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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Re: [chottala.com] Asia Bibi still in prison. Government u-turn on law against blasphemy



Why Blasphemy Law is needed ? 
If needed why not for all religion ? Why Blasphemy law is using only to Minorities in Muslim and Christian countries. Why only Arabian Religion (Islam, Christianity & Jews) demand it ?

Rahul Barua
Dhaka

On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 10:40 AM, Syed_Aslam3 <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com> wrote:
 

01/03/2011 11:04
PAKISTAN

Asia Bibi still in prison. Government u-turn on law against blasphemy
by Jibran Khan
The Minister for Religious Affairs attempt to appease the Islamic parties and announces that the government does not want to amend the controversial law. Clashes between Muslim protesters and police near the house of the Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari. Lahore High Court still to fix the date of the appeal for the Christian woman sentenced to death.

Lahore (AsiaNews) - Asia Bibi is still waiting in jail for the High Court in Lahore to decide the date for her appeal against the death sentence for blasphemy passed in November 2010. In the midst of an imminent governmental crisis Islamic religious parties are stepping up pressure against the government to prevent any change to the controversial blasphemy law. In an attempt to ease the pressure, the government announced in no uncertain terms that it does not plan to eliminate or amend the blasphemy law. In a statement before the National Assembly on 1 January, the Minister for Religious Affairs Khursheed Shah said the government is not responsible for the proposal put to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Pakistan People Party (PPP) to change the law. The Parliamentarian Rheman Sherry submitted the proposed amendment to Parliament. "The government has no plans to remove the blasphemy laws ... to ensure respect of the Holy Prophet is part of our faith," said Kursheed Shah.

The minister assured the minorities that the government will take the necessary steps to ensure that the law is not misused against them. Protests by Islamic parties began when President Asif Ali Zardari announced his intention to pardon Asia Bibi, a Christian sentenced to death on false charges. The government had previously indicated their willingness to amend the law, and had formed a committee for this purpose, headed by Minister for Minorities Shabahz Bhatti.

A national strike to protest against the proposed amendment to the Act took place December 31, 2010 organized by radical Islamic parties. The protesters tried to reach the residence of President Zardari in Karachi, throwing stones and had to be charged by riot police with tear gas. They shouted slogans against Asia Bibi and MP Rheman Sherry, and in defense of Muhammad: "We sacrifice our lives, we will save the sanctity of the prophet." Dr. Nazir Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress, harshly criticized the slogans chanted by the radicals, and even the silence of Christians MPs during the declaration of the Minister for Religious Affairs. "It 's a shame that they did not have the courage to walk away, but listened in silence to the minister's repudiation," he said.

Meanwhile the AsiaNews campaign continues: salviamoasiabibi@asianews.it

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Sentenced to hang : Asia Bibi

Asia Bibi is seen in an undated photo handed out by family members. PHOTO: REUTERS

Asiya Bibi had, in 2009, been asked to fetch water while working in the fields near Nankana Sahib, a town some 75 kilometres from Lahore. For this, it seems, she could end up at the gallows. A district court has sentenced the Christian mother of five to death for blasphemy, under the controversial section 295-C of Pakistan's Penal Code. She becomes the first woman to be convicted on the charge.

The whole matter exposes the absurdity of the provisions. From what we know of the story, some Muslim women labourers had objected to Asiya touching the water bowl on the grounds of her belief. It is, of course, a fact that their objection has no roots in Islam, a religion which makes no distinction on the basis of caste or creed. Unfortunately, clerics in the area to whom the women went a few days later, accusing Asiya of committing blasphemy, did not bother to point this out. The women have latched on to the allegations that the unfortunate woman had used derogatory language against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) and acted to bring her before a court. We should ask what our religious leaders are doing to correct the many misperceptions that seem to have crept into the minds of people about Islam and its principles. We would expect for instance that, as men committed to a faith based on tolerance, peace and equality for all humans, they would now step forward to state that there should be no space for bigotry of the kind seen at Nankana Sahib or for the raising of objections over fetching water which seem to have led to more serious charges.

It is unclear why Asiya should have chosen to commit blasphemy. The whole matter, like many of the cases of the same kind, seems to hinge entirely around blind bias and a desire to 'punish' minority communities. This is one reason why rights activists have sought changes in the blasphemy law for years, to ensure they cannot be used as a means to seek vengeance. A further complication is frequently created by the fact that extremist groups and clerics rally to create an environment which makes it difficult to look at matters fairly whenever a charge of blasphemy is brought. It is this environment which has played a part in encouraging actions that have led to persons accused of blasphemy being killed even before a final verdict can be delivered. Some have been murdered in jails; others outside courts. It is also true that a number of those who currently languish in jails after being held on charges of blasphemy suffer mental sickness and need treatment rather than imprisonment.

We need to find a way out of a situation that is growing worse by the year. The blasphemy provisions are used more often as a means to settle petty disputes. Asiya's sentence will be appealed in the Lahore High Court. Her husband maintains there is nothing to the charges. But the case exposes just how much hatred now runs through our society. It will add also to the insecurity felt by all minority groups which have already been pushed to the very sidelines of society with laws, such as those on blasphemy, acting to facilitate those who choose to act against them.

The government needs to ensure that the procedural change that was initiated in the law's operation is implemented. According to this, once a complaint has been received that an individual or individuals have committed blasphemy, a senior police official is tasked with first investigating to check whether the complaint has credibility. This is crucial because, more often than not, we have seen blasphemy charges levelled against people who are then convicted of them in the most dubious of circumstances, often by lower court judges who are afraid to give but a guilty verdict. In most such instances, the local Muslim population is often incited to act as a mob and during hearings the mere presence of so many charged people in and around the courtroom is enough to intimidate anyone. Perhaps the superior courts need to take notice of this case and order a retrial.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2010.

For more on this issue follow: blasphemy
The Express Tribune 
 
Also Read the Related stories:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/omar-waraich-a-rare-breed-of-politician-who-fought-for-tolerance-2176114.html

 

 

 




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[chottala.com] EVENT ADDRESS, NO ENTRANCE FEE



View TV.jpg in slide showView TV-2.jpg in slide showView TV-3.jpg in slide showView TV-5.jpg in slide showView TV-6.jpg in slide show

Date: January 8th, 2011 (Saturday)

Time From: 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM

 

No Entrance FEE

 

 

Event: John Adams Elementary School

 

Address: 5651 Rayburn Avenue

Alexandria, VA 22311

 



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[chottala.com] Koko Kahini: Arafat trial begins in absentia



  Arafat trial begins in absentia

Arafat trial begins in absentia

 
image Arafat Rahman

Staff Correspondent

A court on Tuesday started the trial of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's youngest son, Arafat Rahman, and former shipping minister Akbar Hossain's son, Ismail Hossain Saimon, in absentia in a money laundering case.

The judge of Special Judge's Court-3, Mozammel Haque, began the trial by recording depositions of the complainant in the case Abu Sayeed, also Anti-Corruption Commission's deputy director.

After recording his deposition, the court adjourned the hearing till January 19.

Earlier on November 30, 2010, the same court framed the charges in the absence of Arafat and Saimon and decided to hold the trial in their absence.

This is the first-ever case in which Arafat is facing formal trial.

Arafat and Saimon may be sentenced to seven years in prison if the charges are proved.

The court on November 30, 2010, also rejected a petition submitted by Arafat's lawyer, seeking cancellation of the warrants issued on October 31 for his arrest, saying that a petition for extension of his parole was pending with the home affairs ministry.

Arafat, arrested on September 3, 2007, in the GATCO graft case, has reportedly been undergoing medical treatment in Bangkok since July 19, 2008, after his release on parole.

The home ministry on August 19, 2010, cancelled the parole and asked Arafat to return home by August 31, 2010 and surrender to the court.

Arafat's lawyers challenged cancellation of the parole and the High Court bench of Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice Quazi Reza-ul Hoque, in its verdict on October 11, extended Arafat's parole by 20 days.

Arafat's lawyers filed a writ petition on August 24, challenging the government's decision. The High Court on August 26 asked the government to explain the legality of the cancellation of Arafat's parole and stayed the cancellation of the parole.

The High Court had also observed that Arafat could submit his medical documents to the government and request it to extend his parole.

The Appellate Division on October 13, however, stayed for six weeks the High Court's verdict.

Saimon has been on the run since the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the money laundering case on 17 March, 2009.

The ACC on November 12, 2009 submitted the charge sheet to the court against Arafat and Saimon for siphoning $28,84,000 and $9,32,000 to Singapore.

In the charge sheet, the anti-graft body said that the accused had smuggled the money they had received from the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd and Siemens for helping them win government contracts.

China Harbour won a contract worth Tk 351 crore to set up the New Mooring Container Terminal, and Siemens bagged a contract of Tk 239 crore to supply and install equipment for Teletalk, the state-owned mobile phone operator.

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/frontpage/3947.html

 

 



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[chottala.com] Once the Awami League goes . . .



Once the Awami League goes . . .
Syed Badrul Ahsan

Photo: Noor Alam/ Drik News
Our heads hang low, in unmitigated shame. Where the head should have been held high in this land of illuminating poetry and galvanising politics, it today takes a battering from those who should have shown us the way to a bright new world. Former prime minister Khaleda Zia has loudly and unabashedly served notice on the nation that once the Awami League goes out of office, all the acts and decisions it has taken in the past two years and will take in the remainder of its term will be considered illegal.

That is a bit rich coming from one whose party and political associates presided over, for a long time, some manifest wrongs in this beautiful country. And do not forget the long darkness they pushed us into as they tried commandeering our history and then putting it to the torch.

Let us now give free rein to our imagination in light of the portents of doom coming from the Begum. One of the first things the Bangladesh Nationalist Party will likely annul is the trial, conviction and execution of the assassins of the Father of the Nation. Please note that the BNP has said not a word in support of the judicial process that gave us back something of the self-dignity we lost as a people when Bangabandhu's assassins strutted free all around us. The impression was, and remains, one of the party's sulking at a return to rule of law.

So what Begum Zia means to do, if and when she regains political office, is declare the hanging of Farook Rahman and his accomplices an act of treason on the part of the Awami League government. She will then have Parliament restore the notorious indemnity ordinance in the constitution, to let us know that we the people committed a criminal act by restoring Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to the peaks that he was toppled from in August 1975.

Khaleda Zia's promise of vengeance will please everyone who has never been happy with Bangladesh, who indeed would like this country to mutate into a little Pakistan through a return to the morally outrageous two-nation theory once propagated by the All India Muslim League. Do not forget that between 1975 and 1996 and then between 2001 and 2006, this execrable political non-idea was put into operation in subtle fashion through so-called Bangladeshi nationalism.

Now, if the BNP comes back to power in this mood of fury and retribution, our future and the future of our children will once more come to rest in the hands of those who have never felt happy with Bengali nationalism. And a return to "Bangladeshi nationalism" will be one way of keeping this country divided, in a state of perennial ferment through a tribalisation of politics.

These people who feel unhappy with the spirit of 1971 will then ride roughshod over all of us. We will all fall together. It will once more be the war criminals of 1971 sporting the flag you and I fashioned, under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, on their vehicles as ministers in a country they tried murdering in 1971.

The bottom-line, for you and for me and for all citizens of this country, is for us to be on guard against a return to office of those who have for decades insulted our self-esteem as a people and have refused to do penance for their sins. In these past two years, there are some dark, bitter truths we have come across. It is that those who took the country for a ride in the five years before January 2007 have not learnt the truth about themselves.

They are unhappy with the people …because the people gave them no opportunity for a return to power in December 2008. There is in them absolutely no embarrassment about the plunder they resorted to in their glory days. They conveniently forget that it was they who first initiated and perfected the humiliation we today know as remand in custody. They humiliated academics, politicians and journalists in the dark confines of police stations and cantonments.

It was their wickedness which saw the electoral roll bursting with non-existent voters. It was their man (and we speak of President Iajuddin Ahmed) who was entrusted with the job of stealing an election from us through making sure that those who took away our happiness would come back to take away whatever else that remained.

The Begum and her party are worried about the conditions of their imprisoned colleagues and political associates in prison. That is acceptable and understandable. And yet we must ask them if their conscience has ever made them wonder how these prisoners dehumanised us all in the year when the state of Pakistan tried running us out of our own land. They are unhappy with the prospect of a war crimes trial. You do not expect a patriot, a proper Bengali, to go morbid at the thought of ageing war criminals getting their comeuppance.

Khaleda Zia's vow of nullifying every act of the Awami League is a patent threat to all of us. If the threat comes to pass, the sunlight will go fleeing from our lives, the moon will lose its luster, poetry will die, politics will be no more, rivers will not run and good men and women will be fugitives in the wild woods.

Everything will pall. Everything will pale. Everything will fall.

Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star. E-mail: bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=168742

Related:
 
'দেশনেত্রী' কি মানসিক ভারসাম্যহীনতায় ভুগছেন?
আবদুল গাফ্ফার চৌধুরী

http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/news_view.php?nc=16&dd=2011-01-05&ni=44580

 "কাউকে ছাড় দেয়া হবে না" -খালেদা জিয়া

 

 

 

 

 



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