RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18716/death-blasphemers-pakistan

“Muhammad Irfan came to my shop for wheel balancing for his motorbike. I balanced the wheel and demanded my amount of labour as settled between us. Muhammad Irfan refused to give me money and said, ‘I am a follower of Peer Fakhir [a Muslim ascetic] and don’t ask for money from me.'” — Ashfaq Masih, Christian falsely accused of “blasphemy” and sentenced to death by hanging, chuchinchains.ie, July 7, 2022.

“They both made conspiracy against me and lodged a false FIR [First Incident Report] against me. I told the real story to a police officer but he did not record my version but conducted investigation ex-parte. I neither uttered any derogatory word against Prophet Muhammad nor can think about it.” — Ashfaq Masih, chuchinchains.ie, July 7, 2022.

The Muslim judge, Khalid Wazir, presiding over the case, went so far as to state that “it could not be believed that a Muslim will spin a story in this regard,” while simultaneously describing the evidence presented by Masih’s defense team as “not believable. ”

“I don’t remember any case where the lower court decided to grant bail or freed anyone accused of the blasphemy law. The judges are aware that such cases are made to punish and settle personal grudges with the opponents, especially against the Christians…. Masih’s case was very clear—the shop owner wanted him out and Naveed was a business rival who implicated him in a false blasphemy case. He is innocent and has already spent five years in prison for a crime he never committed.” — Nasir Saeed, Director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, claas.org.uk, July 7, 2002.

Masih’s case is now at least the third death sentencing of its kind since the start of this year.

In February 2022, Zafar Bhatti, 58 — another Christian man who had been serving a life sentence under a false accusation of blaspheming Muhammad in a text — was given a death sentence.

In January 2022, Aneeqa Atteeq, a Muslim woman, was sentenced to death after a Pakistani court pronounced her guilty of insulting Muhammad in text messages she had sent to a man via WhatsApp. She had offered a more plausible if not prosaic explanation: the man who reported her was getting “revenge” on her because she had refused his advances.

Horrific as it is to be accused of blasphemy in a Pakistani courtroom, it is even far worse to fall into the hands of a Pakistani mob. A decade-old report found that in Pakistan, between just 1990 and 2012 alone, “fifty-two people have been extra-judicially murdered on charges of blasphemy.”

“Anyone Who Touches the Prophet, No Punishment—Just Kill!” — Yello Babo, Muslim cleric in Nigeria, Persecution.org, May 16, 2022.

On July 4, 2022, a Christian mechanic who had been imprisoned for the last five years, awaiting trial under a false accusation of “blasphemy” for allegedly insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, was sentenced to death by hanging in a Pakistani court.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18707/britain-pm-iran

[U]nder [Boris Johnson’s] premiership, Britain backed attempts by other Western signatories to the deal — the US, France and Germany — to revive the JCPOA in the face of mounting evidence that Tehran has absolutely no interest in abiding by its commitments.

In the latest indication that Iran is in breach of its JCPOA commitments, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Tehran’s nuclear activities, has reported that Iran has recently escalated its uranium enrichment activities at its underground Fordow facility.

Experts say this will enable Iran to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels without being detected by IAEA inspection teams.

Consequently, with Mr Johnson soon to depart from Downing Street, there is a golden opportunity for his successor to adopt a new, more robust policy towards Tehran, one that clearly identifies the ayatollahs as posing a clear and present danger to the security of Britain and its allies.

The scale of the Iranian threat is reflected in last week’s statement by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that Iran had agreed to supply Russia with hundreds of drones to support its war effort in Ukraine.

The revelations concerning Iran’s deepening involvement in the Ukraine conflict should certainly concern the British government….

The recent upsurge in Iranian military activity, both in the Arabian Gulf and Ukraine, provides incontrovertible evidence that, far from trying to reach an agreement with the West, Iran appears determined to intensify hostilities.

Britain, together with other signatories to the JCPOA, must base its policy on the assumption that Iran is a hostile regime, not one that has any interest in reaching a peaceful accommodation with the West.

Boris Johnson’s dramatic removal from office gives Britain a superb opportunity to adopt a new policy towards Iran, one that takes proper account of the deadly threat the Iranian regime poses to Britain and its allies.

From his time as foreign secretary to his more recent tenure as prime minister, Mr Johnson’s attitude towards Iran and its illicit nuclear activities can most charitably be described as equivocal.