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Will This Christian Woman Hang for Taking a Sip of Water?

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It was June 14, 2009. A Sunday. It was hot and falsa berry season was in full swing. Asia Bibi decided to pick berries in a local field in exchange for 250 rupees — enough to buy flour to feed her family for a week, she recorded in a memoir about her ordeal.

It was backbreaking work, and when Asia took a sip of water from a well, the women she was laboring with refused to drink from the same source. Asia is a Christian, and the Muslim women insisted that the well was unclean after she drank from it.

An argument ensued, and the women accused Asia of blasphemy against the Islamic prophet Muhammad — an umbrella charge in Pakistan under which anyone can be accused of crime. Asia has consistently maintained her innocence.

A trial was held, and Asia was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to hang in 2010. There have been appeals through the years, but the judgment stood. In the meantime, Asia has been kept in solitary confinement in a cell so small her arms can span wall to wall.

Thursday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan will make a final ruling on Asia’s execution. Her torturous, nearly seven-year purgatory will finally come to an end. But will her life?

The German Deutsche Welle reports that “[l]egally, the judges have very little room under the blasphemy law to overturn their 2010 decision” to execute Asia, and that the “issue is no longer only religious; it is a sensitive political matter now.”

Two prominent, politically-connected men in Pakistan have been murdered for speaking publicly in defense of Asia —Salman Tasser (the former governor of Punjab and a Muslim) and Shahbaz Bhatti (former minority affairs minister, who served as the sole Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet). And a mullah previously put forth a reward for Asia’s murder.

There are voices all over the world — from Pope Francis to the European Parliament to hundreds of thousands of people in the online community — pleading with Pakistan’s government to spare Asia’s life and allow her to go back to her husband and five children. The mayor of Paris even offered refuge for her and the family.

Congressman Joe Pitts, R-Penn. (F, 52%) introduced a resolution to make the State Department prioritize the repeal of global blasphemy laws, noting that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt sanction “particularly severe violations of religious freedom[.]” It never was brought up for a vote on the House floor.

Perhaps intense global pressure could sway the minds of Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Perhaps the justices fear the potentially deadly repercussions for freeing a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.

If the 2010 judgment holds and Asia Bibi is hanged, she will be the first person executed by the Pakistani government for blasphemy laws.

As people around the world await to hear Asia Bibi’s fate, the least we can do is offer up a prayer for her and her family. As Asia tells the world in her memoir:

“I’m asking you for help. Please don’t forget about me. I need you.” (For more from the author of “Will This Christian Woman Hang for Taking a Sip of Water?” please click HERE)

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Islamist “Justice”: Slow Painful Death for Christian Mother in Pakistan

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Pakistan’s authorities appear to have found a solution to at least one of their problems in the international arena: Aasiya Noreen — or “Asia Bibi” — a 50-year-old Christian woman and mother of five, who has been on death row for six years for allegedly insulting Muhammad.

Instead of executing Asia Bibi and further advertising to the international community that theirs is a savage and backwards nation — and instead of releasing her and provoking millions of angry Muslims to turn on the government and accuse it of supporting “apostasy” — Pakistan’s authorities appear to be letting time, wretched conditions, severe maltreatment, and beatings slowly kill her.

Recent reports state that she is deathly ill and “so weak she could hardly walk.” Mission Network News says that Asia Bibi has “internal bleeding, abdominal pain, and is vomiting blood. If she does not receive immediate medical care, she could die.”

According to Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International, “She suffers terrible pain, and she can hardly eat. … Here’s this woman, languishing in a prison under this death sentence for a crime that she vehemently denies.”

In June 2009, while working as a farm laborer on a hot day, Asia Bibi was told to fetch water. Because she had drunk some of the water, the Muslim workers refused it: both the cup and the water were, they said, unclean because a Christian had touched them. (Read more from “Islamist “Justice”: Slow Painful Death for Christian Mother in Pakistan” HERE)

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If Only US Leaders Read This Book on Pakistan That Was on Bin Laden’s Shelf

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Photo Credit: Defense One Live Last week, I learned that the introduction of my book, Fortifying Pakistan (co-authored with Peter Chalk), was part of Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad library. While some other members of the Bin Laden book club were amused to be included, I was incensed. Our book is about Pakistan’s unwillingness to avail itself of American assistance in order to be a more effective partner in combatting terrorism. We argue that Pakistan’s recalcitrance is rooted in its commitment to using terrorism as a tool of foreign policy in India and Afghanistan. One has to wonder why Bin Laden would be interested in reading about that. After all, by the time the book came out, he was already in Pakistan. He, of all people, knew full well the practical implications of our research. He was safely ensconced in a Pakistani sanctuary, a leisurely stroll down the road from Pakistan’s premier military academy, at Kakul.

The research project that culminated in the 2006 publication of Fortifying Pakistan began in 2004, when I was a new researcher at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). My boss, Paul Stares, (now at the Council on Foreign Relations) hired me to initiate a South Asia research program. This project was not an easy sell. Most of Washington had long decided that Pakistan was our most allegiant ally in the war on terrorism. That attitude endured until the Obama administration came into office.

Simply put: It was blasphemous to suggest, in 2004, that then-president Musharraf was playing a both sides with Washington. The Bush administration could not countenance such a possibility, or even consider the plausibility of it, given that its attention and resources were focused on Iraq.

Prior to joining USIP, I served as a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation. (Note: I am not, nor have I ever been, an actual political scientist.) During one of my last projects for RAND, I had briefed a senior Department of Defense official in early 2004, after returning from a January fact-finding trip I had made to Peshawar. I learned from numerous persons that the Pakistanis, through elements of the Frontier Corps, were facilitating Taliban operations in Afghanistan and movements into and out of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

This was no surprise to me. After all, Pakistan’s army and intelligence agency (the ISI) had long used the Frontier Corps to train Islamist militants operating in Afghanistan. The official seemed nonchalant at the time of the briefing, which puzzled and discomfited me. He seemed to be playing tic-tac-toe while the Pakistanis were playing three-dimensional chess. (Read more from “If Only US Leaders Read This Book on Pakistan That Was on Bin Laden’s Shelf” HERE)

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Christians Planting Churches in Pakistan Receiving Horrific Death Threats From Muslims

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Photo Credit: Gospel Herald

Photo Credit: Gospel Herald

Christian leaders in Lahore, Pakistan have received death threats from Muslims over the past few months because of their involvement in the building of churches in the area, AsiaNews has revealed.

Javed David, a Pakistani Christian activist, told the news source on Monday that he and at least three of his Christian associates have been threatened by an anonymous group of Muslims amid growing anger regarding the construction of Christian churches.

David, who is the president of Hope for the Light Ministries, and his associates have been helping poor Christian communities in Pakistan build places of worship since 2013. However, he explained that he is becoming increasingly uneasy, particularly in the wake of the double suicide bomb attacks on churches in Lahore back in March.

In April, the anonymous group warned that if he continues to help construct churches, he will be made an “example” of.

“I had been to church in Sheikhupura to attend a meeting with colleagues. It was 8 p.m. when we left to return to Lahore. We were about to reach the main road when a motorbike drove up and blocked the way,” David said. “[I thought] maybe they were following us. The two bikers were wearing a helmet. One of them came up to my window and spoke to me. ‘We know what you are doing here,’ he said. ‘Stop building churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true religion. Otherwise we will make a horrible example of you.'” (Read more from “Christians Planting Churches in Pakistan Receiving Horrific Death Threats From Muslims” HERE)

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Massive Suicide Bombs Kill Christian Worshippers in Pakistan

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[Warning: this article contains graphic images, below]A Pakistani evangelist reports this morning that radical jihadists attacked Christian churches during the middle of worship, killing at least 14.

The BBC reports that more than 70 were injured in twin blasts at two separate churches.

One Pakistani pastor, currently working outside of Pakistan, told Restoring Liberty that the blame for the continuing attacks on Christian worshippers in Pakistan should be laid squarely at the feet of the country’s increasingly Islamist government:

One more time the Government of Pakistan failed to provide security to Christians in Pakistan. Twin suicide blasts in two different churches in my city, Lahore, Pakistan, during Sunday worship. 14 killed and 70 injured.

The Pakistani pastor notes that at one of the churches that was attacked, a boy stopped the attacker from entering the church, saving perhaps dozens of lives:

A little Christian hero, “Akash,” gave his life by stopping suicide bomber at the Church gate. He was in Church security team as volunteer. He saved many lives but he gave his life.

The pastor then hits the Pakistani government again for failing to protect its people:

Many of the Churches in Pakistan need security but government failed to do, so now the youth in Churches are trying to have their own people to stand on gate. PLEASE PRAY FOR CHRISTIANS IN PAKISTAN.

Pakistani Taliban Declare Allegiance to Islamic State and Global Jihad

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / STRINGERBY SAUD MEHSUD AND MARIA GOLOVNINA.

The Pakistani Taliban declared allegiance to Islamic State on Saturday and ordered militants across the region to help the Middle Eastern jihadist group in its campaign to set up a global Islamic caliphate.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, has been making inroads into South Asia, which has traditionally been dominated by local Taliban insurgencies against both the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments.

The announcement comes after a September move by al Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, to name former Taliban commander Asim Umar as the “emir” of a new South Asia branch of the network that masterminded the 2001 attacks on the United States.

Although there is little evidence of a firm alliance yet between IS and al Qaeda-linked Taliban commanders, IS activists have been spotted recently in the Pakistani city of Peshawar distributing pamphlets praising the group.

IS flags have also been seen at street rallies in Indian-administered Kashmir. The trend has been of growing concern to global powers struggling to keep up with the fast-changing nature of the international Islamist insurgency.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / Hani MohammedShiite rebels are Yemen’s new masters

By HAMZA HENDAWI.

The capital of Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest and perhaps most chronically unstable nation, has new masters. Anti-American Shiite rebels man checkpoints and roam the streets in pickups mounted with anti-aircraft guns. The fighters control almost all state buildings, from the airport and the central bank to the Defense Ministry.

Only a few police officers and soldiers are left on the streets. Rebel fighters have plastered the city with fliers proclaiming their slogan — “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam” — a variation of a popular Iranian slogan often chanted by Shiite militants in Iraq and supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

While the world has been focused on the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, Yemen — located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula — has seen its own sudden, seismic upheaval when Shiite rebels known as the Houthis overran Sanaa two weeks ago.

Now the Houthis, who many believe are backed by Shiite-led Iran, are poised to become Yemen’s version of the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon — top powerbrokers dominating the government and running a virtual state-within-a-state.

Their takeover of the capital also threatens to bring a violent backlash from hard-line Sunnis, creating a sectarian battle that would boost al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, which the United States has been battling for years in a drone campaign and in coordination with the Yemeni military. The rallying cry of fighting against Shiite power could turn Yemen into a magnet for Sunni jihadis from around the region, like Syria and Iraq.

Read more from this story HERE.

Christians in Pakistan Sentenced to Death Over a Text

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Photo Credit: Alamy

Photo Credit: Alamy

A Christian couple in Pakistan have become the latest to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, after they were accused of sending a text message deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, from the eastern town of Gojra, were sentenced after what the couple’s lawyer said was a case motivated by a personal grudge.

Maulvi Mohammed Hussain, a Muslim leader from a mosque in Gojra, lodged the complaint last year, claiming that Mr Emmanuel had used his wife’s mobile phone to send the offending message. Nadeem Hassan, the couple’s lawyer, said that the couple denied the offence and that the text message originated from a mobile phone that had been lost beforehand.

Read more from this story HERE.

9-Month Old Pakistani Boy Arrested for Attempted Murder, Threatening Police

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Photo Credit: nerissa's ring / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: nerissa’s ring / Creative Commons

A nine-month-old Pakistani boy sat on his father’s lap, sucking on a bottle during a court appearance where he and at least 30 others were charged with attempted murder.

Little Muhammad Mosa Khan was also charged with threatening police and interfering in state affairs at a Pakistan court Thursday. Khan and others in the group were booked following a police raid to catch suspected gas thieves in the city of Lahore, The Times of India reported.

Police say the suspects tried to kill security officers by throwing stones at them. But Khan’s father, Ahmed—who is also accused– says the crowd was protesting an electricity shortage.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Government: Americans Are ‘Killer Zombies’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: WNDVoice of America, through a local cable company, currently distributes “Zindagi 360,” a program VOA uses to target young adults in Pakistan, but the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors is setting its sights higher.

BBG now is aiming for a Pakistan-wide broadcast of the show, which “focuses on topics that resonate with young people in Pakistan,” such as music and “life in America.”

Photo Credit: WNDThe topics apparently include the stars-and-stripes-adorned killer-zombie adaptation of Uncle Sam, the traditional personification of the American government.

While the promo clearly is intended to be humorous, if not satirical, BGB is using it as a calling card in its search for a distributor capable of spreading its message.

The video features two Urdu-speaking male and female cast members wearing contemporary, non-ethnic clothing, giddily venturing through what appears to be an American city.

Read more from this story HERE.

At Pakistan’s ‘Taliban U,’ Jihadists Major in Anti-Americanism

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Photo Credit: Fox News A 90-minute drive northwest of Islamabad is an Islamic seminary that is considered the ivory tower of terrorism, a jihadist factory that has produced prominent Taliban fighters and its leadership for decades.

Unofficially dubbed “University of Jihad,” Dar ul Uloom Haqqania [House of Knowledge and Truthfulness] counts Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the dreaded Haqqani Network, among its alumni. Names of most of more than 8,000 former students who have passed through the seminary are encased in glass-covered wooden frames that hang on the walls inside the main building.

“The Haqqanis got their surname from Haqqania, this madrassa” “Ammanullah,” a proud member of the Class of 2007, told FoxNews.com during a recent tour, a rare look inside the seminary along the Grand Trunk Road in Akora Khattak.

The campus is the size of four football fields, encompassing several buildings guarded by one police gunman. About 3,500 students currently live and study at the compound, which has churned out generations of freedom fighters stretching back to the 1980s Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Closely aligned with the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is at violent odds with the current governments of both nations.

Founded by Maulana Abdul Haq just after Pakistan gained independence in 1947, the seminary propagates Deobandi, a revivalist and anti-imperialist movement of Sunni Islam formed in reaction to the Britain’s colonization of India.

Read more from this story HERE.