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Pakistan’s government won’t abolish blasphemy law because it “fears the reaction of extremists”

Jun 25, 2015 1:22 pm By Robert Spencer

Asia Bibi
Asia Bibi

All over the world, the principle is being reinforced: terrorism works. To get what you want, threaten violence, and the “free world” will jump to comply with your wishes.

And Archbishop Coutts’ brother bishops in the U.S. are pursuing an illusory and self-defeating “dialogue” even to the extent of silencing those voices that speak honestly about the root causes of the Muslim persecution of Christians. They are heading the Church in the West off a cliff, and will bear the responsibility for that.

“Pakistan’s ‘fear of extremists’ prevents abolition of blasphemy law,” by Felipe Avillez and Abigail Frymann Rouch, The Tablet, June 24, 2015:

The Government of Pakistan might be willing to abolish the country’s draconian blasphemy law, if it were not for the fact that it “fears the reaction of extremists”, the President of the Pakistani Bishops’ Conference said.

Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi was speaking on a trip to Portugal organised by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Archbishop Coutts by Edgar Sousa/RenascençaHe was speaking ahead of the sixth anniversary this week of the incarceration of Asia Bibi, a 44-year-old Christian mother of five, who was accused of blasphemy by her co-workers and sentenced to death in 2010. A communiqué from the British Pakistani Christian Association reported that she is now emaciated, “vomiting blood, suffering from intestinal pains and severe pain around the heart”.

Asia BibiArchbishop Coutts welcomed recently proposed modifications to the law which will require psychological testing of people accused of blasphemy, in a move which recognises the need for safeguards to prevent abuse of the law.

Coutts said Christians had long been protesting against the legislation. “The point that has finally got across is that it’s not just about the abolition of the law but the way the law is framed. We need safeguards to prevent the misuse of this law, which is what has been happening all along,” he explained.

The blasphemy law is often used to target members of minorities or to settle personal scores. Many of the accused have been considered “mentally unsound”. Nobody has been executed under the law but dozens have been lynched by mobs taking justice into their own hands, or remain imprisoned for years.

Many of those jailed following accusations of blasphemy are Muslims.

Asked if he believed Mrs Bibi will be released, Archbishop Coutts refused to speculate but stressed that “the efforts continue, and that won’t stop.”

The rise in persecution over the last decade has prompted some Christians to emigrate. “A number have already found refuge in Sri Lanka and a few hundred fled to Thailand, precisely because they see no future [in Pakistan]. But for me, we should not give up hope,” Archbishop Coutts said.

Although the persecution of Christians has increased over the past decade, some other religious minorities are worse off, such as the Ahmadis, a Muslim sect considered heretical by mainstream Islam, the archbishop said.

And in America, Ahmadis such as Qasim Rashid and Haris Zafar carry water for their oppressors, joining them in defaming and demonizing foes of jihad terror.

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Filed Under: blasphemy, Featured, Jihadist intimidation and thuggery, Muslim persecution of Christians, Pakistan Tagged With: Asia Bibi, Joseph Coutts


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Comments

  1. jihad3tracker says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 1:33 pm

    Do I smell the rotting carcass of circular reasoning in that post ?

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 25, 2015 at 6:20 pm

      Yes.

  2. Angemon says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    The original interview can be found here:

    http://rr.sapo.pt/informacao_detalhe.aspx?fid=29&did=191355

    Here’s a snippet that caught my eye:

    “Se um muçulmano o abordasse a pedir para ser baptizado, como lidaria com a situação?
    Hoje em dia, com muito cuidado, com muita cautela, porque pode ser uma armadilha. É algo que já nos aconteceu, pessoas que nos procuram nesse sentido, para causar problemas.
    (…)

    Sejamos claros. A questão da conversão é muito sensível para os muçulmanos. Quando se aprovou a lei contra a blasfémia quiserem aprovar outra, que dizia que se um muçulmano abandonasse a sua religião seria executado. Não se tornou lei, mas mostra que o pensamento está presente.”

    Translation:

    If a muslim approached you asking to be baptized, how would you handle that situation?

    Nowadays, very carefully, because it can be a trap.It has happened before, people approaching us in that sense, to cause trouble.

    (…)

    Let us be clear. The question of conversion is very sensitive for muslims. When the law against blasphemy was approved, they tried to approve another one stating that if a muslim abandoned his religion he would be executed. It didn’t became a law, but it shows that the thought is present.

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 25, 2015 at 6:58 pm

      Angemon wrote:

      Let us be clear. The question of conversion is very sensitive for muslims. When the law against blasphemy was approved, they tried to approve another one stating that if a muslim abandoned his religion he would be executed. It didn’t became a law, but it shows that the thought is present.
      ………………………………..

      Very true, Angemon. Almost two thirds of Pakistanis agree that apostates should be murdered:

      “Majorities of Muslims in Egypt and Pakistan support the death penalty for leaving Islam”

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/01/64-percent-of-muslims-in-egypt-and-pakistan-support-the-death-penalty-for-leaving-islam/

  3. mortimer says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    Safeguards will be rejected by the traditionalists as well. Because of them, no one can even get a lawyer to defend them. Lawyers are also afraid of being lynched.

  4. miriamrove says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    Lawyers are also afraid of being lynched. very true…. So you know the Iranian parliament just passed a law that any lawyer who is defending a political case must be approved by a special committee..

    Translation: They pick and choose the lawyer to be sure that the defendant goes to jail!!! M

    • deja vu says

      Jun 25, 2015 at 6:03 pm

      In Asia’s case, two men defending her and trying to get the Blasphemy Law abolished have been killed and the eldest son of the Christian minorities minister abducted, and is probably dead.

      Christian minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Pakistani MP Salmaan Taseer were both killed for advocating on Asia’s behalf and opposing the blasphemy laws. Her family have to move each night to safe houses. They have received death threats and they have voiced concerns that she could be killed by extremists if released from prison. So this really isn’t news.

      Even when Asia appeared in court the whole thing was a farce. Endless adjournments for her appeals, and the court stacked full of murderous scum eyeballing the judge. At the last appeal there was a crowd of over 1000 wild eyed fanatics armed and ready to kill her if she had been acquitted – as they’ve done before when Christians have been let off. There’s a huge price on her head. Any judge who dismissed the case and set her free would have been instantly lynched.

      Put simply, the reason for her persecution was to rid her village of the last Christian family. Gutless corrupt national governments, craven international administrations – what hope for justice has a lowly Pakistani family got against these?

  5. Michael Copeland says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 2:38 pm

    Pakistan is a failed state relying on international handouts. Even if its Parliament were to pass a law it would not be observed by the tribal people: the police would stand by and watch, then refuse to issue the needed First Information Report. That is the pattern. Time to cut down on handouts.

    • Godwin says

      Jun 25, 2015 at 4:45 pm

      Yes, it is a failed state with regular suicide bombings n attacks on the Christian minority. To compound the problem is the current heat wave that killed 700 people n counting. Perhaps, God is sending a warning to the extremists.

      • Peggy says

        Jun 26, 2015 at 12:32 am

        God works too slowly. What the west should do is issue a warning of it’s own. Make it quite clear to those countries that they will be under attack if they don’t stop killing non Muslims. I would even go furthter and get Eastern countries on board as well as India and some Asian countries like China and form a very powerful force. Seeing how Muslims say they love death they will most likely resist but then will get their wish.
        Well, this would happen in a perfect world but our governments are too far away from that and too corrupt.

  6. EYESOPEN says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    May Almighty God give Asia Bibi the strength, the courage and His grace to allow this poor woman to endure to the end – which will be a martyr’s end for this poor woman.

  7. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    Pakistan’s ‘fear of extremists’ prevents abolition of blasphemy law.

    Whoa. If the putative Unicorn Moslems running the the world’s only nuclear Islamic nation live in terror of Moslem activists, the it makes sense for us to fear them too.

    So we are hereby rebranded from Islamophobes to Islamosavants.

    I feel better already. No more shame over unreasonable, irrational and probably insane fear of Moslems.

  8. Edward says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 4:16 pm

    “Pakistan’s ‘fear of extremists’ prevents abolition of blasphemy law,”

    The penalty for ‘fear of extremist’ will be is just like a flea bite compared to God’s Retribution; “their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

    “Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

  9. Champ says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    And Archbishop Coutts’ brother bishops in the U.S. are pursuing an illusory and self-defeating “dialogue” even to the extent of silencing those voices that speak honestly about the root causes of the Muslim persecution of Christians. They are heading the Church in the West off a cliff, and will bear the responsibility for that.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Adding to the *insanity* is the pope …

    “Pope Francis suggests those in weapons industry can’t call themselves Christian”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/22/pope-francis-says-those-in-weapons-industry-cant-call-themselves-christian

  10. gravenimage says

    Jun 25, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    Pakistan’s government won’t abolish blasphemy law because it “fears the reaction of extremists”
    ……………………

    Look what they are admitting—that they are willing to go on persecuting people under an unjust law because they will be violently targeted if they do not.

    This is craven enough, but the fact is that many pious Muslims in the Pakistani government support Blasphemy laws, as well.

    As for the Archbishop’s concern that such laws will be misused, the fact is that Blasphemy laws are *always* unjust.

  11. R Cole says

    Jun 26, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    Someone should tell those extremists in Pakistan they are not Muslim – then!!

    Okay ~ not a good idea!!

    The Islamic extremists might get you?!

    ::

    Such double talk!!

    The extremists – controlled by the country’s leading imams – are in charge.

    Pakistan is the example of where we all could be heading. Here too Islam has become political – we have politicians talking about how peaceful it is – almost like clockwork – every time there is a violent incident in Islam’s name. Guy shouted Allah Akbar and then…

    If the Islamic religious ideology is questioned or criticized here – you get called a ‘racists’ – but in Pakistan – the person would be put on death row. Yet with all those controls on so-called Islamophobic speech – with the most severe penalties to ensure ‘respect’ for Islam – Pakistan has the highest number of terrorist attacks of any one country.

    That’s Islam – everybody has the god given right to attack everybody – they deem to have fallen outside of their laws.

    So to hide behind the threat of terrorism is convenient – Islam’s issues run far deeper.

    To imprison a Pakistani Christian couple – for 25 years – narrowly missing the death penalty – having been charged with not one but two blasphemy laws – for merely “touching the Koran” with unclean hands [or as unclean Christians] – cannot be blamed on terrorism – and is little different from Islamic State – in their complete disregard for the other.

    In Pakistan – they don’t just take the guy – deemed infidel – out and shoot him – they get the court to kill them.

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