| Pakistan Minister Condemns Reward for Killing Christian Woman By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter December 5, 2010 Asia with two daughters after an earlier court hearing. Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti condemned Saturday the recent announcement of a reward for killing the jailed Christian woman on death row for blasphemy. Bhatti said the call is unjust and irresponsible and should be discouraged in the strongest possible manner because no one has the right to issue a decree to kill someone else, according to Pakistan’s Daily Times newspaper. He also added that Pakistan is a civilized country and violation of the rule of law is not allowed. “Every legal and constitutional means will be adopted in the Asia Bibi case,” assured Bhatti, who was in charge of investigating the case and reported that Bibi was innocent to President Asif Ali Zadari. A hard-line imam known for making similar reward-for-murder calls in the past offered about (500,000 rupees) to anyone who kills Asia Bibi during his sermon at the largest mosque in Peshawar on Friday. Imam Maulana Yousuf Qureshi also threatened the government to not amend or repeal the blasphemy laws “which provide protection to the sanctity of Holy Prophet Muhammad,” according to Asia News. Qureshi, who had also called for the murder of the Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, said that if the appeals court judge freed Bibi then Muslim extremists will kill her. " There are hundreds of thousands of people including mujahedin (warriors) and Taliban who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the honor of the Prophet Muhammad. Anyone of them could finish her, " Qureshi said Friday, according to All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, a human rights group with which Bhatti formerly served as chairman. Bibi, a mother of five, has been imprisoned for one-and-a-half years and was sentenced in November to death by hanging for allegedly speaking ill of Muslim Prophet Muhammad. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan Source: CatholicCulture.org Natalya Mihailova 05 November 2014 Two Pakistani Christians were thrown into a brick kiln and burned to death following a blasphemy allegation. (Photo: Reuters/Mohsin Raza) The killings took place in a village near Lahore. The Fides news agency reported that Shama Bibi, 24, had burned some papers belonging to her late father-in-law. After a Muslim who witnessed the incident alleged she had burned pages of the Qur’an, a mob of over 100 people held Bibi and her husband, Shahbaz Maseeh, hostage for two days. NBC reported that the couple’s legs were broken before they were thrown into the kiln. Police have arrested 35 people in connection with the murders. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Christian couple burned alive in Pakistan Natalya Mihailova The killings took place in a village near Lahore. The Fides news agency reported that Shama Bibi, 24, had burned some papers belonging to her late father-in-law. After a Muslim who witnessed the incident alleged she had burned pages of the Qur’an, a mob of over 100 people held Bibi and her ... Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Patriarch Kirill asks Pakistani president to pardon Christian woman sentenced to death Source: TASS. Russian News Agency The Lahore High Court on September 16 upheld the death sentence a court of lower instance passed on Asia Bibi, who has long been under arrest for insulting the Islamic prophet Mohammed. Natalya Mihailova 02 November 2014 MOSCOW, November 1./TASS/. Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia, has asked the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain to pardon Christian woman Asia Bibi, sentenced to death by hanging. © ITAR-TASS/Artem Geodakyan The Lahore High Court on September 16 upheld the death sentence a court of lower instance passed on Asia Bibi, a mother of five children, who has long been under arrest for insulting the Islamic prophet Mohammed, a charge she denies. “Asia Bibi’s execution would be an irreparable loss for her family, relatives and friends, cause tremendous harm to the Muslim-Christian dialogue and might trigger a surge in tensions between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan and the world over,” Patriarch Kirill said in a message his press-service published on Friday. “I am certain that the political leaders of any modern state are expected to be aware of their responsibility for the fate of the religious minorities they are entrusted with,” Patrairch Kirill said. He pointed out that the Russian Orthodox Church was greatly worried by the latest court decision. “Our multi-million congregation is joining its voice to the chorus of calls by an enormous number of people around the world for preserving the Christian woman’s life. On behalf of all believers of the Russian Orthodox Church I am asking you, Mr. President, to pardon Asia Bibi,” Patriarch Kirill said, adding that he sincerely hoped the Pakistani president would display clemency. |
| Bibi has already spent seven years in prison waiting for the final outcome of her case. The majority of blasphemy cases in Pakistan are based on false accusations, followed by faulty investigations and trials full of errors – and it is accepted worldwide that this is what happened in Bibi’s case. The ACLJ says: “Asia’s only crime was affirming her faith in Jesus Christ. Her firm stand for her Christian faith has cost her dearly. Her case is a controversial one, with radical Islamic clerics calling for her to be hanged. “This controversy, however, does not excuse Pakistan from honoring its international and domestic legal obligations. Asia is still on death row, her fate is still uncertain, and Pakistan’s Supreme Court has yet to reschedule her hearing. In the face of this uncertainty, we are a constant — working continuously to advocate for Asia’s freedom.” Tweet Donate Share Code for blog More Than Half A Million People Sign Petition To Save Christian Mother Asia Bibi From Death Sentence Ruth Gledhill Asia Bibi " s final appeal was postponed earlier this month. In a post on its website updating the case, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the advocacy group behind the petition, says: " Several weeks ago, we sent an emergency advocacy letter to Pakistan " s Ambassador to ... Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Blasphemy Laws Continuing Cause for Concern for Christians in Pakistan Source: Premier Six months since Christian Asia Bibi fled Pakistan, after being imprisoned for ten years on blasphemy charges, reports highlight the plight of others accused of blasphemy in the country. Ruth Sax 10 December 2019 Photo by Rana Sajid Hussain/REX The reports come from multiple sources including the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF) and Humanists International. The USCIRF reports there are 80 people in Pakistan imprisoned on blasphemy charges. The latest Freedom of Thought report from Humanists International says Pakistan remains a “perennial offender” in imprisoning people for blasphemy – long after the country’s Supreme Court discredited the high-profile case against Asia Bibi. According to the report: “The authorities prosecuted a total of 1,170 blasphemy cases between 1987 and 2012, with scores of new cases every year. Civil society reports estimate that in 2017 alone at least 50 individuals were imprisoned on charges of blasphemy, with at least 17 facing possible death sentences.” Andrew Boyd from Release International, a charity supporting persecuted Christians told Premier: “Whether you’re found guilty or acquitted as Asia Bibi was, it is effectively a death sentence [being accused of blasphemy], there’s a number of different forms of it. It could be blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, it could be something that is said against Muhammad, or it could be disrespecting the Quran.” More than 70 people have been murdered following blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to Al Jazeera. In 2018 Amnesty International reported a large increase in blasphemy cases since the 1980s, claiming a total of “633 Muslims, 494 Ahmadis, 187 Christians and 21 Hindus have been accused under various provisions on offences related to religion since 1987.” |
| “After police investigated, it was revealed that Samina Riaz borrowed a copy of the Qu’ran from Khalid Khan, a nearby shopkeeper,” Masih told ICC. “When she reached home, she threw it into a water tub in the restroom. She purposely [accused] the Christian women of desecrating the Holy Book of Islam.” Riaz later admitted to piecing together the entire incident and was arrested alongside her husband. The damage, however, had already been done. According to ICC, over the past three decades, more than 1,500 individuals have been accused of committing blasphemy in Pakistan. Perhaps most notable has been the case of Asia Bibi, who spent almost a decade on death row for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad. Bibi was finally acquitted by Pakistan’s supreme court, but still remains holed up in her home country which has caused her so much suffering. Bibi has been offered asylum in Canada, but her paperwork is being delayed by Pakistani authorities while they seek to attain assurances from her that she won’t speak ill of the country upon release. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Pakistani Muslim Couple Stage Elaborate Hoax to Falsely Accuse Four Christian Women of Destroying Qu’ran Will Maule Four Christians were falsely accused of blasphemy last week in the latest religious persecution case to grip Pakistan’s embattled faith community. The four women, who were from the Farooq-e-Azam neighborhood of Karachi, were accused on Feb. 19 and then immediately attacked by an Islamic mob, who ... Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
| According to Morning Star News, foreign journalists who’d taken pictures of the destroyed church and adjoining school were pressured by the area authorities- under pressure from the army- to delete the images. The priests are currently still in prison. However, the army only acknowledged the arrest after family members and residents of the area filed missing persons reports, afraid they had been killed by the army. The army’s statement, according to the state’s news agency, said the priests will be tried in a civil court. Some four million Christians- 450,000 of whom are Catholic- are under “very high” risk of being violently persecuted by Buddhist nationalist extremists in Myanmar, according to watch groups. Asia Bibi, arrested in June 2009 in Pakistan Pope Francis greets Ashiq Mesih, Asia Bibi’s husband, in St. Peter’s Square during the Wednesday general audience on April 15, 2015. (Credit: (c) Service Photo Vatican SFV.) Aasiya Noreen, better known as Asia Bibi, has been under arrest in Pakistan and in solitary confinement for the past eight years, accused of insulting Prophet Muhammad, a crime punishable by death in the Muslim-majority country where Christians represent less than two percent of the total population of 181 million. According to Open Doors, Pakistan is the fourth most dangerous country for a Christian. Though she denies the charges which were filed against her after she drank water from a public well which enraged a group of local Muslim women who subsequently field the complaint, Bibi has been sentenced to death. Despite several international appeals , including one from emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, the mother of five was found guilty and could become the first woman to be lawfully killed for blasphemy. In 2010, Christian minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Muslim politician Salmaan Taseer were both assassinated for advocating on her behalf and opposing the blasphemy laws. Bibi’s appeal has been repeatedly postponed (the last time in Oct. 2016, when one of the three judges recused himself), and it’s unknown when the next one will be held. |
| Pakistan has made headlines in recent years due to the protracted case brought against Christian mother Asia Bibi. Bibi, who has five children, was convicted under the country’s notorious blasphemy laws over a decade ago, and was swiftly sentenced to death. However, last October Bibi was acquitted by the Supreme Court in an unprecedented ruling that gave hope to many within the marginalized faith community. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog A Staggering 11 Christians Are Killed Every Single Day for Simply Believing in Jesus Will Maule The Christian persecution we read about in Scripture and history books is not a thing of the past Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Donate Also by this author " 21.5% of Non-Christians Say Coronavirus Pandemic Has Led Them to Start Reading the Bible, Study Finds Will Maule A new study has found that some 20% of non-Christians have become interested in reading the Bible ever since the… " Christian Rohingya Refugees Attacked, Pastor and Child Kidnapped in Bangladesh Will Maule A number of Christians who had fled to neighboring Bangladesh in order to escape the ethnic violence in… |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation There is a Second ‘Asia Bibi’ On Death Row in Pakistan Source: Faithwire Will Maule 11 May 2019 MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images Though Christian mother Asia Bibi has finally been allowed to leave Pakistan, there is another woman of faith who continues to fight her death sentence for allegedly “insulting Islam.” In a case heavily resembling Bibi’s, Shagufta Kauser and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel face death by hanging for violating the same archaic blasphemy laws that left Bibi languishing in jail for a decade. Not only is Bibi’s lawyer Saif-ul Malook representing the couple, but, staggeringly, they are being held in the same cell that Bibi called home during her long, torturous years on death row. Malook has continued to protest their innocence. “They did not get a fair trial,” the courageous lawyer told Fox News . “They are innocent.” What is the case against them? The Christian couple had been living in a Church compound located in the city of Gojra along with their four children when some far-fetched allegations were made against them. According to court documents, local resident Muhammad Hussain stated that on July 18, 2013, was praying at Mosque when he received an anonymous text message that contained blasphemous content. Hussain then approached the clerics to show them the text messages. Later, it was alleged that more blasphemous were sent. Why is the case flawed? For starters, Hussain has claimed that the texts were written in English. The problem with that is both Shagufta and Shafqat are completely illiterate — they cannot read or write in their native language, let alone in English. But it gets worse. According to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), a known friend of the complainant stole the identification of Shagufta and impersonated her by buying a SIM card in her name and sending the offensive messages from the number registered to the poor Christian woman. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Pakistani court remands four suspects in horrific lynching of Christian couple Source: The Straits Times Natalya Mihailova 11 November 2014 LAHORE (AFP) - A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday remanded in custody four people accused of killing a Christian couple for alleged blasphemy, officials said. Minority Pakistani Christians protest against the Nov 4 murder of a Christian couple in Lahore on Nov 9, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP Shehzad Masih, a bonded labourer, and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi were beaten by a mob of 1,500 people then thrown on top of a lit furnace last week in a crazed reaction to rumours they had thrown pages of the Quran into the garbage. The horrific incident took place on November 4 in the tiny hamlet of Chak 59 (village 59) near the town of Kot Radha Kishan, 60km southwest of Lahore. It has sparked protests across Pakistan by Christians and outrage among rights activists. Police have arrested more than 40 suspects. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Pakistani court remands four suspects in horrific lynching of Christian couple Natalya Mihailova Shehzad Masih, a bonded labourer, and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi were beaten by a mob of 1,500 people then thrown on top of a lit furnace last week in a crazed reaction to rumours they had thrown pages of the Quran into the garbage. The horrific incident took place on November 4 in the tiny ... Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
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