While Asia Bibi is free, another Christian woman faces the same fate as her, sentenced to death for alleged blasaphemy.
Bibi’s lawyer, Saif-ul Malook, has taken up the case of Shagufta Kausar, a 45-year-old mother of four, and her husband.
Kausar is locked in the same prison cell in Multan Women’s Jail where Bibi had been incarcerated for many years. Kausar and her husband Shafqat Masih, 48, were condemned to death by a trial court in February 2014. Muhammad Hussein, a prayer leader at a local mosque, accused Masih of texting blasphemous text messages from Kausar’s cell phone with her “connivance.”
The people of the area surrounded the Gojra Police Station after Kausar and Masih were arrested. The mob demanded that the couple be handed to them so that they could be killed. The police resorted to including the harshest charges in order to disperse the protestors.
The Christian couple hails from the infamous town of Gojra, where in 2009 more than 100 houses were set on fire and 7 Christians killed by a violent mob over blasphemy allegations. Since then, tensions between Christians and Muslims have regularly flared.
The European People’s Party (EPP) has included in its European election manifesto a staunch defence of the continent’s Christian values and heritage saying we must preserve our “Christian values and fundamental principles”.
The text reads: “While Europe is diverse and nuanced, we have one thing in common: in every town and city there is a Christian church. Christmas, Easter and Pentecost are holidays we all share. We have to protect our European way of life by preserving our Christian values and fundamental principles.”
The EPP is the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and it is the grouping that Fine Gael belong to. Fine Gael’s election manifesto makes no mention of Christianity.
Gunmen have killed six people including a priest as Mass was being celebrated in a church in Dablo in northern Burkina Faso, officials say.
The attackers, said to number between 20 and 30, then burned down the church.
The town’s mayor, Ousmane Zongo, said that armed individuals burst into the Catholic church during mass and started firing as the congregation tried to flee. He added that there was panic as other buildings were burned down and a health centre looted.
Security sources told AFP that reinforcements were being sent from Barsalogho, some 45km (30 miles) to the south.
A local journalist told the BBC those killed included church elders and that residents were angry that soldiers in a nearby base did not respond promptly.
Jihadist violence has flared in Burkina Faso since 2016, and this is the third attack on a church in five weeks.
One IVF clinic has lashed out at another for offering a “baby or your money back” package.
The offer from Sims is for clients to pay in advance for two or three rounds of IVF, and they would receive a full refund if a successful pregnancy does ensue. However, if the client achieves pregnancy at the first go, there is no refund for the subsequent rounds of IVF they have already paid for but now will not use.
Merrion Fertility Clinic (MFC), an operation linked to the National Maternity Hospital, has questioned the offer from its rival, Sims IVF, on the basis that some women will end up paying more money unnecessarily.
“It is our considered opinion that such schemes do not reduce costs overall for the majority of patients and that they may even be unethical,” said MFC.
The Tanaiste has declined to place any emphasis on tackling the persecution of Christians in Ireland’s Foreign Policy.
He was responding to a question from Mattie McGrath, TD, who asked Mr Coveney, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if an interdepartmental committee will be established to oversee and monitor Ireland’s response to Christian persecution. The British Government has just issued an interim report on the matter. Ireland’s official overseas aid agency, Irish Aid, makes ‘gender equality’ one of its priorities, meaning it is willing to single out certain issues.
The Tanaiste said Ireland condemns “all forms of persecution on the basis of religion or belief, irrespective of where they occur or who the victims are”, and added that the Government is committed to promoting freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as the rights of persons “belonging to religious minorities”.
He also added that, within the EU, “Ireland works with partners to address the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities”.
The British Government report found that 80% of religious persecution worldwide is committed against Christians making them, by far, the most persecuted religious grouping in the world.
More than three-quarters of respondents to a poll said they would vote Yes in the upcoming divorce referendum, with just 8 per cent saying they would oppose the measure according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll. Eleven per cent said they did not know how they would vote and 4 per cent said they would not vote.
The referendum is aimed at removing from the Constitution the requirement that a couple must wait for four years out of the last five before filing for divorce.
The poll was taken among 500 voters in each of the three European Parliament constituencies, a total of 1,500 voters across 150 sampling points in all constituencies. The accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.5 per cent at the national level.
Stripping out the undecided voters and those unlikely to vote, the proposal enjoys the support of 91 per cent of respondents to the poll, with just 9 per cent ready to vote against it.
The number of abortions taking place in Ireland in the first year of the new regime is due to hit 10,000 if estimates by doctors facilitating the procedure are accurate. That would be a huge increase on the estimated 5,000 Irish women undergoing abortions in previous years, adding together the number of women who travelled to England annually or were thought to be using the abortion pill illegally.
There are no publicly-available, official figures as to how many abortions have taken place in Ireland since January but estimates have been provided by START, an activist group of doctors who were formed to campaign for repeal of the 8th amendment. Their 250 members are involved in providing abortions under the new law and they estimate they are carrying out 800-900 terminations a month. This would add up to a figure of over 10,000 for the whole year.
At the same time, women are still travelling to the UK for abortions in significant numbers. One British network of abortion clinics says the number of women with Irish addresses accessing abortion at its clinics between January and March was 64 this year, compared to 257 last year, which is still 25% of the previous demand.
The Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a meeting of political and faith leaders on Wednesday to discuss concrete ways of protecting Christians from persecution.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt attended the meeting at Lambeth Palace in London.
Archbishop Welby proposed that the UK use its trade links with countries where persecution occurs to pressure Governments to protect the freedom of religion of all believers.
Representing the Catholic Church, Archbishop Kevin McDonald said concern for religious freedom needs to inform policy across government, particularly on foreign Aid and the sale of armaments.
Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row after being charged with blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed has finally been released from custody and has arrived safely in Canada.
Last year, her death sentence was overturned by the Pakistani Supreme Court, but Ms Bibi was kept in custody when the ruling sparked violent protests by Islamic extremists.
Paul Coleman, Executive Director of the law firm ADF International, welcomed her release, but cautioned that many other Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan continue to face severe persecution and denial of their fundamental rights.
In the US, new rules have been issued to protect doctors and nurses with a conscientious objection to abortion.
The new regulations of the Department of Health and Human Services means medical personnel can’t be forced into doing abortions or abortion referrals. In Ireland, pro-life doctors who won’t perform abortions are required to refer women to doctors who will.
Prior to this, a lack of clarity meant pro-life doctors and nurses were vulnerable to discrimination that forced them out of their chosen specialties.
Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Director Roger Severino said the new rule ensures that medical professionals won’t be bullied out of health care because they decline to participate in actions that violate their conscience.
