Sydney, Australia: A Call To Rally For Asia Bibi, Victim of Muslim Pakistan’s Sharia-Based "Blasphemy" Law

At 11 am on Saturday 8th October 2016 there will be a rally in Sydney, Australia, on behalf of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi who has been falsely accused, mistreated, arrested, subjected to a travesty of a “trial” and condemned to death in conformity with Muslim Pakistan’s sharia-based ‘Blasphemy’ law that forbids all criticism of Islam.  For seven years she has sat on death row in a prison in Pakistan, as appeal after appeal is made and rejected, while mobs of Muslims bay for her blood.   

It is to be hoped that many Australian readers of this blog who reside in or near Sydney may be able to join the rally and stand up in defiance of the oppressive sharia of Islam and in defence of freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.  The more people attend, the better.  This is a chance to get out on the street, stand up, and be counted.  (Letters in support of Asia Bibi, written to the Australian Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, and to your local member, urging that Australia use whatever influence it has and apply pressure to Pakistan on behalf of this innocent Christian woman who is being savagely persecuted – and on behalf of the many other mostly-non-Muslim victims of Pakistani’s evil blasphemy ‘law’ – would also be of assistance.) 

All details as per the British Pakistani Christian Association who have organised this rally in conjunction with friends in Australia.  Here is the link for their press release, which I reproduce below.

http://www.britishpakistanichristians.org/blog/blasphemy-accused-pakistani-christian-womans-plight-triggers-demonstration-in-australia

“Blasphemy Accused Pakistani Christian Woman’s Plight Triggers Demonstration in Australia”.

FREE ASIA BIBI AND ANTI-SHARIA-LAW RALLY  SATURDAY 8th OCTOBER 2016

“The plight of a Pakistani Christian mother of five who has been jailed for seven years under the notorious blasphemy law of Pakistan has led to a demonstration in Sydney, Australia.

‘The demonstration coincides with the start of a [Pakistani] Supreme Court Appeal against the blasphemy charge laid against her.

‘The rally will start at 11 am on the steps of the Parliament House of New South Wales at 6 Macquarie St, Sydney.

‘A petition will be presented to the Pakistani Consulate at 109 Pitt St, Sydney, at 12.30 pm – a short walk from the Parliament House.

‘We ask Australians to step up and involve themselves in the campaign to save Asia Bibi from the Blasphemy Death Sentence and oppose Sharia Law in Australia.

‘This [that is, the imprisonment and sentencing to death of Asia Bibi on a charge of ‘blasphemy’, because she refused to convert to Islam and stated that she preferred Jesus to Mohammed – CM] is REAL Sharia Law in action.

‘Protesters are calling for the Australian Government to intervene on behalf of Asia Bibi, who they say was falsely accused of denigrating the Islamic prophet Muhammed.

‘They seek diplomatic engagement between the Australian Government and Pakistani Government, to ensure that Asia has a fair trial and that her family, the judiciary, and legal team representing her are fully protected from any violence from hard-line Muslims in Pakistan.

Not ‘hard-line’.  Just… Muslims.  – CM

‘Demonstrators are also demanding that the Australian Government ensures that the principle of “one law for all” is maintained in their country.  The preservation of the democratic nature of Australia as a nation and the condemnation of Islamic Sharia Law for its imposition on the freedom and equality of adherents and non-Muslims, wherever Sharia is observed.

This is poorly worded: what is meant is that, wherever Sharia is observed, there is discrimination (often very severe) against non-Muslims, in favour of Muslims; whilst Muslims themselves are also subjected to limitations on freedom of speech and have no freedom to leave Islam, should they wish to do so. – CM

‘A letter with these aims is to be submitted to parliamentarians based at the Parliament House of New South Wales.  The letter will also call for the Australian Government to reconsider the forty-seven million dollars in aid that is given to Pakistan.  With a desire that the aid be terminated unless Pakistan significantly improves its poor human rights record.

‘Poor” is an understatement.  Muslim Pakistan’s human rights record is atrocious.  Speaking as an Australian, I fully concur with the idea that Australian ‘aid’ to ungrateful and treacherous Muslim Pakistan should be terminated. All Muslim immigration from Pakistan to Australia should also henceforward be quietly terminated.  And I’d throw in a cricket boycott, for good measure. – CM

‘Australian Justice of the Peace Michael Andjelkovic said: “This case demonstrates the cruelty, inequality and divisiveness of the Blasphemy Law under Islamic sharia law towards non-Muslims, and is something that we do not want in Australia.”

Hear, hear! – CM

‘During the protest Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, will lead a delegation to the Pakistan Consualte in Sydney, where a petition calling for freedom for Asia Bibi will be submitted.  The electronic petition can be signed by clicking here [see link provided in original].

‘Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said:

“Asia Bibi has suffered the ignominy of seven years of imprisonment on trumped-up charges because her faith was offensive to Muslims.

“People of good conscience everywhere have demanded justice for Asia, moved by the plight of an innocent mother of five.

“Pakistan’s government have failed in their duty to Asia and the Christian minority amongst them as a whole, their failure has been a blight on Pakistan’s already tarnished reputation.

“Please pray that this appeal is expedited, and that the judge is able to reach a rational verdict, based on evidence heard without any duress.”

Pray for a miracle.  Pray for the moving of mountains. – CM

‘He added:

“Major donors such as the UK and the USA are starting to use aid as leverage for better human rights, and as a major donor to Pakistan ($47 million) Australia can have a significant role to play.

Yes.  We should use every bit of leverage we possess. Me, I do what I can; I absolutely refuse to buy anything that is identified as ‘product of Pakistan’. – CM

“Australia’s official policy involves tackling poverty by generating sustainable growth and employment, as well as focusing on education and health, all worthy goals.  Some of the poorest Pakistani citizens are Christians, and unfortunately they are typical kept there (in the place of degradation, humiliation and constant fear and peril assigned to them by Islam – CM) by a combination of debt slavery and direct and systematic religious oppression (all of it prescribed and sacralised by the foundation texts of Islam – CM) frequently including systematic sex slavery and targeting of Christian (and also of Hindu and Sikh – CM) girls and women for kidnap, rape, forced conversion and marriage.

“Marriage”. It is not marriage when an underaged girl, or an engaged or even married woman, is seized in broad daylight by a gang of Muslims, and raped, and brutalised, and terrorised, and then kept as a possession of the right hand (as per Quranic definition) by some vicious Mohammedan thug who thinks that non-Muslim females are his lawful prey.  And the entire police force and judiciary and government of Muslim Pakistan sees nothing, nothing, nothing at all untoward about this.  Non-Muslim females are – if the Muslim can get away with snatching and sexually abusing them – spoils of war. They are there to be used and abused, without compunction, without pity, and indeed often with deliberately destructive sadism. – CM

“Australia simply must use their aid budget to remove this social disparity”.

Let’s be blunt: to punish hideous Islamic Pakistan for its cruelty and injustice. – CM

‘Wilson Chowdhry will be meeting with MP Andrew Hastie during his ten-day trip, and hopes to discuss a review of Australia’s current risk profile for Pakistani Christians.  He will be calling for a new policy that confers Pakistani Christian asylum seekers with special status due to a high risk.

Yes.  NO Muslim immigrants, tourists, ‘students’, ‘businesspeople’ or ‘asylum seekers’ or ‘refugees’ from ghastly Islamic Pakistan should be admitted into Australia. Not even one. But there should be an open door for bona fide Christians, Hindus and Sikhs who wish to flee from Pakistan, so long as they can be vouched for by bodies such as the BPCA and Barnabas Fund. – CM

‘Asia Bibi is a Christian mum-of-five sentenced to death by hanging and currently on death row in a Pakistani prison.

‘Her crime?  She had been picking berries for paid work in the village of Itan Wali, Punjab, in June 2009.

‘Then she offered water to a fellow human being after drinking at a rural well – without realizing that followers of Christ were not allowed to relieve their thirst there, only Muslims.  The harsh social norms of Pakistani culture (suffused with Islam – CM) means that Christians are untouchables – the lowest.

‘Many Muslims in the country believe, to put it crudely, that members of churches are akin to dogs. Christians are seen as a mat upon which you can wipe your feet…

‘She (Asia Bibi) suddenly found herself in a heated discussion with local Muslim women who made fun of Christianity, on that fateful day when she fetched water.

‘Asia, defending her beliefs, asked, “Jesus died on the cross for us, but what has Mohammed done for you?”

‘This simple statement caused a frenzy among her Muslim co-workers.  They instantly called her pro-Christian comments “blasphemy!” although she had every right to discuss her faith under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Pakistan is a signatory.

‘The horrifying result was that Asia was brutally beaten and raped.  Her two daughters, one with special needs, were also abused by the mob, and some reports suggest sexual assault was involved.

‘Her husband and five children are now in hiding while she waits to be executed.  An appeal was refused in October 2014, and Asia is vulnerable to attacks inside the remote prison – even though a death sentence is still levied against her.  In spite of all she faces, Asia has stayed true to her Christian faith.

‘Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law is an ever-present weapon of discrimination, which looms over Christians (and all other non-Muslims, particularly – CM) in Pakistan.  This is a law that we at the British Pakistani Christian Association have constantly condemned because a significant reform, or abrogation, is desperately needed.

‘As in the case of Asia Bibi, blasphemy charges are laid with flimsy evidence simply on the account of a Muslim witness against a non-Muslim (it is more complicated with Muslim-to-Muslim charges).

This is sharia. This is Islam, plain and simple; the word of a Muslim always trumps that of a non-Muslim, and the most vicious and outrageous lies can be ginned up in order to harm or kill a non-Muslim. – CM

‘Some 50 percent of blasphemy charges are made against Muslims in blasphemy cases [in Pakistan – CM] and the other 50 percent are levied against non-Muslims, who make up only 5 percent of the population.

‘These facts show the unbalanced hatred (which arises from the core of Islam – CM) meted towards minority faiths.  

‘Christians make up just 1.6 percent of the overall population and yet 15 percent of blasphemy charges are laid against followers of Christ.  

‘Recent figures indicate that this percentage is set to grow.”

In the 1970s a very erudite Indophile and scholar, David McCutchion, described Pakistan thus: “Pakistan should never have existed… What should I think of a culture that burns down the British Council Library in Lahore because an English publisher printed a picture of Mahomet?  Fanaticism plus Machiavellianism plus brutality equals Islamic Pakistan.”  The case of Asia Bibi is one more illustration of that deplorable combination… the fruits of Islam, Islam, Islam.  It is time, and past time, that Islamic Pakistan ceased to receive even one cent in ‘aid’ – “aid'” that is most probably construed, by Pakistan, as either jizya or as tribute – from Australia or from any other non-Islamic country. – CM