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ANALYSIS / OPINION:
Eight years ago this month, Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian, was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to hang for blasphemy. She has spent the years since on death row. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has quashed his conviction for lack of evidence. So, this sad story ends well, is not it? Come on, you knew it would not be so simple.
Let's start in 1947, even before the birth of Mrs. Bibi, now 53 years old. British India was divided into two independent nation-states, one with a Hindu majority, the other with a Muslim majority. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, wanted the minorities in his country, including Hindus, Sikhs, Pars, Ahmadi and Christians, to enjoy full citizenship and human rights and human rights. are guaranteed.
His vision has not been realized. Less than ten years later, Pakistan has become an Islamic republic, more and more intolerant. In 1986, President Zia ul-Haq criminalized blasphemy.
Year after year, Pakistani minorities, increasingly discriminated against and persecuted, emigrate. Asia Bibi, her husband and their five children are among those who stayed. On a hot day in June 2009, while working on a farm near Lahore, Punjab province, she was invited to fetch water for a group of Muslim women.
One of the women refused to drink from the cup that she had brought them, saying that because she had been touched by a non-Muslim, she was unclean. Ms. Bibi reportedly told Muslim women that Jesus "died on the cross for the sins of humanity," and then asked, "What did your prophet Muhammad do to save the day? humanity?"
Muslim women complained to authorities who promptly arrested her for insulting Islam.
The Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer, a declared opponent of the blasphemy laws, visited him in prison and claimed that it would be a blatant injustice to execute him.
On January 4, 2011, Mr. Taseer was shot several times at close range as he was getting into his car after lunch. His killer, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadrihe, was part of the elite police unit charged with protecting him.
The killer explained to a television crew who had arrived at the scene: "I am a slave to the prophet, and blasphemy is punishable by the death penalty." Hundreds of religious expressed their support and called for a boycott of Mr. Taseer. funeral.
After Ms. Bibi's acquittal last week, violent protests erupted throughout the country. Pakistan's new prime minister, Imran Khan, a former cricket star, warned protesters not to "test the state's patience." It is not certain, however, that Khan is resisting Islamic supremacists.
His government has not yet agreed to allow Ms. Bibi to leave Pakistan, even though it is obvious that staying would be dangerous. She is currently being held in pre-trial detention in an undisclosed location. According to the Huffington Post, his "call for British asylum was rejected because his arrival in the country could cause civil unrest." If this is true, it represents a British surrender to the jihadists – not less than the thousands of people who now have British citizenship.
A modest proposal: President Trump should invite Mrs. Bibi to come to America to ask for asylum. It would be fair, moral and wise.
Fair and moral because her life is in peril because she is Christian and lives in one of the many non-free Muslim majority countries whose Christians are, in this century, "cleansed".
Wise because Mr. Trump is insulted – in my opinion unjustifiably – for refusing to open America's door to "caravans", led by a group called Peoples Without Borders, which had been heading north for 'Central America. The President believes that the United States can not integrate the tens of millions of people who – obviously, in my opinion – want to leave countries governed by despots and / or incompetents and enjoy the freedoms and opportunities offered by the United States. # 39; America.
I do not see how it is wrong or foolish to insist that the United States have immigration laws and that these laws be enforced. Certainly, American citizens have both the right and the responsibility to decide how many immigrants – "migrants" is an intentionally misleading term – that we take and who should be at the forefront. The American welfare state is not so powerful that its back can not be broken. What happens next?
Some European countries would consider offering asylum to Mrs Bibi and her family. But last month, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the conviction of an Austrian woman for "denigration of religious precepts", a sophisticated way of saying that she had insulted Muhammad (in discussing critically about her marriage to Aisha, aged 6). sea).
The court described this defamation, adding that it "exceeded the limits of an objective debate" and "could cause prejudice and jeopardize religious peace."
The Austrian woman had the choice between paying a fine of 480 euros and spending 60 days in prison. She was not sentenced to hang, as would be the case in Pakistan. I find that less than reassuring.
Clifford D. May is President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and editorial writer for the Washington Times.
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