I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
These flowers are in memory of the Palestinian children and youth of Gaza, who have been killed, and are being killed, maimed and brutalized by the Israeli army.
The colonial-settler state of Israel knows it has the full support of the US and its various allies to commit such brutal crimes against a defenseless and besieged people within the Gaza enclave. There is no powerful voice in the world which tells Israel to stop these killings. As a result, Israel is free to do what it is doing in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories of Palestine.
Many of us write and post articles and highlight the issues, but our words and protests are not able to save the life of a single Palestinian who becomes the victim of an Israeli bullet. Neither can our words stop the bullets of the Israeli army that rain on the Palestinians of Gaza when they protest against the Israeli blockade and their right to return to their homes from where they were driven out by the Zionist terrorists in 1948. As refugees they came to the Gaza enclave.
Is it a crime for a people to demand their right to return to their country and their homes? Not if sanity is allowed to play a role in such a situation. The besieged and brutalized people are asking Israel to lift its illegal blockade of Gza, which it has made into the largest concentration camp in the world, allow the evicted people to rerun to their homes under the rules of the international law.
There are people from democratic and socialist parties and organizations, writers and activists from various non-religious and religious identities and loyalties, including some Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. who support the demands of the Palestinians of Gaza and of the occupied territories. Major humanitarian and human rights organizations show solidarity with such demands. But many far-right parties of fascists, Zionists, Christian fundamentalists, White and Jewish supremacists are opposed to any such solution. As far I am concerned, as a non-dogmatic Socialist writer and commentator, I will continue to stand to the last breath of my life with the oppressed people of Palestine and the restoration of their political rights.
At the end, I ask a simple question to all who read what I write: Where should the two-million people of Gaza go or do in the face of such Israeli atrocities that seem endless? I will appreciate any sensible response coming from anyone.
To expect anything positive or concrete for the struggle of the long-suffering people of Palestine from the Muslim countries in general and the Arab countries in particular leads us nowhere. Many Arab regimes, like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt are allied with the Zionists of Israel, many more are joining as close friends with the colonial state of the Zionists.
However, some occasional words of sympathy for the Palestinians by the Arab rulers are only to please the Arab masses. The rulers of the United States and Israel know the reality of such empty words of sympathy by the Arab despotic regimes; they are only for window-dressing, nothing else.
Over the years, many writers and public figures spoke against the victimization of a poor working class married woman. Now, finally Mrs Asia Bibi has been granted asylum in Canada, and has left her country, which the fanatic Islamist gangsters had made a hell for her and her family.
Is it possible that her case may bring some much-needed change in social practice, social attitudes and discriminatory blasphemy laws affecting the religious minorities of Pakistan? Will they be able to live freely in their country without any danger of violence and intimidation by misguided and violent Muslim mobs or some militant Islamist groups?
But first much has to change, including the blasphemy laws, the misuse of Islam by some mullahs and preachers who spread the poison of hatred and animosity against the religious minorities. In this the political and clerical establishment of the Sunnis bears a big responsibility. They are mostly the Sunni militant and terrorist groups working under different guises to serve Islam and Muslims who cause violence and spread terror.
Asia Bibi arrives in Canada after leaving Pakistan
Christian woman freed last year after spending eight years on death row for blasphemy
Michael Safi in Delhi and Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy before she was freed last year, has flown to Canada where she has reunited with her family, her lawyer has said. “It is a big day,” Saiful Malook told the Guardian. “Asia Bibi has left Pakistan and reached Canada. She has reunited with her family. Justice has been dispensed.” Wilson Chaudhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association said
the family were living under assumed identities and with security in
Canada that he expected would be beefed up with Asia’s arrival. “I think when time moves on and tensions ease they would be living as normal people without security,” he said. “For
sure they would live with some new identities there. They would not use
same identities which they have had back in Pakistan.” The Canadian government declined to comment on the circumstances under which the family would be living in the country. Bibi’s arrival in Canada could mark the end of a nine-year ordeal for
the farm labourer whose case – based on a dubious accusation she had
insulted the prophet Muhammad – became linked to the assassinations of a
provincial governor and a cabinet minister and a cause célèbre among
Christian and human rights activists. She has been in protective custody since she was released from prison last year
after Pakistan’s top court acquitted her of blasphemy. By the afternoon
of the verdict on 31 October, demonstrators wielding clubs had blocked
highways and were pelting police with stones in cities including the
capital, Islamabad, and Karachi. Islamist groups including Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a movement
dedicated to upholding Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, protested for
three days after the verdict, paralysing parts of the country until the
government struck an agreement that included a promise the case would be
appealed. The supreme court upheld the acquittal in January. Canada had offered Bibi asylum, but close friends had told the Guardian the woman was being prevented from leaving by authorities. Her children left for the country late last year. Malook said Bibi’s safe arrival in Canada was the result of hard work
by activists, foreign diplomats and others “who stood by Bibi in hard
times and worked for her freedom”.
Protesters demonstrate in Karachi in November against Asia Bibi’s release. Photograph: Shahzaib Akber/EPA
Bibi, a Roman Catholic from the village of Ittanwala near Lahore, was
accused by Muslim villagers of insulting the prophet in a row over a
cup of water in June 2009. The supreme court judgment said there was no
evidence to support the charge.
Five days after the altercation, a local mosque broadcast allegations
she had committed blasphemy and Bibi was dragged from her home by a mob
and beaten in the presence of police officers before she was taken into
custody.
Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 in what became Pakistan’s most infamous blasphemy case. She always maintained her innocence.
One of Bibi’s highest-profile supporters, the governor of Punjab
Salman Taseer, was killed by one of his own security guards in January
2011 after he publicly appealed to the president of Pakistan to pardon
Bibi.
Taseer was shot 27 times at close range by Malik Mumtaz Hussain
Qadri, who was showered with rose petals by supporters when he appeared
in court. He was executed in 2016.
Pakistan’s first federal minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, who also supported Bibi and called for the reform of blasphemy laws, was killed by self-described Taliban gunmen in March 2011.
The only Christian in the cabinet at the time, Bhatti had predicted
his own death and recorded a farewell tape that was released to
television channels after he was killed, in which he vowed to fight for
Christian and other minority rights whatever the cost.
“I will die to defend their rights,” he said on the tape released to
the BBC and al-Jazeera. “These threats and these warnings cannot change
my opinions and principles.”
Blasphemy is a highly inflammatory issue in Pakistan, where even unproven accusations of insulting Islam can spark lynchings. Human rights activists say blasphemy charges are frequently used to settle personal scores.
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Asia Bibi had been in protective custody since her release last October.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy before she was freed last year, has flown to Canada where she has reunited with her family, her lawyer has said.
“It is a big day,” Saiful Malook told the Guardian. “Asia Bibi has left Pakistan and reached Canada. She has reunited with her family. Justice has been dispensed.”
Wilson Chaudhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association said
the family were living under assumed identities and with security in
Canada that he expected would be beefed up with Asia’s arrival.
“I think when time moves on and tensions ease they would be living as normal people without security,” he said.
“For
sure they would live with some new identities there. They would not use
same identities which they have had back in Pakistan.”
The Canadian government declined to comment on the circumstances under which the family would be living in the country.
Bibi’s arrival in Canada could mark the end of a nine-year ordeal for
the farm labourer whose case – based on a dubious accusation she had
insulted the prophet Muhammad – became linked to the assassinations of a
provincial governor and a cabinet minister and a cause célèbre among
Christian and human rights activists.
She has been in protective custody since she was released from prison last year
after Pakistan’s top court acquitted her of blasphemy. By the afternoon
of the verdict on 31 October, demonstrators wielding clubs had blocked
highways and were pelting police with stones in cities including the
capital, Islamabad, and Karachi.
Islamist groups including Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a movement
dedicated to upholding Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, protested for
three days after the verdict, paralysing parts of the country until the
government struck an agreement that included a promise the case would be
appealed. The supreme court upheld the acquittal in January.
Canada had offered Bibi asylum, but close friends had told the Guardian the woman was being prevented from leaving by authorities. Her children left for the country late last year.
Malook said Bibi’s safe arrival in Canada was the result of hard work
by activists, foreign diplomats and others “who stood by Bibi in hard
times and worked for her freedom”.
Protesters demonstrate in Karachi in November against Asia Bibi’s release. Photograph: Shahzaib Akber/EPA
Bibi, a Roman Catholic from the village of Ittanwala near Lahore, was
accused by Muslim villagers of insulting the prophet in a row over a
cup of water in June 2009. The supreme court judgment said there was no
evidence to support the charge.
Five days after the altercation, a local mosque broadcast allegations
she had committed blasphemy and Bibi was dragged from her home by a mob
and beaten in the presence of police officers before she was taken into
custody.
Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 in what became Pakistan’s most infamous blasphemy case. She always maintained her innocence.
One of Bibi’s highest-profile supporters, the governor of Punjab
Salman Taseer, was killed by one of his own security guards in January
2011 after he publicly appealed to the president of Pakistan to pardon
Bibi.
Taseer was shot 27 times at close range by Malik Mumtaz Hussain
Qadri, who was showered with rose petals by supporters when he appeared
in court. He was executed in 2016.
Pakistan’s first federal minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, who also supported Bibi and called for the reform of blasphemy laws, was killed by self-described Taliban gunmen in March 2011.
The only Christian in the cabinet at the time, Bhatti had predicted
his own death and recorded a farewell tape that was released to
television channels after he was killed, in which he vowed to fight for
Christian and other minority rights whatever the cost.
“I will die to defend their rights,” he said on the tape released to
the BBC and al-Jazeera. “These threats and these warnings cannot change
my opinions and principles.”
Blasphemy is a highly inflammatory issue in Pakistan, where even unproven accusations of insulting Islam can spark lynchings. Human rights activists say blasphemy charges are frequently used to settle personal scores.
