Catholic newspaper appeals for release of Asia Bibi
December 31, 2012 - Italy’s Catholic newspaper, 'Avvenire' has launched an appeal
for the release of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Catholic woman who is in prison for over
three years, falsely accused of blasphemy. On Sunday the daily newspaper, owned by
the Italian Bishops Conference, released signatures of thousands of supporters who
joined a campaign by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, the senate president,
Renato Schifani and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini. Asia
Bibi, whose case has received global interest, including that of Pope Benedict XVI,
was sentenced to death by hanging in 2011 after spending more than a year in a Pakistani
prison. The wife and mother of 5 children is accused of making derogatory remarks
about the Prophet Muhammad by Muslim witnesses, which she has denied. Monti noted
that Islam is all for tolerance, peace and respect, and for this Pakistan has a huge
challenge before it, that of becoming again the land of the pure and of freeing Asia
Bibi, just as any Christian would do to a brother Muslim, and vice versa. Schifani
instead urged for launching an alarm against extremism and promote the commitment
of all towards a culture based respect for human rights and against discrimination
that are still there in many societies. Fini described Asia Bibi as a symbol of all
who suffer in too many parts of the world because of religious intolerance and fundamentalist
fanaticism.