Asia Bibi’s case shows need for interreligious dialogue in Pakistan, priest says

Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Lahore, Pakistan, Jul 28, 2015 CNA/EWTN News.- A Dominican priest in Pakistan has praised the nation’s Supreme Court for suspending the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman charged with blasphemy, and has emphasized the importance of dialogue between Muslims and Christians.

Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan.

The BBC quotes her lawyer telling reporters outside the Supreme Court: “The execution of Asia Bibi has been suspended and will remain suspended until the decision of this appeal”.

Attorney Saif-ul-Malook told Morning Star News that he had a strong case for demanding Noreen’s acquittal. Bibi denies the accusation, and has stated her accusers were acting out of a personal vendetta. “The FIR [First Information Report] against my client was registered five days after the alleged incident had taken place”. On Wednesday, the court agreed to hear her appeal.

Malook said key witnesses had not appeared during hearings by the High Court.

The Lahore judges who rejected her appeal conceded that they had based their ruling on a technicality, which they recommended be eliminated in the future to make it much more hard to achieve blasphemy convictions. All blasphemy cases should be handled by the courts in a timely fashion and people who bring allegations of blasphemy to law enforcement should not be allowed to act as judge, jury and prosecutor to resolve their personal grudges against individuals and communities.

Arrested in June 2009 after Muslim co-workers in a berry field 60 miles west of Lahore beat her when she refused to convert to Islam following a quarrel, her death sentence was announced in November 2010.

Noreen, 50, was convicted under Section 295-C of the defamation statutes for alleged derogatory comments about Muhammad, which is punishable by death.

The Pakistani Supreme Court is located in Islamabad.

Chaudhry Ghulam Mustafa, lawyer for the complainant against Noreen, opposed the petition on grounds that it had been filed too late.

The Minority Rights Group and worldwide and Sustainable Development Policy Institute said that “violent attacks against religious minorities occur against a backdrop of legal and social discrimination in nearly every aspect of their lives, including political participation, marriage and freedom of belief”, and called for increased protections for all citizens. Bibi’s family was in Rome to urge European leaders and the Vatican to put pressure on the Pakistani government to release her. Bibi has suffered numerous health problems while in prison, including intestinal bleeding, and is having trouble walking, her family has said. However, it is disappointing that the Supreme Court did not acquit Asia and order her release today.