Repeal blasphemy law to save Christians: EU to Pak

Christians, who form about 1.6 percent of Pakistan’s population, live in constant fear of persecution from extremist Islamic groups in that country because of legal strictures such as the draconian “blasphemy law”, a woman Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has claimed.

In an article published in EP Today, Member of the European Parliament, Marijana Petir, claims that Pakistan today represents a human rights nightmare, particularly for the minority Christian community, which often faces social discrimination, isolation and targeting from conservative and fundamentalists in the society.

In her article, Petir, who is a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, specifically criticizes what she describes as “Pakistan’s regressive Blasphemy Law” and demands its immediate repeal.

To highlight her concern over this law being applied in a discriminatory manner, she makes a mention of a Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi, whose only crime was that she was a Christian, and had sipped water from the same vessel as a Muslim woman of her locality, which in turn, lead to an argument, registration of a case and a death sentence.

Asia, according to Petir, has been in custody for seven years, and has appealed against her sentence.

“An incident like this can only evoke disbelief and horror in any other part of the civilized world. But this is the cruel reality that Christians and members of other religious minority groups in Pakistan grapple with, every day,” says Petir.

“….the laws are biased against religious minorities (in Pakistan), failing to give them political rights