Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan 'for blasphemy'

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Alan

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Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother-of-five, denies blasphemy and told investigators that she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination.

Christian groups and human rights campaigners condemned the verdict and called for the blasphemy laws to be repealed.

Her supporters say she will now appeal against the sentence handed down in a local court in the town of Sheikhupura, near Lahore, Pakistan.

Ashiq Masih, her husband, said he had not had the heart to break the news to two of their children.

"I haven't told two of my younger daughters about the court's decision," he said. "They asked me many times about their mother but I can't get the courage to tell them that the judge has sentenced their mother to capital punishment for a crime she never committed." Mrs Bibi has been held in prison since June last year.

The court heard she had been working as a farmhand in fields with other women, when she was asked to fetch drinking water.

Some of the other women – all Muslims – refused to drink the water as it had been brought by a Christian and was therefore "unclean", according to Mrs Bibi's evidence, sparking a row.

The incident was forgotten until a few days later when Mrs Bibi said she was set upon by a mob.

The police were called and took her to a police station for her own safety.

Shahzad Kamran, of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, said: "The police were under pressure from this Muslim mob, including clerics, asking for Asia to be killed because she had spoken ill of the Prophet Mohammed.

"So after the police saved her life they then registered a blasphemy case against her." He added that she had been held in isolation for more than a year before being sentenced to death on Monday.

"The trial was clear," he said. "She was innocent and did not say those words." Earlier this year, Pakistan's internet service providers were ordered to block Facebook to prevent access to supposedly blasphemous images.

Human rights groups believe the law is often used to discriminate against religious minorities, such as the country's estimated three million Christians.

Although no one has ever been executed under Pakistan's blasphemy laws – most are freed on appeal – as many as 10 people are thought to have been murdered while on trial.

Ali Hasan Dayan, of Human Rights Watch, said the blasphemy laws were out of step with rights guaranteed under Pakistan's constitution and should be repealed.

"It's an obscene law," he said. "Essentially the blasphemy law is used as a tool of persecution and to settle other scores that are nothing to do with religion.

"It makes religious minorities particularly vulnerable because it's often used against them.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...enced-to-death-in-Pakistan-for-blasphemy.html

What next. Can the place get any more absurd :wtf:
 
A woman is being killed for an imaginary entity. How depraved and sick humans are that they murder each other for something that does not exist. We are really a terrible species for killing someone for absolutely no real reason at all. Times like this I hate religion. So pointless, so evil so murderous.
 
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w1z4rd said:
A woman is being killed for an imaginary entity. How depraved and sick humans are that they murder each other for something that does not exist. We are really a terrible species for killing someone for absolutely no real reason at all. Times like this I hate religion. So pointless, so evil so murderous.
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It was a matter of time before someone found their way out of PD to put a bit of stick in :)
 
That shows what a joke Sharia Law can be when there obviously was no way to prove her 'guilt' 'beyond reasonable doubt'. When such an emotional mob is around and they're all 'swearing the truth before Allah' about the woman's blasphemy, how can an official let her off the hook lightly without risking his own life? It's mob justice, without the justice.

To be fair, Muslim countries have always been this way. Unfortunately, if she was working as a farmhand and had a family with five children, chances are slim that she can afford to emigrate with her family.

The Muslims in that community must really be a bunch of heartless b******s for wanting a mother of five killed.


“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.”
- Steven Weinberg
 
I see in Iran they're being a bit more civil these days. That woman accused of adultery won't be stoned but hung instead.......
 
In Europe they want people to respect their faith and make demands, but in their own country they show fsckall respect towards another faith.
 
Well technically everybody that doesn't serve Allah has already committed blasphemy so we all have a death sentence. That's why Islamic terrorists feel so justified to blow everyone up even their fellow Muslims, because everybody that is not actively carrying out the death sentence on the infidel is themselves committing blasphemy and must die.

Religion at it's finest.
 
I have had enough of Religion, isn't there somewhere I can go where every person is Atheist/Logical? then the rest of the world can speak in tounges till they are blue, blow themselves up, and accuse each other of blasphemy and kill each other out completely
 
Keeper said:
I have had enough of Religion, isn't there somewhere I can go where every person is Atheist/Logical? then the rest of the world can speak in tounges till they are blue, blow themselves up, and accuse each other of blasphemy and kill each other out completely
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I have a better idea. How about we get our space program into gear, find ourselves another planet and leave all the religious extremists and nutters here on earth to have it out with each other once and for all, the armageddon they've always wanted. We'll check in from time to time, maybe do a fly bye and drop of a few crates of bullets and vodka! :D
 
grayston said:
Religion? Dude, this is just further evidence of the super-evilness of ISLAMISM!
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No, you just don't follow your bible as dedicated as the Islamic do. The Christian Bible is just as violent, if you just read it.
 
grayston said:
Religion? Dude, this is just further evidence of the super-evilness of ISLAMISM!
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Reverse in history a bit and Christianity was pretty vile.

Irrationality is irrationality. That's half the problem, one group thinking their version of faith is somehow better than another group's version.
 
Nothxkbi said:
I think to a certain extent everybody thinks they're better than someone else, we compare ourselves to others all the time intellectually, physically etc.

I'm not gonna blow my neighbours house to pieces because I find his plastic birdbath cheap and offensive LOL.
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Unfortunately, as PC as we are all told to be, some ideas are just blisteringly stupid. Faith is faith, there is no such thing as 'better or more rational faith'.

You hurt another human being on behalf of some god, I will call you a ****ing idiot to your face, because that is what you are.

I'll say again, sure extremist Islam might be a concern now, but don't forget that Christianity was burning people for being witches not too long ago, in the grand scheme of things.
 
copacetic said:
Reverse in history a bit and Christianity was pretty vile.

Irrationality is irrationality. That's half the problem, one group thinking their version of faith is somehow better than another group's version.
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Very true, but the difference is that Christianity adapted with the times.

Muslims slaughtered more than a million Hindus and various other tribes and they still follow the Quran exactly as they used to 500 years ago.

Edit: Just want to mention I am not a fan of Christianity or any other fairy tales either.
 
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