A blasphemous glass of water!
June 2009; Aasia Bibi, a Christian and mother of five, was plucking berries with her muslim neighbors that she drank a glass of water and offered it to them. One of them, Maafia, said: “We cannot drink from that glass. You are a Christian, we are Muslims, and there is a vast difference between the two. We are a superior religion.”
They started to shout against her and arguments heated up ending in Aasia Bibi getting accused of committing blasphemy against Islam and Prophet Muhammad. In no time she was surrounded by a mob of people from neighborhood who gathered around amid all this fuss. The mob forced her to admit the charge by threatening her. Frightened and shocked; she did as they asked and was arrested under blasphemy charges. High Court imposed a death sentence on her and imprisoned her. She appealed in the Supreme Court which has finally acquitted her today on October 31, but we will not go into the case details.
Bibi, who is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, has remained in solitary confinement for the past eight years. On 7 October, Ashiq Masih, Bibi’s husband, rejected reports that his wife was suffering from dementia and mentioned she was “spiritually strong” and “ready and willing to die for Christ”. In February, Pope Francis met Ashiq at the Vatican, and Pakistan’s small Christian minority held fasts and prayer sessions before the verdict.
This case is also linked to that of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, who was killed by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri. The assassination took place on January 4, 2011 in Islamabad. Salman Taseer had visited Aasia Bibi in a jail in Lahore and had received her petition for mercy. He had called for the blasphemy law to be amended to prevent it from being abused. Even the minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was murdered for speaking in her favor.
As I write all this in my room from a small town in Punjab, there is a complete media blackout regarding the protests that are being carried on all over the country in the wake of this decision. Schools, colleges, markets, offices are shut down as angry mob wildly roams the streets burning and destroying everything around them. They demand the decision to be reversed, those responsible to be punished and Aasia Bibi to be hanged as soon as possible.
Khadim Rizvi, the main cleric and leader of the mob, announced that he would “paralyze the country within hours” if Bibi was freed and acolytes returned to the Faizabad interchange in Islamabad. One cleric, Afzal Qadri, said all three judges were now liable for death and called for the army to mutiny against its leaders if they supported the decision.
He said: “These three judges, according to Sharia, should be killed. If workers cannot have access to them, either their driver or security guard should kill them. General Bajwa (Army Chief) is not acceptable, Prime Minister Imran Khan is not acceptable. Such a big decision without his (Army Chief) approval cannot go through. Those generals who are Muslims, should rebel against him. PM has proved that he is a Jewish child. Khosa is that judge who martyred Hazrat Ghazi Mumtaz Hussain Qadri. At that time Ummah showed weakness. Otherwise this judge should have been killed that day. We may be jailed for this, ofcourse, we are ready to be locked up. Even if we are shot, we are ready to be shot.”
At the Itanwali mosque, Maulvi Salim predicted that Bibi would be killed if she were freed. “A passionate Muslim would reach her and kill her,” he said. Would he do the job himself? “There are good Muslims everywhere,” he responded with a shrug. “Anything can happen.”
Aasia Bibi, a poor woman, stayed in solitary confinement for eight years, and what crime did she commit? None.
How cruel and ludicrous is this situation, that instead of protesting in her favor, as she was maligned and ridiculed by the state and fundamentalists for no reason. Her life had been a joke; being imprisoned for no reason and now as she is freed, she had to fly off from this country because the state is not ready to provide security to her.
“The country will not cow down to these threats”, said the Prime Minister Khan.
What is going to happen? What does peaceful and civilized people have to do with all this? Why do they have to go through this catastrophe?
Its unimaginably absurd and painful for all those people who have to go through this madness. Such are the moderates, they are celebrating and applauding the decision to acquit her. But what about the torture? Eight years confined in prison, that too on a death row; for nothing?
Are we in Dark Ages? There is no way this could be happening in the 21st century. There is no stopping these animals.
Shall we all be safe? What will happen? When shall all this madness end? When shall we be able to live our lives freely and do whatever we want? Or shall we be stuck forever in this chaos?
These are the questions that will surely rattle and perturb every sane mind observing all this barbarity in silence and terror!
