PAKISTAN'S TOP COURT TO DECIDE ASIA BIBI'S FATE AS MUSLIM EXTREMISTS DEMAND HER DEATH

Islamists demand the execution of Christian mother Asia Bibi in Pakistan in this
 protest uploaded on video on November 4, 2018.
 | (Screenshot: YouTube/euronews (in Italiano))

By Leah Marie Ann Klett
Breaking Christian News

Pakistan's top court will decide next week whether a challenge against the acquittal of Christian mother Asia Bibi can proceed as radical Islamists continue to call for her execution.

Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Malook, revealed that on Jan. 29 Pakistan’s Supreme Court will review a petition launched by Islamists calling for her blasphemy conviction to be overturned, the Pakistani news outlet Dawn reports. If the court rejects the petition, Bibi will finally be free to leave Pakistan.

The 47-year-old mother-of-five, who was on death row for eight years, was accused by Muslim farm laborers of having insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which is an offense punishable by death in Pakistan.

She was convicted despite denying the charges, and in October the Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdict. The decision sparked nationwide protests by Muslim hardliners, prompting authorities to take Bibi into hiding. Since her acquittal, she has since been living at a secret location, under guard.

Muslim extremists have threatened to kill anyone who supports Bibi, and in efforts to end the violence, authorities struck a deal with protesters. As part of the agreement, the Pakistani government pledged she would remain in the country until the Supreme Court reviews the petition against her acquittal.

A three-member bench will hear the review petition, which claims that the Supreme Court's acquittal of Bibi did not meet the standards of jurisprudence as well as Islamic provisions.

Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, the lawyer who filed the petition seeking an appeal, told AFP the court is expected to decide the same day if the appeal is admitted or not.

In December, he told the BBC he gets "a lot of peace" from prosecuting alleged blasphemers like Bibi and "will be rewarded for it in the hereafter.”

"For us the most sacred thing is [Islamic] prophet Muhammad. Everything we do is for him," he said, insisting that no Muslim would ever falsely accuse a non-Muslim of committing blasphemy.

Despite her release from prison, Bibi continues to live in fear of being killed and is guarded by security forces who've barred her from even opening a window, an unidentified friend revealed earlier this month. She’s also undergoing treatment for various illnesses she suffered while in prison.

Bibi’s children have been taken to Canada for their safety, and while various western countries have been mentioned as possible destinations that could grant the Christian woman asylum, her fate remains uncertain.

Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws prescribe a death sentence for anyone convicted of insulting Islam or the Muhammad.

Approximately 40 people are believed to be on death row or serving a life sentence for blasphemy, according to a 2018 report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. While no one convicted of blasphemy has ever been legally executed in Pakistan, at least 70 people have reportedly been killed since 1990 in attacks by lynch mobs.

Rights groups say the law is frequently misused, often to settle personal vendettas and property disputes — and religious minorities are disproportionately affected by such accusations.

Those who call for changes to the country’s blasphemy law also risk death: In 2011, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province who had campaigned for Bibi’s release and changes in the laws, was shot and killed by his police bodyguard.

Two months later, Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister of minorities and the only Christian cabinet minister in the Pakistani government, was also killed after he also was calling for changes to the blasphemy law.

Pakistan ranks as the fifth worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.

Website: Christian Post

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Myanmar: Christians Forced to Sign Papers Vowing Not to Pray in Church, Curb Their Faith

By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian Post

Hundreds of minority Christians in Myanmar are being forced to sign papers vowing to limit their faith and not pray in churches, pastors have warned.

A church leader identified as the Rev. Lazarus, general secretary of the Lahu Baptist Convention in Kyaing Tong, eastern Shan State, told UCA News on Wednesday that close to 100 Wa Christians were released by the United Wa State Army after they agreed to the orders.

Christians who signed the pledges are now mandated to only pray privately in their homes and not in churches.

Lazarus added that 92 ethnic-Lahu Christians remain in captivity, however, while dozens of churches have been shut down. He warned that the believers are faced with no choice but to sign the papers.

"Christians will face more restrictions and be closely monitored by the United Wa State Army, so the situation is worrisome," he said.

The Rev. Thang Cin Lian, general secretary of the Myanmar Baptist Convention, said that meetings are being held discussing the faith of the 92 captive believers.

"We are praying for the Christians in the Wa Hills," Lian said.

The UWSA, which grew out of the Communist Party of Burma, expelled five Catholic nuns and six lay teachers in September, and has been destroying what it claims are unauthorized churches in the region.

"We want stability and rule of law in our area, so extremists may be arrested. Such measures are necessary, as we are preparing to celebrate the 30th Peace Festival on April 17 next year and no extremism is allowed," said U Nyi Rang, the militia's spokesperson.

The April 2019 date in question refers to the 30th anniversary of the USWA cease-fire with the Myanmar government.

The military group has accused Christians of causing instability in the area, Myanmar Times reported. It has been targeting churches built after 1992, arguing that they were built without permission.

Aaron Maung Maung Tun, director of the publication's department of the Lahu Baptist Convention, said that the army is looking to use Christian schools that have been closed for its own purposes.

"I heard that the Lahu Bible school will be used as a Wa police station. We have sent a letter to the Wa but have received no reply," Tun said.

The UWSA has been arresting Christians by claiming that religious leaders are violating laws that prevent foreigners from serving in churches. It has also accused believers of forceful conversions.

The Lahu Baptist Convention, based in the Eastern Shan state, has separately shared fears that the UWSA is forcing Christian students to serve in its army.

"The UWSA has also forcibly recruited 41 male and female students who were participating Bible study classes in various churches," Lazarus told Radio Free Asia earlier this month.

Website: Christian Post 

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Christians Face Worse Persecution Than at Any Time in History, New Report Claims

A woman holds a cross during a rally organised by Iraqi Christians in Germany
denouncing persecution by the Islamic State terror group against Christians living in Iraq.

By Harry Farley

Christian Today

Persecution against Christians is the worst it has ever been in history, a new report from a Catholic charity is claiming.

Looking at 13 countries where Christians face the worst abuses the study by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), released on Thursday, found the outlook has worsened in all of them with the one exception being Saudi Arabia 'where the situation was already so bad it could scarcely get any worse', the report says.

Persecuted and Forgotten? warns Christians in many countries will not survive if violence against them continues and highlighted 'unspeakable atrocities' around the world including in North Korea where believers face 'enforced starvation, abortion, and reports of faithful being hung on crosses over a fire and others being crushed under a steamroller'.

It issues a scathing attack on Western governments as speakers lined up to criticise their response at an event in the House of Lords on Thursday night to launch the research.

Lord Alton of Liverpool, a cross-bench peer and religious freedom campaigner, said there was a need 'to separate propaganda from the reality' when hearing about money governments have donated as ministers said UK had promised £169.5 million of support to Iraq since 2014

Father Salar Kajo, a priest on the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq where many Christians used to live, said: 'We Christians see very little of this aid. In reality there is nothing.

'I am there, I am working there, I know there is nothing. It is the church that has rebuilt the houses. UNICEF come just to paint the walls,' he told the audience of MPs, officials and journalists.

The ACN report says: 'Governments in the West and the UN failed to offer Christians in countries such as Iraq and Syria the emergency help they needed as genocide got underway.'

John Pontifex, spokesman for the charity and editor of the report said: 'In terms of the numbers of people involved, the gravity of the crimes committed and their impact, it is clear that the persecution of Christians is today worse than at any time in history.

'Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith group, but ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of persecution.'

Christian Today continues 

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