Pakistan bishops’ commission calls for stop to abuse of blasphemy law

(November 13, 2010) The Pakistani Catholic Bishops Commission for Justice and Peace has called for the withdrawal of the country’s infamous blasphemy laws after a Catholic woman was handed the death sentence last Sunday. Peter Jacob, secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission said the death sentence is unjust, that it does not take into account how the law is being abused. A Pakistani court in Punjab on Nov 7 sentenced 37-year-old Asia Bibi to death, favouring the prosecution that she had passed derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed. She says she was forced to defend her religion after Muslim women on June 19, 2009 called her an “infidel” and Christianity a “religion of infidels” and pressurized her to embrace Islam. Bibi and her children were allegedly beaten after the incident and the woman has been in jail for the past year. “The sentence against Asia Bibi is a veritable incitement to crime. There was never any insult to Islam in the case and the judge did not take into account how the blasphemy law is being abused,” Jacob said. “We absolutely condemn this way of doing things; we call on the government to intervene and stop the law from being abused,” he added.