unrest from “certain sections of the community”—almost certainly Muslims.

I found that reprehensible, but added that the news needed confirmation. I have still not been able to confirm HuffPo UK’s report, which came from the British Pakistani Christian Association. And, as reader Michael Fisher pointed out, the entire report may be “bullshit”. I’m counting on the British press to investigate this story further, and will let you know what transpires.

In the meantime, though, there’s dire (and perhaps non-fake) news about Bibi from The Independent; Pakistan may not let her leave, which means she couldn’t get asylum anywhere:

Normally a request for asylum in the UK would need ro be made after fleeing Pakistan. However, Pakistan’s government has reached a deal with Islamists to restrict Ms Bibi’s travel while the case is reviewed.

Under the terms of the deal made on Friday night, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration said it would begin legal proceedings to place Asia Bibi on the “exit control list” (ECL).

It also agreed not to oppose a petition for a review of the Supreme Court decision to free the mother-of-five, who had been on death row since 2010.

In return the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party (TLP) issued an apology for any hurt caused during three days of nationwide protests and called for its supporters to disperse.

The TLP party was constituted explicitly to punish blasphemy in Pakistan, and promoted riots throughout the country after Bibi was freed. If the TLP made a deal with the government to issue a lame apology in return for what it really wants—Bibi’s continuing presence in the country, endangering her life—that’s just as bad as the UK denying her asylum. The outraged Islamists simply want the woman dead, even though the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned her conviction.

Stay tuned.

Not long ago I wrote about the plight of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian who was sentenced to death for blasphemy after she got into a row with the Muslim women in her village. As I wrote at the time:

The details of her case show a country steeped in hatred, ignorance, and faith (some of these words might be redundant). The story started in June of 2009 (9 years ago!), when Bibi was bringing water to a group of farm workers in her village. Bibi was a Christian, a mother of four, and then 38 years old. The other workers, who were Muslim, objected to Bibi touching the bowl, and she might even have taken a sip from it.

The details of the altercation then are unclear, but Bibi was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. (As the Supreme Court just ruled, this claim was probably fabricated as a form of revenge or denigration.) She was arrested, and in December of 2010 was sentenced to hanging for that blasphemy. She would have been the first woman executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

She’s been in prison now for almost 8 years, and in solitary confinement on death row.

Bibi was recently released by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which excoriated the lower courts for relying on unreliable and vindictive witnesses. She’s apparently free to leave Pakistan, and she better get out ASAP if she wants to live, for a freed “blaspheming” Christian has a half-life of about a month in that country.

Just about as disgusting as her conviction is a new report from HuffPo UK (via the Pakistan Christian Association) that the UK has denied Bibi’s appeal for asylum in that country because it might cause “civil unrest.” I find this hard to believe, but I’ll recount what HuffPo UK says:

A Pakistani Christian woman’s appeal to Britain for asylum has been denied because her arrival in the country may stir civil unrest, HuffPost UK has been told.

. . . On Saturday her lawyer, Saif Mulook, fled Pakistan, saying he feared for his life.  Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Masih, has also released a video message saying he too fears for his family’s safety.

“I am requesting the Prime Minister of the UK help us and as far as possible grant us freedom,” he said.

But campaigners working to secure Bibi’s move abroad said the UK government had not offered her asylum, citing security concerns.

Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said two countries had made firm offers of asylum, but Britain was not one of them.

“I’ve been lead to believe that the UK government had concerns that her moving to the UK would cause security concerns and unrest among certain sections of the community and would also be a security threat to British embassies abroad which might be targeted by Islamist terrorists.

“Security concerns and unrest among certain sections of the community”ˆ! You know exactly what that means: the Pakistani Muslim sections of the community, which would continue the religious vendetta against Bibi. Those who would cause such unrest are like spoiled children and should be treated that way; their infantile tantrums should certainly not be respected by a supposedly democratic government.

This is the same country that gave Salman Rushdie police protection, and then knighted him, after he was subject to a fatwa from Iran. If this new report is true, England has shamefully neglected its duty—yes, its duty—to shelter someone subject, like Rushdie, to religious persecution, all from fear that British Muslims will cause unrest.

I can’t tell you how angry this makes me, and I’m hoping the report is untrue. The British government has been cowering in fear of Muslim anger for several years, and their cowardice is reprehensible. What kind of democracy would turn away a woman like Bibi because she’d rile up the local Muslims, and that because of a false blasphemy charge.

CNN reports that Bibi has requested asylum in the Netherlands, and I’m pretty sure she’ll get it there. That country, at least, takes requests for asylum seriously. And if this story is true, British readers should hold their government accountable for this travesty.

I’ll await further verification of what seems to be a horrible lapse in British judgement, but the Torygraph did report that Bibi’s husband asked the UK for asylum for their family.

h/t: cesar

Of all the countries I wouldn’t want to live in because of government and civil repression, the first is, of course, North Korea. The second, however, is Pakistan. Not only did they ban my website because I “offended the sentiments of Muslims”, but, as a vociferous nonbeliever (and a secular Jew), I’d be a goner.

And that was supposed to be the fate of Aasia Bibi, as this Guardian article—as well as Wikipedia—report (click on screenshot):

The details of her case show a country steeped in hatred, ignorance, and faith (some of these words might be redundant). The story started in June of 2009 (9 years ago!), when Bibi was bringing water to a group of farm workers in her village. Bibi was a Christian, a mother of four, and then 38 years old. The other workers, who were Muslim, objected to Bibi touching the bowl, and she might even have taken a sip from it.

The details of the altercation then are unclear, but Bibi was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. (As the Supreme Court just ruled, this claim was probably fabricated as a form of revenge or denigration.) She was arrested, and in December of 2010 was sentenced to hanging for that blasphemy. She would have been the first woman executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

She’s been in prison now for almost 8 years, and in solitary confinement on death row. During that time, various organizations have pressed for her release, but that only resulted in two people being assassinated. As Wikipedia reports:

The verdict, which was reached in a district court, needed to be upheld by a superior court, had received worldwide attention. Various petitions advocating for Noreen’s [this is another name of Bibi] release were created by organisations aiding persecuted Christians such as Voice of the Martyrs, including one that received 400,000 signatures, were organized to protest Noreen’s imprisonment, and Pope Benedict XVI, and later Pope Francis, publicly called for the charges against her to be dismissed.  She received less sympathy from her neighbors and Islamic religious leaders in the country, some of whom adamantly called for her to be executed. Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer were both assassinated for advocating on her behalf and opposing the blasphemy laws. Noreen’s family went into hiding after receiving death threats, some of which threatened to kill Asia if released from prison.

In 2014, the Lahore High Court upheld the death sentence, but the next year the Supreme Court suspended the death sentence pending appeals. Her hearing the next year was postponed because several judges, also threatened with assassination unless they voted the “right way” (for death, of course), refused to be present at the hearing, which was suspended. Jebus! What a country!

Yesterday, though, Bibi was finally acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court of the blasphemy charge (you can see the verdict at the link). To show you how dysfunctional that country is, here’s what happened after her acquital (from the Guardian). There was widespread rioting, hatred, and calls for various deaths. The “TLP” referred to below is, as the Guardian notes (my emphasis), the “Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a fast-growing political party dedicated solely to the punishment of blasphemy.” Double Jebus!

The court, in a three-member bench led by the chief justice, Saqib Nisar, ordered Bibi’s release on Wednesday morning in Islamabad. By the afternoon, thousands of club-wielding demonstrators had blocked highways, burned tyres and pelted police with stones in major cities including Islamabad and Karachi.

Publication of the 56-page ruling was delayed for three weeks after blasphemy campaigners promised to “paralyse” the country and kill the judges if they did not uphold Bibi’s death sentence.

. . . Justice Asif Khosa, in a verdict widely praised for its courage and rigour, noted that the two sisters who accused Bibi “had no regard for the truth” and that the claim she smeared the prophet in public was “concoction incarnate”.

“It is ironical that in the Arabic language the appellant’s name Asia means ‘sinful’,” Khosa went on, “but in the circumstances of the present case she appears to be a person, in the words of Shakespeare’s King Lear, ‘more sinned against than sinning’.”

Authorities have removed Bibi from Adiala jail, in Rawalpindi, as they seek to get her out of the country as quickly as possible. In a phone call with AFP before her release, she said: “I can’t believe what I am hearing. Will I go out now? Will they let me out, really? I just don’t know what to say, I am very happy, I can’t believe it.”

The media has been prevented from discussing the case since the verdict was reserved on 8 October and footage of the spreading protests on Wednesday was avoided by increasingly censored TV stations.

In the past 24 hours, paramilitary security forces have deployed across the capital, protecting the judges’ enclave and the diplomatic zone. About 300 police were stationed to guard the supreme court. The southern province of Sindh has imposed a 10-day ban on rallies of any kind.

Thousands of club-wielding supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a fast-growing political party dedicated solely to the punishment of blasphemy, took to the streets.

Khadim Rizvi, the TLP leader, announced he would “paralyse the country within hours” if Bibi was freed and acolytes returned to the Faizabad interchange in Islamabad, the site of a three-week-long protest camp held by the party last year that crippled the capital.

One TLP chief, Afzal Qadri, said all three judges were now liable for death and called for the army to mutiny against its leaders if they supported the decision.

Today in Pakistan, the schools are closed, the roads are deserted, and troops have been deployed throughout the country. All because a woman was acquitted of blasphemy after a false accusation, and then languished in prison for over 7 years. And in solitary confinement (there are reports that she’s become mentally unstable)! This video from the Guardian shows the loons protesting the acquittal:

So to those like John Gray and Sean Illing, who say that countries cannot survive without religion, and that religion fulfills various essential human needs, I ask, “Have you considered Islam?” Even Republicans, whipped up to a frenzy by our own loony “President,” don’t call for death in this way (though they have called for Hillary to be locked up).

Only religion or hyper-extreme political ideology can inspire this kind of lunacy. And so the New Atheists and anti-theists are right to call for religion to be mocked, denigrated, and eventually eliminated (not by force, of course!).

Of course, thanks to WordPress’s helpful censorship of this site, no Pakistani will get a chance to read this post, but they already know about the Bibi affair because their whole country is in turmoil.  And it’s just about as likely to become a sane country as is North Korea.

ADDENDUM: If you want to hear another horrifying story of someone falsely accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, but this time tortured and killed (by students!), go read about the death of Mashal Khan. He was murdered just last year.