Quote:There have been cases in which men have been charged, convicted, or acquitted under controversial blasphemy law that dates from 1986.

But Bibi's case was different. For a start, she was the first female non-Muslim charged.

And it sparked two successive assassinations of top government officials as well as a hanging.

Salman Taseer, was gunned down by one of his religiously inclined bodyguards in January 2011.

Why? Because he had visited Bibi in jail, sympathised with her and expressed a desire to reform the blasphemy law.

A couple of months later, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, was shot dead for making similar remarks.

These incidents put Bibi's case on the anvil of the religious lobby, with the anti-blasphemy vigilante groups vowing to draw her blood or that of the judges who would dare let her go."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46082324
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46048134

(Nov 3, 2018 08:22 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote:

Quote:Prosecutors alleged that in the row which followed, the women said Asia Bibi should convert to Islam and that she made offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in response. She was later beaten up at her home, during which her accusers say she confessed to blasphemy. She was arrested after a police investigation.

How scary. Can you imagine being in her shoes? All the people are calling for her death. They’re saying that they need to take the law into their own hands and see to it that she’s executed.