Itan Wali, Pakistan (CNN) — In this village in Pakistan’s Punjab province a tearful 12-year-old girl ponders if the Pakistani government will soon hang her mother.
“Whenever I see her picture I cry,” Isham Masih told CNN. “I want my mother back. That’s what I’m praying for.”
This month a Pakistani court sentenced Isham’s mother, 45-year-old Asia Bibi, to death, not because she killed, injured or stole, but simply because she said something.
Prosecutors say Bibi, who is a Christian, broke Pakistan’s strict blasphemy law by insulting Islam and the prophet Muhammad, a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment according to Pakistan’s penal code.
The alleged incident happened in June 2009 when Bibi, a field worker, was picking fruit in a village two hours west of Lahore. Prosecutors say when Bibi dipped her cup into a bucket of drinking water during a lunch break, her co-workers complained the water had been contaminated by a non-Muslim.
Court records show the women got into a heated argument.
Mafia Satar said she was there and heard Bibi’s insults.
“She said your Muhammad had worms in his mouth before he died,” Satar told CNN, a crude way of saying Muhammad was no prophet.
The town cleric, Qari Muhammad Salim, reported the incident to police who arrested Bibi. After nearly 15 months in prison came her conviction and the death sentence.
“When I heard the decision my heart ached,” Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih told CNN.
Masih denies his wife ever insulted Muhammad. He said death threats forced him and his daughters, one of them disabled, to flee their village.
Neither the Koran nor the prophet Muhammad’s teachings in the Hadith call for the execution of blasphemers, but Islamic scholars and jurists from generations past included the death sentence when drafting Islamic law.
Human rights groups have long blamed Pakistan’s blasphemy laws for persecution and violence against religious minorities like last year’s attack on a Christian village in Punjab Province and recent bombings of minority Muslim mosques.
Activists say the government has refused to amend the law for fear of backlash from Islamist groups and their followers who deem scrapping the law as un-Islamic.
At the time this report was filed, Pakistan’s law minister had not responded to CNN’s request for an interview.
Bibi has appealed her death sentence and asked for bail, the chief prosecutor of Punjab province told CNN.
The prosecutor, Chaudhry Muhammad Jahangir, said the appeal will be heard by the Lahore High court and a decision could be months away.
Pakistan has never executed someone convicted of blasphemy but in Bibi’s village public opinion was unanimous.
“Yes, she should be hanged,” a group of villagers cried out.
The town cleric, who made the initial complaint against Bibi, called her death sentence one of the happiest moments of his life.
“Tears of joy poured from my eyes,” Qari Salim told CNN.
The clerics tears are in stark contrast to those shed by Bibi’s daughter Isham, who wants her mother to live.
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Comments
@ELSOL102
There is …
@ELSOL102
There is no any such law in Quran that containts whole Islamic law. Do not tell is from so called hadith that is heap of lies that Pessian fabricated and attached it to name of Prophet.
For the sake of argument, even if we assume there is punishment for blasphemy, then this is job of court to decide and not the job of ignorant terrorists mullahs like u & Mumtaz Kadri & freak Moulvi Fazal Ur rahamn to decide. Quran does not allow law of jungle. Bzaz law of jungle mean NO LAW
@Factszz LIAR The …
@Factszz LIAR The law of Sharia states that anybody who insults the Prophet Mohammad or Islam will be KILLED for blasphemy. It is a basic law of the religion.
Gustakh e Rasool ki …
Gustakh e Rasool ki saza, sar tan se juda!
@We are scholars. …
@We are scholars. Noble Quran never allows any one to kill some one in this way. Prophet said in his last sermon:
“Remember that everyone is a shepherd. You will be questioned about those under your care. If a non-Muslim were wronged in our State, I would personally plead on his or her behalf. Avoid extremes in religion. Peace, O Mankind! Peace”
This Mumtaz Qadri is a bastrd Crazy Fanatic. He with his all supporter Mullahs MUST BE hanged in front of Public & be buried w/o funeral
There is no any …
There is no any such law exists in Islam. This law was made by insane dictator Zia Haq.
Islam tell to protect minorities and nit to kill them by trapping them in false litigations that are bases on false evidence and personal revenge. But not less than 97% Mullahs in Pakistan are ignorant and they misuse Islam against Non-Muslims.
HANG THAT FILTHY …
HANG THAT FILTHY DEGENERATE INFIDEL !!!
SHOW NO MERCY !!!!
asia was bitch
asia was bitch
Death to to …
Death to to fanatic mullahs! These fanatics are the threats to our country. Suleman Taseer is a hero who sacrificed his life for the supporting poor innocent christian woman. Pakistanis salute to this brave man.
YES asia …
YES asia shold have to be HANGGGG.What the is wrong with this cristain woman to insult our HOLY RILOGION ISLAM
@fruitchat
To …
@fruitchat
To prove your claim, please give me the surah and ayah so I can check your claim.
As far as I know God is al rahman arrahim, only in the battlefield you have to kill the enemy. To me it seems those muslims were listening to shaytan and acting what shaytan wanted, they humiliated her and caused her to insult islam. Those muslims who did followed the shaytan should 100% be executed, the women should get a prison scentence and to report when muslims are humilating her.
@buildyourself2010 …
@buildyourself2010 islam does say if someone insult Allah or his prophet (mohammad p.b.u.h) they should be killed.now it doesn’t matter that person is christian,hindu or muslim.but when a muslim do this,he or she doesn’t remain muslim anymore.there are no options in this case.if she did what she is blamed for then she should be killed,but if she didn’t do & those women are victimizing her for their own jealousy or something, then they should be punished according to islam.