Pakistan recently acquitted 54-year-old Christian farm worker and mother of five, Aasia Bibi, for blasphemy, a crime that called for the death penalty in that Islamic nation.She had been on death row there since 2010.
In June 2009, a quarrel ensued between Bibi, who had retrieved water for other workers during a scorching day, and two Muslim women who said they refused to drink from the same container a Christian had. The women subsequently accused Bibi of insulting Muhammad to one of the village’s mullahs. This was sufficient to get her charged by the government and sentenced to death.
Her acquittal at likely her final appeal was not exactly met with joy by her Muslim countrymen. To show their fury over the verdict (and not quite their religious tolerance for other beliefs), thousands marched in protest demanding she be immediately hanged. (Video)
At least one of the “religious scholars” in Pakistan has also called for the judges who acquitted Bibi to be killed as well according to CBS News. “Muhammad Afzal Qadri told the AP this week that he had the religious authority to declare a fatwa, or edict, demanding the judges be killed.”
She is now in hiding in the country awaiting both permission to leave and a nation that will grant her asylum.
One country that immediately stated it will not accept Bibi is Great Britain. It seems the U.K. is afraid that granting her asylum will produce violence and likely more terror attacks. The nation of Winston Churchill has cowed to the will of its (still) Muslim minority.
Clearly tolerance, compassion and courage on display around the world.
