Bibi’s story an example of Christian persecution

ASIA Bibi is free and safe.The woman whose ordeal came to represent the plight of persecuted Christians in the Muslim world has escaped the hangman’s noose and been granted asylum in the West.

After nine terrible years the mother-of-five’s nightmare is over with the final appeal against her acquittal on blasphemy charges dismissed by Pakistan’s highest court on January 29. There were unconfirmed reports last week that Bibi is in Canada, reunited with the children she has barely seen in the past decade. It is wonderful that the final chapter sees her liberated, exonerated and back with her family. Canada is about as far away as you can get from Pakistan where mobs of men still demand Bibi be killed for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, a charge which saw her spend nine years in solitary confinement in a windowless 2.4 by 3 metre cell, eight of those years with a death sentence hanging over her head.

People around the world who have followed the farm worker’s story rejoiced when the Pakistan Supreme Court overturned her conviction in October but the truth was that Bibi was still in grave danger. After the guilty verdict was quashed Islamist mobs wreaked havoc in the streets, burning cars, overturning trucks and fighting police. At their worst the protesters managed to shut down major streets and highways and force schools to close.

Enraged mobs demanding Bibi be put to death were reportedly going house to house hunting her and members of her family. A prominent cleric Maulana Yousaf Qureshi, from the historic Mahabat Khan Mosque, offered a Rs500,000 reward (just over $5000) for anyone who would find and kill Bibi.

“No president, no parliament has the right to interfere in the tenets of Islam. Islamic punishment will be implemented … we expect her to be hanged,” he said.

All this hate aimed towards a woman whose only crime was being Christian in Pakistan and daring to drink water from a cup shared by her Muslim co-workers. Bibi was accused of defiling the cup and the ensuing fight led to allegations of blasphemy.

She was beaten, arrested, jailed, sentenced to death before being found innocent of all charges late last year.

For her own safety Bibi remained under guard while there were legal attempts to review the Supreme Court acquittal. She was not allowed to leave Pakistan until the final appeal was heard. Her family and lawyer went into hiding fearing for their lives. They had good reason to be cautious given extremists had murdered two politicians, Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, in 2011 for speaking against Bibi’s conviction.

It was pleasing to see that Australia was among a number of Western countries willing to offer Bibi asylum. Several Liberals including the member for Deakin Michael Sukkar, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton advocated for Bibi. “I understand Canada is quite advanced in arrangements for her to go there but I have said if that falls through I will make the offer to her to bring her here,” Mr Dutton said.

Sadly, the UK, in an act of utter cowardice that should shame all Britons, failed to come to Bibi’s aid, refusing to grant her a lifeline for fear of inflaming tensions in the Muslim community.

Denying asylum to a woman in peril who is a genuine refugee because they fear a backlash from Islamist elements within Britain and Pakistan is utterly unprincipled and weak.

Even the advocacy of Home Secretary Sajid Javid and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson along with dozens of British MPs who signed a motion demanding Bibi be granted unconditional asylum in the UK was not sufficient to change Theresa May’s mind. It says plenty about the UK that it is more comfortable assisting returning Islamic State fighters reintegrate into British society than helping a woman who has suffered a grave injustice through no fault of her own.

Bibi’s only crime was a steadfast commitment to Christianity. She refused to convert when faced with a lynch mob threatening to kill her and imprisonment.

“I will not convert. I believe in my religion and Jesus Christ,” she said.

Her story symbolised the plight of Christians in Muslim majority countries.

In Pakistan the Christian minority represent just 1.6 per cent of the population. The country’s blasphemy laws are used to persecute religious minorities including Ahmadis who identify as Muslims but are considered heretical by many ‘mainstream’ Muslims.

The laws are also used as a weapon to settle old scores with just a mere accusation enough to see people killed gruesomely. Dozens have been murdered by lynch mobs before police can investigate the charges.

Though more than 95 per cent of Pakistanis are Muslim, 50 per cent of those accused of blasphemy are religious minorities, according to Lahore-based human rights campaigner Peter Jacob.

Tragically, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has vowed to uphold the country’s backward blasphemy laws.