Amazingly, the Catholic Church seems to have come to the defence of Catholics. This must have felt like a 5.0 on the Richter scale over at the Vatican. In any case, it is not too late and they need all the support they can get. Lets hope this is the beginning of official recognition of often brutal and sometimes grotesque persecution of Christians and other ‘infidels’ in Muslim dominated lands.
From CathnewsIndia:
Rome appeals for life of Pak Catholic woman
Published Date: November 16, 2010
Rome’s City Hall this week erected a banner pleading for the life of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy.
The banner, which features a large photo of the condemned woman above the slogan “Let us save Asia Bibi,” first appeared on Nov. 15.
It is the latest in a series of recent appeals by the City of Rome to spare the lives of prisoners, including Iranian woman Sakineh, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz.
Two years ago, City Hall erected a similar banner calling for the release of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who was finally freed on 14 Nov.
“We want to ensure that the square of the Capitol is a place of human rights and religious freedom,” said Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno endorsing the campaign launched last week by Italian TV station SAT 2000 and the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference.
“We can no longer accept that Christians are persecuted around the world,” Alemanno emphasized.
“Religious freedom is the foundation of individual freedom and supersedes all other human rights,” he noted.
Italian media have dubbed Bibi as the “Christian Sakineh” in reference to the Muslim woman sentenced to death in Iran.
The CEI swung into action in response to an appeal from Bishop Bernard Shaw of Lahore.
Meanwhile, Azione Cattolica, the leading Italian Catholic Action group has declared Sunday 21 November as a day of prayer for Bibi’s liberation.
“We want to strengthen our commitment to respect and protect the life of every person unjustly deprived of their freedom, or persecuted and condemned in any corner of the earth because religious freedom is a fundamental value for the good of mankind,” read a communique from Italy’s largest Catholic lay organization.
The accusations against Asia Bibi arose in June 2009 when her fellow Muslim women field workers accused her of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad.
However, Bibi’s supporters allege that she was denounced simply because she dared fetch water from a well belonging to a Muslim.
The Voice of the Martyrs, in operation since 1967, estimates that a Christian is
martyred for his/her faith every 3 minutes in the Muslim world. Their URL:
http://www.persecution.com.
That mild objection ought to really show them!
To paraphrase Churchill, she had a choice of shame or war and chose shame, the will happen soon.
Dear Rome,
I don’t care what you accept or what you don’t.
Reality has gotten ahead of you.
Christians are just fodder for sacrifice to Muslim fires.
Fit only to have scalding water poured down their throats.
And all of this not because they are Christians, but because they have absolutely no authorities, military or police, to defend them.
When will we have our fill of martyrdom?
When do we decide that it’s better to live in dignity than to live in dhimmitude?
Because a dhimmi is on his or her knees to Islam, not to Christ.
You cannot blaspheme against a prophet you don’t believe in in the first place.
To Bibi, Islam has always been profane.
She has committed no blasphemy at all.
And even if she had, in a civilized society she’d be left alone.
Blaspheme. The perfect definition of a victimless crime.