Asia Bibi: Pakistan court overturns blasphemy death sentence

[muriel_volestrangler]

Pakistan’s supreme court has struck down the death sentence for blasphemy handed down to Christian woman Asia Bibi, in a long-delayed, landmark decision that has seen the judiciary praised for its bravery in the face of threats of violence and protest from the country’s Islamist groups.
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The Christian farm labourer, a 47-year-old mother of four, was sentenced to hang for blasphemy in 2010. She had angered fellow Muslim farm workers by taking a sip of water from a cup she had fetched for them on a hot day. When they demanded she convert to Islam, she refused, prompting a mob to later allege that she had insulted the prophet Mohammed.
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On Wednesday morning protests were already growing across the country. TLP workers have descended outside the Punjab assembly in Lahore, while others have gathered to block roads in Karachi. More have returned to the Faizabad interchange in Islamabad, the site of a three-week long protest camp held by the party last year that crippled the capital.

The TLP chief, Afzal Qadri, said that all three judges are now liable for death.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/31/asia-bibi-verdict-pakistan-court-overturns-blasphemy-death-sentence

Things could get ugly very quickly. This was the case in which a governor was murdered just for saying "maybe we need to reform our blasphemy law" - and huge crowds (and hundreds of lawyers) said the murderer was a hero (he was, however, executed).

[MineralMan]

1. Extremism in the defense of religion is no virtue.

However, it is as common as the dirt under your feet.

There are those in the United States who would quickly institute blasphemy laws here if they gained power. The religious right would relish the idea of extreme punishment for those who reject their teachings.

This is not an issue that is limited to one religion. Christianity has punished blasphemy and even heresy with death many times. It is prominent part of that religion's history, as it is in the history of other religions. It is one of the flaws of religious belief that holds that only one religion, or even one sect of a religion, has the right answers. That has led to countless violent deaths of those who disagree.