Asia Bibi: anti-blasphemy protests spread across Pakistan

By Dilip -
NB: What brave men the Pakistani Islamo-fascists are! They want to murder a woman labourer on mere hearsay, despite the judgement of their Supreme Court that there was no evidence to convict her of blasphemy. Not satisfied with robbing her of 9 years of her life, they want to bring their country to a standstill until they see her dead. What a wonderful example of the love of God and of justice.

 Now the government of Pakistan is vacillating over allowing her to leave her god-forsaken country. What use is an SC judgement setting her free if she is to remain in fear of her life? The spectacle of a nuclear-armed country terrorising a poor working woman in order to appease state-backed communal hooligans is pathetic. Pakistan has reduced Islam to a misogynist death-cult. DS

Thousands of Islamist protesters have brought Pakistan to a standstill, burning rickshaws, cars and lorries to protest against the acquittal of a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row on false charges of blasphemy. Traffic jams held up ambulances and forced mothers to feed their babies by the side of the road, while authorities shut schools across most of the country.

Footage from the protests shows anti-blasphemy campaigners clubbing and throwing shoes at posters of Pakistan’s chief justice and the new prime minister, Imran Khan, who on Wednesday night threatened a fierce government response if protesters did not disperse. “We are ready to sacrifice our lives for this noble cause,” one told the Guardian, “and have rejected whatever rubbish the prime minister said in his speech”.

The landmark release of Asia Bibi, a 47-year-old farm labourer, has pitched the state into the latest of several battles with supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a rabid, fast-growing political party that exists solely to punish blasphemers. Asia was charged with insulting the prophet  uhammad after she drank from a cup of water before passing it to Muslim fruit-pickers. Police have so far shied away from arresting protesters and the powerful armed forces, which often appear to align with Islamists, have yet to issue a statement, despite TLP leaders daring to call for mutiny in its ranks.

On Thursday, rightwing religious organisations, including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), a charity founded by UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed, and the Jamaat-Ulema-e-Islam, announced that they would join the TLP protest on Friday, in what could become an unmanageable conflagration... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/01/asia-bibi-anti-blasphemy-protests-spread-across-pakistan

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