Woman seeks lumber, gets jailed

Woman seeks lumber, gets jailed
Nation's blasphemy law criticized for ambiguities, improper use

A woman in Pakistan went down the road from her family's construction supply business to check on some materials that had been borrowed, and returned with a charge of blasphemy against her, according to reports.

Martha Bibi, who lives in the small village of Kot Nanka Singh in Pakistan's Kasur District, was taken into custody after she went to a team of Muslims who are building a mosque and asked about the construction materials the group had borrowed.

The report comes from the international Christian human rights group International Christian Concern, as well as Assist News Service.

ICC said about six weeks ago, Martha and her husband, Butta Masih, loaned the Muslims some bamboos and logs for the project. But no one returned the equipment, or gave any notice of when that might happen.

"When Martha went to ask what had happened to the building materials, she got into a fierce argument with a shopowner near the mosque, but did not even mention religion. The woman she argued with told her husband, Mohammad Ramzan, that Martha blasphemed the prophet Muhammad," ICC said in a statement.

"Ramzan was so enraged that he gathered his neighbors and stirred them into a frenzy to march on Martha's home," the ICC continued.

Her husband reported the "large, furious mob" assembled and was marching toward his home so he and his wife fled, hiding in the home of a friendly neighbor. Accompanied and supported by police, the mob reached Butta and Martha's house late at night, and contacted Butta's parents, who had remained there.

"The fuming mob threatened my parents that our house would be gutted out if they had not handed us to them," the ICC report quoted Butta as saying.

The ICC said for hours, the mob threatened the family and searched the home, and finally dispersed so that the Butta and Martha could return.

"A relative of their neighbor Rashid came and said that the people wanted to burn Martha. He offered to speak for her innocence, but when they left to go speak to the leaders of the mob, the police accosted her and took her away in their patrol wagon," the ICC reported.

The couple have five children, from 9 years old into the teen years.

"Pakistanis ought to be ashamed that such a mockery is being made of their legal system," said Jeff King, the president of ICC. "Accusing a Christian of blasphemy to get them arrested is no way to resolve an argument. It is high time for Pakistan to repeal its infamous blasphemy laws."

Another Christian organization, Voice of the Martyrs, announced just a few days earlier that a Pakistani man, Shahbaz Kaka, was being treated at a medical facility after being released from a life prison term for blasphemy, of which he served 6 years.

In that case, VOM said, Qari Rafique, the head of a mosque, asked the man why he was using the toilet that was adjacent to the mosque. After he noticed a cross around his neck, he made a series of false accusations against Shahbaz, including statements to authorities that he "disgraced" the Quran by tearing pages out, cutting them into pieces and trampling them under his feet, a VOM source reported.

His arrest followed immediately, and he later was charged, tried, convicted and sentence to life in prison for his "crime," according to VOM.

"We rejoice with Shahbaz Kaka and his family at his release," said Todd Nettleton, the director of media development for VOM. "Yet we wonder about the injustice of his arrest and the six years he spent in prison. We are concerned for other Christians who still face persecution in Pakistan, and encourage the Pakistani government to provide true religious freedom in their country."

According to records, Christians have faced severe opposition from militant Islamic groups since Pakistan was formed in 1947 as the Muslim section in the partition of British India.

Christians routinely are barred from jobs and Christian merchants are harassed, and since the war in Afghanistan started, problems have intensified since Pakistani Christians are seen as being a part of an attack on Islam, VOM reported.

Sharia law, Islamic religious law, was adopted in 1998, and that further limited the rights of Pakistani Christians.

While Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan assures every citizen the right to profess, practice and propagate their religion, Christian organizations working within Pakistan report reality is quite different.

"Unfortunately very little evidence is needed to make a charge under the blasphemy laws and it is very difficult for non-Muslims to successfully contest the accusations," said one analyst.

That law reads: "Whoever by words, either spoken, or written, or by visual representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly, or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death."