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Enlarge Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images Activists of the Pakistani fundamentalist party Jamiat Talaba Islam protest last month in Karachi, carrying signs decrying blasphemers and chanting slogans against Asia Bibi, a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy. Politicians and conservative clerics are at odds over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Asia Bibi, sentenced to hang for defaming the Prophet Muhammad.
Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images Activists of the Pakistani fundamentalist party Jamiat Talaba Islam protest last month in Karachi, carrying signs decrying blasphemers and chanting slogans against Asia Bibi, a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy. Politicians and conservative clerics are at odds over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Asia Bibi, sentenced to hang for defaming the Prophet Muhammad.
It began in the summer of 2009 as a quarrel over water in a sweltering farm field in the province of Punjab. When the heated words were over, Asia Noreen Bibi was charged under the strict blasphemy laws of predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
A Christian wife and mother, the woman commonly known as Asia Bibi was convicted by a district court last month of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. The punishment is mandatory death and Asia Bibi became the first female in Pakistan to be sentenced to hang for blasphemy.
AP Asia Bibi at a prison in Sheikhupura, near Lahore, on Nov. 20. She appeared in a televised interview from her prison, tearfully denying the blasphemy charges that led to her death sentence.
Asia Bibi, a Roman Catholic, says she did not commit the crime. The case has drawn international condemnation, and Pope Benedict XVI has called for Asia Bibi's release.
But in a country where conservative religious forces are gathering strength, fundamentalists have called for her head.
At a recent protest after Friday's prayers in Rawalpindi, a small crowd of bearded men chanted: "Asia, the blasphemer: Hang her, hang her."
Such protesters who often eclipse the country's more peaceful majority views are passionate that Pakistan's blasphemy law should not be questioned let alone changed.
The leader of the demonstration, Mohammad Saleem of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Party, said: "Our country is Islamic and we are Muslims. We want justice."
Under the law, defiling the Quran merits imprisonment for life. Defaming the sacred name of Muhammad merits death. The penalties were introduced in the 1980s under the dictatorship of General Zia Al Haq, who critics say used the measures to prop up his rule using Islam.
The protesting men pledged to "protect the dignity" of the Prophet and "to sacrifice our lives for Muhammad."
No one ever convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan has been executed.
Still, the life of Asia Bibi, a mother of two and stepmother of three, is at stake. A cleric has offered 500,000 rupees — roughly $5,800 — to anyone who kills the jailed woman, who is being held in the district jail in the city of Sheikhupura. The Taliban also have threatened retribution should she be spared, yet another sign the case has become a rallying point for extremists.
Enlarge Julie McCarthy/NPR The Rev. Samson Dilawar, a Catholic priest, with Ashiq Masih, husband of Asia Bibi, and daughter Sidra at a safe house where the family agreed to be interviewed.
Julie McCarthy/NPR The Rev. Samson Dilawar, a Catholic priest, with Ashiq Masih, husband of Asia Bibi, and daughter Sidra at a safe house where the family agreed to be interviewed.
A Frightened Family
Within 24 hours of the Taliban warning, Asia Bibi's family fled their home in the Christian colony of Gloria in Sheikhupura, a 90-minute drive from Lahore.
On a recent night, Christmas carolers appeared in the darkened lanes of Gloria, an unexpected sight in a country where less than 2 percent of the population is Christian.
Community leaders helped NPR locate family members and set up an interview in a safe house with Ashiq Masih, Asia Bibi's husband.
Looking drawn, Masih, a poor kiln worker who makes bricks for a living, said that his wife and family are in grave danger.
"Even if my wife does come out [of jail], she could be killed," he said, adding that her case is not the first of its kind.
"And it's not just Christians who are targeted. Muslims have also been charged with blasphemy. Christians are easy to implicate, though. If they talk about religion, they are accused of blasphemy. If a Christian touches the Holy Quran, he is accused of a crime. And here, petty issues get twisted into accusations of blasphemy," Masih said.
Enlarge Julie McCarthy/NPR The district jail in the town of Sheikhupura, where Asia Bibi has been held since June 2009 on charges that she blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad.
Julie McCarthy/NPR The district jail in the town of Sheikhupura, where Asia Bibi has been held since June 2009 on charges that she blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad.
Disputed Evidence
Human rights groups say that the case highlights the treatment of religious minorities in Sunni Muslim-dominated Pakistan.
At trial, Asia Bibi's defense attorney called the charges a "fanciful drama" by a Muslim majority arrayed against a Christian minority.
When Asia Bibi offered her fellow farm hands water, they refused on the grounds that as a Christian she had made it impure. Both sides stoutly defended their faiths, and Asia Bibi was charged with blasphemy.
The Rev. Samson Dilawar, a parish priest who was wounded by gunmen in 1997 and saw his Catholic church burned to the ground in 2005, has been threatened by anonymous callers for assisting Asia Bibi.
He says she is not safe in prison and that the killing last year of a young Christian man accused of blasphemy in nearby Sialkot is a cautionary tale.
"That boy was killed in the jail. She can also be murdered in the jail as well. She can be killed anytime. So anything can happen," Dilawar said.
Frankly, it's up to God to decide whether I'm a Muslim or not, not some illiterate mullah to decide I'm a Muslim or not.
- Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab province
In July, two brothers who were Christian walked out of the Faisalabad courthouse facing charges of blasphemy when gunmen opened fire and killed them.
In the summer of 2009 in the town of Gojra, also in Punjab province, mobs attacked the Christian quarter, torching homes on rumors that members of the community had torn pages of the Quran. At least a half a dozen people burned to death.
Christians in Pakistan are ghettoized in the poorest housing, relegated to the most menial jobs and marginalized to the lowest socio-economic class.
Political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais says the blasphemy laws are nothing more than a "big stick" to intimidate "the other" — Christians and other religious minorities — into submission.
"And in most of the cases, it has become an instrument of personal vendettas, revenge and settling personal scores. And it is why this law needs to be revisited and re-examined," he said.
The blasphemy law has "bred intolerance in Pakistan," Rais said, for Christians, Hindus and members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect, whom Pakistan's constitution prohibits from even being called Muslims.
Enlarge Julie McCarthy/NPR Salmaan Taseer is the governor of Punjab province, where Human Rights Watch says "social persecution and legal discrimination against religious minorities has become particularly widespread." Taseer has earned the wrath of Muslim fundamentalists for defending Asia Bibi as a poor Christian woman who should never have been charged and should be pardoned. He's calling for amendments to the country's strict blasphemy laws.
Julie McCarthy/NPR Salmaan Taseer is the governor of Punjab province, where Human Rights Watch says "social persecution and legal discrimination against religious minorities has become particularly widespread." Taseer has earned the wrath of Muslim fundamentalists for defending Asia Bibi as a poor Christian woman who should never have been charged and should be pardoned. He's calling for amendments to the country's strict blasphemy laws.
Blasphemy Cases Rise
Statistics from the National Commission for Justice and Peace, a human rights organization of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, show that accusations of blasphemy are on the rise, with more than 110 people accused last year.
Punjab Gov. Salmaan Taseer helped spur what has become Pakistan's first public debate over the blasphemy law when he visited Asia Bibi in jail last month and later told President Asif Ali Zardari she deserved clemency.
The president has ordered a review of the case, but a quick resolution to this emotional debate is not at hand.
"Before this, nobody was prepared to discuss this law. It will set the mullahs at your throat. And I said that she should be pardoned, and this is a travesty and shame that a poor woman like this who hasn't the means to defend herself [against] trumped-up charges," said Taseer, who is Muslim. "And in a country where your prime minister is Muslim, your president is Muslim, you're 95 percent Muslim — what is the need for laws like this?"
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the law's repeal. A bill in parliament would shorten sentences and require a showing of criminal intent.
Such recommendations risk serious reprisals. But Lahore University of Management Sciences political scientist Rais says that wavering in the face of a fundamentalist backlash would damage Pakistan even more.
"Who is going to visit Pakistan? Who is going to invest in this country? Who is going to buy the goods produced by the Pakistanis? It hurts Pakistan in a big way," Rais said.
The Punjab's outspoken governor is resolute.
"Frankly, it's up to God to decide whether I'm a Muslim or not," Taseer said, "not some illiterate mullah to decide I'm a Muslim or not."
Iraqi Christians Flee Wave Of Targeted Violence
Enlarge Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images Iraqi Christians hoping to emigrate to France following a spate of violence against Christians across Iraq wait last month outside the French Consulate in the northern city of Irbil.
Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images Iraqi Christians hoping to emigrate to France following a spate of violence against Christians across Iraq wait last month outside the French Consulate in the northern city of Irbil.
In Iraq, a wave of attacks targeting Christians is leading to an exodus from Baghdad and other cities. Before the 2003 U.S. invasion, there were nearly 1 million Christians in the country. That number was cut in half in the past several years.
Now, with the latest violence, families are seeking refuge in northern Iraq and trying to emigrate.
The latest spate of attacks on Christians started at Our Lady of Salvation Church, a Syrian Catholic church in a mixed, middle-class neighborhood in Baghdad.
During evening mass on Oct. 31, militants climbed the walls of the church, shot scores of worshipers, took hundreds more hostage, and then detonated suicide vests when Iraqi security forces mounted a rescue attempt. In all, 58 people died.
On a recent Sunday, bullet holes and signs of a battle remain all over the church. Toward the front doors is the telltale spray of a suicide bomber: bits and pieces of hair and skin stuck to the ceiling.
Enlarge Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images Iraqi Christians inspect damage last month at the altar of Our Lady of Salvation Church, a Syrian Catholic church in central Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed the church on Oct. 31 to free dozens of hostages in an attack by al-Qaida gunmen.
Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images Iraqi Christians inspect damage last month at the altar of Our Lady of Salvation Church, a Syrian Catholic church in central Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed the church on Oct. 31 to free dozens of hostages in an attack by al-Qaida gunmen.
Iraqi police recently arrested a man who they say was the mastermind behind the attack. They say he is a top leader in the local branch of al-Qaida.
Threats Escalate
Just a few days after the church siege, homemade bombs targeted houses belonging to Christian families around Baghdad.
A mother of two, who only wants to give her name as Um Milad, or "mother of Milad," says she was just starting her day when she heard the boom.
"I woke up at 6 o'clock because I had to prepare my kid for school," she says. "And as we were in the room, suddenly all the glass were shattered. 'Are we being bombed from somewhere?' "
That somewhere turned out to be inside the family's home. Militants had sneaked in and planted a bomb. The explosion set the house on fire. The family escaped from the roof.
They were so scared, they actually sought refuge inside Our Lady of Salvation Church — the church that was attacked on Oct. 31.
Christians around Baghdad have been getting threats by text messages and envelopes with bullets inside.
Officials in France and Germany have offered asylum to a limited number of Iraqi Christians. But diplomats in Iraq say that is a dangerous game. They say singling out Christians only makes them more of a target.
What's more, they say, in a country where hundreds of people still die every month, it's not as if Christians are the only victims.
Bashar Warda is a Chaldean Catholic archbishop. He says Christians have been part of this country since the 2nd century. But, unlike other Christian leaders, he can't in good conscience encourage Christians to stay.
"Practically, I cannot guarantee anything to any family. I would ask them if they have the patience to stay, if they could travel elsewhere, just for the meantime. That's all," he says.
Seeking Safe Haven In Kurdistan
Iraqi politicians repeatedly make speeches about how the government should help the Christians. But so far little has been done.
Christians are now seeking refuge in the region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Protected by Kurdish forces, it's seen as a safe haven.
Some Kurdish and Christian officials are even calling for Christians to form their own province and to arm their own militias.
But Salem Tamo Kako, a Christian member of the Kurdish parliament, says that would be a big mistake.
"We don't want to isolate ourselves from rest of the Iraqi community, or make Christians a very easy target for the terrorists," he says.
Kako says hundreds of Christians have moved to Kurdistan in the past few weeks, and thousands more are expected to follow.
Among those who have made the trip are two sisters, who in one short week went from middle class to the edge of desperation. Before the attacks, they owned a building in Baghdad where they rented apartments to other Christians.
Their husbands worked government jobs. But then a husband and a son were caught in the church siege.
Now, says one of the sisters, who only wanted to give her first name, Ban, she is ready to leave her country for good.
"I hate being an Iraqi, because what they do to us," she says.
Without any income, the family of nine is living off savings. Ban says they have enough for two or three months, no more.
Swiping her hands together to show there is nothing between them, Ban repeats the same word over and over: finished, finished, finished.
