July 23
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan's Christians bear brunt of harsh blasphemy laws
On that oppressive June day, while picking berries with 2 young Muslim women, a
Christian named Asia Bibi offered to go fetch some water.
"I will not take water from the hands of a Christian,'' one of the woman told
her.
Bibi, a poor mother of 5, would later acknowledge that some "hot words''
ensued. But she denied saying what she allegedly said next: The Prophet
Mohammed was a thief. As he lay dying, insects crawled from his mouth and ears.
The Koran is not a holy book but one made by man.
5 days later, on June 19, 2009, Bibi was arrested and taken to prison. She is
still there today, a Christian sentenced to death for committing blasphemy
against the religion of Islam.
• • •
Of Pakistan's 187 million people, less than 3 % are Christian. Most are
descended from natives of the Indian subcontinent who converted to Christianity
during the Raj, the century-long period of British rule.
In 1947, with Muslims clamoring for a homeland of their own, the subcontinent
was partitioned into the new nations of India and the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan. Since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan has been an unlikely
ally with the United States in the fight against Islamic extremism. And for
much of its recent history, it has been a place where Christians have known
persecution, discrimination and fear.
"My parents always said, 'When it comes to religion, stay mum and don't voice
an opinion,' '' says Elishba Abel, a 23-year-old college student and daughter
of Christian missionaries. "I don't want to get thrown in prison.''
Older people remember a time in the early days of nationhood when Christians,
some born to British fathers, enjoyed a loftier status in Pakistan. They had
their own clubs and worshipped in thousands of churches, including Lahore's
Anglican cathedral with a soaring bell tower dedicated to Queen Victoria.
"Christians were fairly superior to Muslims,'' says Dr. Christy Munir, 70, a
chemistry professor at Forman Christian College in Lahore. "Then the Muslims
started putting them down.''
Pakistan's constitution bans Christians from serving as president or prime
minister, and severely limits the number of seats they can hold in Parliament.
But it was one man — Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq — who did the most to marginalize
Christians and other minorities.
Son of an imam and a fundamentalist himself, Zia imposed Islamic Sharia law and
greatly accelerated the "Islamization'' of Pakistani life while running the
country from 1977 to his death in 1988. Many Christians found themselves on the
ragged fringes of society, sweeping streets or fetching tea for their rich
Muslim employers.
"Zia created a hell of a problem,'' says Victor Azariah, executive director of
the National Council of Churches of Pakistan.
Pressure at work
When Babar Rana Iqbal went to work for Proctor and Gamble in Lahore in the
early '90s, no one knew he was Christian because he had a Muslim-sounding name.
Nor did he reveal that fact until a colleague was killed in a car crash and
Muslim co-workers lined up to say prayers before the coffin. Iqbal stood apart.
"The next day, my boss said, 'Why didn't you join in funeral prayers?' I told
him, 'because I am Christian, so I prayed in my own way.' After that day,
treatment was different.''
Iqbal, 39, says he was subject to blistering criticism and tougher production
goals than his colleagues, with the boss finally telling him: "You have to
accept Islam or leave.'' He quit, enrolled in theological school and became a
chaplain at Forman Christian College (whose president, Peter Armacost, is
former president of St. Petersburg's Eckerd College.)
"I don't think Islam is bad, just the way it is interpreted,'' Iqbal says.
Still, his experience at Proctor and Gamble left him wary: Muslims "can be
lovely friends, but you can't trust them.''
Hate crimes against Christians increased after the 9/11 attacks, when Pakistan
reluctantly joined the war on terror under intense pressure from the Bush
administration.
3 weeks after American jets began bombing Afghanistan, Islamic militants killed
15 Christians at a church in Lahore, Pakistan's cultural and intellectual
center. In 2002, an American woman and her daughter were among the 5
worshippers who died in a grenade attack on a church in the Pakistani capital
of Islamabad.
One of the many injured was Christy Munir, the Forman chemistry professor. He
spent 3 months in the hospital and had 7 surgeries. He still cannot use his
right arm.
Many Christians jailed
A decade after 9/11, the fear of terrorist attacks against Christians has
somewhat eased. But an insidious threat remains — Pakistan's notorious
blasphemy laws.
The laws, the strictest of any such ones in a predominantly Muslim country, ban
blasphemy against all recognized religions. In practice, they apply only to
blasphemy against Islam.
"As Pakistanis, whatever laws there are we are supposed to honor, but the
problem in that law is there is no justice,'' says Azariah, director of the
council of churches. "Muslims are so touchy that even if you say something for
the sake of inquiry about religion, then they will consider that blasphemy and
attack that person and all of the Christian community. This law is so widely
misused.''
No Christians have been executed for alleged blasphemy — the maximum penalty is
death — but thousands have been imprisoned. Azariah estimates there are more
than 150 Christians currently in jail, among them Asia Bibi.
Bibi lived in a village outside Lahore where her husband worked in a brick kiln
and she earned a few rupees a day picking falsas, a blueberry-like fruit, in
fields owned by a Muslim man.
After Bibi allegedly made her anti-Islam remarks, the two Muslim women, who
were sisters, went to the owner's son and accused her of blasphemy, court
records show. At a subsequent gathering that included village elders and
religious scholars, Bibi purportedly confessed and begged for pardon. A formal
investigation — conducted by a Muslim government employee — concluded that the
sisters told the truth. Bibi was arrested.
In November, a Sharia judge found Bibi guilty and sentenced her to death.
Cheers for murderer
The verdict enraged not only Christians, but also some moderate Muslims. The
governor of Punjab province, Salmaan Taseer, visited Bibi in jail and denounced
the blasphemy statutes as "black laws'' that should be abolished.
Shortly before Christmas, Peter Armacost saw Taseer at a social function and
praised him for standing on principle.
"He acknowledged he felt he had to, but he knew the political risk involved,''
Armacost says. "I know he told his wife, 'Be prepared to be a widow.' "
2 weeks later, Taseer was shot 26 times by one of his own security guards, who
reportedly was angered by the governor's vocal opposition to the blasphemy
laws. As the guard, Mali Qadri, was led into court, several young Muslim
lawyers cheered him and showered him with rose petals. Qadri is now the subject
of a glowing book.
Bibi continues to sit in solitary confinement. Every two weeks, her husband,
Ashiq Masih, brings her ice, tea, some vegetables. She is allowed to cook her
own meals for fear she might be poisoned by other inmates or even the jailers.
Masih can no longer work because of death threats. He and his children,
including a handicapped 13-year-old daughter who cannot speak, move from place
to place as they await the outcome of Bibi's appeal to Pakistan's highest
court. Even if she is freed, the family would remain in too much danger to stay
in Pakistan, says Azariah of the council of churches.
Though Bibi's death sentence is likely to be overturned, she could languish in
prison for years.
"Courts are very much afraid to try these cases because the religious leaders
go into court and pressure the judges,'' Azariah says. "The judges are also
afraid for their lives.''
With reason. Azariah recalls another case in which a Christian was sentenced to
death. A judge acquitted him — and was shot to death in his chambers a few days
later.
(source: St. Petersburg Times)
CHINA:
Former Chinese executive gets death penalty for bribes worth US$ 1.15
million--The sentence could be commuted to life in prison after 2 years of good
behaviour. Zhang Chunjiang, 53, is former vice president at China Mobile and
the China Mobile Communications Corp and was closely connected to the Communist
Party.
A former executive at China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile carrier by
subscriber accounts, was found guilty of taking about US$ 1.15 million in
bribes. A court in northern China's Hebei province gave Zhang Chunjiang, 53, a
suspended death sentence, which could be commuted to life in prison after 2
years of good behaviour.
Zhang Chunjiang, a former vice chairman at Hong Kong-listed China Mobile and
former vice president at the company's state-owned parent, China Mobile
Communications Corp, took 7.46 million yuan (US$ 1.15 million) in bribes
between 1994 and 2009, a period in which he served as a senior telecom official
in Liaoning province.
The charges against him also included helping bribers with receiving business
contracts and "recovering debts."
China's leaders have repeatedly vowed to eradicate corruption, which represents
a potential threat to economic growth as well as a source of public discontent.
But their efforts appear to have had limited effect in a country where the
ruling Communist Party is essentially the only arbiter of officials' conduct
and where those who take bribe often have ties with the party.
Before being accused of corruption, Mr Zhang was also head of the powerful
Communist Party committee at China Mobile's state-owned parent.
Like in other cases involving top figures, the details of Mr Zhang’s crimes
have not been made public. Ordinary Chinese have been kept in the dark with
regards to the extent of the web of corruption in which Zhang was involved.
(source: Asia News)
********************************
Chinese fugitive arrives in Beijing after extradition: Xinhua
China’s most wanted fugitive was arrested in the capital Beijing today after
being deported from Canada where he lived in exile for 12 years. Lai Changxing,
53, arrived at Beijing’s international airport this afternoon, where Chinese
police “announced his arrest and read him his rights, including hiring lawyers
to defend himself, after he was transferred by the Canadian side,” state news
agency Xinhua reported, citing the ministry of public security.
The extradition ended a decades-long saga that had plagued Sino-Canadian
relations.
Beijing has sought the deportation of Lai, accusing him of running a
multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in the southeastern city of Xiamen in
the 1990s in one of China’s biggest political scandals in decades.
A Canadian lawyer for Lai said he had been put on a plane from Canada
yesterday, after a court cleared the way on Thursday for Lai’s extradition,
dismissing concerns that he could be tortured or executed back home.
“Lai’s repatriation once again shows that no matter where a criminal suspect
flees, he or she cannot evade legal sanctions in the end,” Xinhua quoted the
ministry of public security as saying.
Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999 and claimed refugee status, saying
the allegations against him were politically motivated.
China had promised Canada in a diplomatic note that Lai would not be tortured
or executed and that Canadian officials would have access to him. But many
legal experts and human rights activists said it was unlikely Lai could receive
a fair trial in China.
David Matas, another of Lai’s Canadian lawyers, said the judge had allowed the
extradition despite admitting that the diplomatic assurances would not let
Canadian officials attend closed hearings.
But Federal Court Judge Michel Shore said Lai “has been found not to be at risk
if removed to China on the basis of extraordinary assurances received and held
as valid (by the Canadian government).”
Canada has no death penalty and will not usually extradite anyone to a state
where capital punishment is practiced without assurances the suspect will not
be executed.
The case exploded in the special economic zone of Xiamen in Fujian province in
the mid-1990s when Jia Qinglin, now the ruling Communist Party’s 4th most
senior leader, was the province’s Party boss.
Beijing has accused Lai’s business empire, the Yuanhua Group, of bribing
officials to allow a massive smuggling ring in a scandal that implicated more
than 200 senior figures, including Jia’s wife, Lin Youfang. She denied any
wrongdoing.
China put more than 300 suspects on trial and sentenced 14 to death, including
provincial officials and a former vice minister of public security, in a case
Beijing has used for a propaganda campaign against corruption.
Lai admitted in a 2009 interview with Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper that
he had avoided taxes by exploiting loopholes in the law, but he denies bribery
charges. He said that had he not been in Canada he would have been executed.
Lai may face life imprisonment, Xinhua cited legal experts as saying yesterday.
Reflecting the intensity of China’s official position on Lai, state media in
2001 cited then-Premier Zhu Rongji as saying Lai “should die three times, and
even so that wouldn’t be enough”.
(source: Reuters)
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