Nadir
Nov 19, 2010, 10:42 AM
Well, I dunno if you guys have heard about this woman. I happened to come accross an article in a Spanish newspaper about her and I decided to inform of this as many people as possible. For those of you who dont know the story, Asia Bibi is a Christian peasant that lives on a rural area in Pakistan. She worked hardly every day on a field to provide income for her family (at the time of her arrest she lived with her husband, her mother and her five children). One day she was asked to fetch a bucket of water for the rest of her work crew. She complied, but the rest of the workers were against the decision as she was a Christian (in Pakistan most people follow Islam), and, according to local superstitions, she could "contaminate" the water by touching it. Her co-workers urged her to convert to Islam, and she refused. Her co-workers accuse her of blasphemy and insulting the prophet Muhammad and Islam (however, there is virtually no proof that she insulted neither the religion nor the prophet). Days after the argument at the field where she worked happened, her neighbours formed a mob and attacked her home, dragging her and her family outside and began to beat them. They were saved in time by the appeareance of the police, who however, started to investigate the allegations of blasphemy made by her neighbours. She was arrested, tried and condemned to the death penalty.
She has been on prison for over a year by now. If she is finally executed, she will be the first woman to have been hanged by blasphemy in her country.
What I am asking you people, basically, is to sign the international petition that several sites are posting to try and make the president of Pakistan grant her a pardon. I know that many of you may not think that petitions help in any way, but the results are there. You only have to see the case of Sakineh Mohammadi. Her execution was halted by the international pressure that Iran was receiving.
Also, I want to leave clear something, and I will only say it once. This is not a discussion thread. I dont want people here saying how Islam is "primitive", "wrong", or something that should be prohibited. Islam is in many respects (especially in its basic principles and History), very similar to Christianity and Judaism, all religions have both liberal and conservative approaches. I know several Muslim men and women, and many of them are my friends, and I respect them as the rest of my friends who are Christian, Jewish, Wiccan, Atheist or whatever. Anyway, just giving my opinion on it. But I still say this: do not discuss anything about religion or politics in this thread. Im just making this public to save a woman´s life, there is nothing more to it than that.
Here go the links to the different petitions:
http://www.christianfreedom.org/news/petion-to-free-asia-bibi/
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Your-signature-to-save-Asia-Bibi-and-Pakistan-19997.html
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/asiabibi
She has been on prison for over a year by now. If she is finally executed, she will be the first woman to have been hanged by blasphemy in her country.
What I am asking you people, basically, is to sign the international petition that several sites are posting to try and make the president of Pakistan grant her a pardon. I know that many of you may not think that petitions help in any way, but the results are there. You only have to see the case of Sakineh Mohammadi. Her execution was halted by the international pressure that Iran was receiving.
Also, I want to leave clear something, and I will only say it once. This is not a discussion thread. I dont want people here saying how Islam is "primitive", "wrong", or something that should be prohibited. Islam is in many respects (especially in its basic principles and History), very similar to Christianity and Judaism, all religions have both liberal and conservative approaches. I know several Muslim men and women, and many of them are my friends, and I respect them as the rest of my friends who are Christian, Jewish, Wiccan, Atheist or whatever. Anyway, just giving my opinion on it. But I still say this: do not discuss anything about religion or politics in this thread. Im just making this public to save a woman´s life, there is nothing more to it than that.
Here go the links to the different petitions:
http://www.christianfreedom.org/news/petion-to-free-asia-bibi/
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Your-signature-to-save-Asia-Bibi-and-Pakistan-19997.html
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/asiabibi