|
In this mailing:
- Giulio Meotti: The West Must Offer
Immediate Asylum to Asia Bibi
- Ruthie Blum: The Jews of the
North Africa under Muslim Rule
by Giulio Meotti • November 14,
2018 at 5:00 am
- Asia Bibi is expected
to remain in Pakistan until her case is once again
"reviewed in an appeal process" ordered by the Prime
Minister. Bibi's judicial process now looks infinite. Meanwhile,
thousands of Islamists fill the Pakistani streets, calling for
her execution.
- Many of the values
that make the West "the West" are now at stake in her
fate: freedom of expression, religious freedom, freedom of
movement, the rule of law, human dignity, and the separation of
church and state. If the West does not fight for Asia Bibi, for
whom should it fight?
- "If Asia Bibi is
denied asylum in the UK then what the heck is the point of the
asylum system?" — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, refugee from Somalia,
author and human rights campaigner.
- A London where an
ISIS-supporting preacher of Pakistani descent, Anjem Choudary,
is free and comfortable, while a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia
Bibi, would be unsafe and threatened, is the end of the West as
we know it.
Asia Bibi's
family has struggled for eight years to save her life, first to get
her off of death row in Pakistan, where she was falsely imprisoned
for "blasphemy," and now that she has been released, to try
to get asylum for her in the West. Pictured: Eisham Masih, one of
Asia Bibi's daughters, is greeted by Pope Francis in 2015. (Image
source: HazteOir/Wikimedia Commons)
Asia Bibi's case looks as if it is coming from
"another, medieval world."
Her "guilt," as an "unclean"
Christian, was for drinking water from a communal well, used by
Muslim neighbors. Two Muslim women alleged that because she, a
Christian, had touched the water from the well, the entire well was
now haram (forbidden by Islamic law). Bibi responded by saying
"I think Jesus would see it differently from Mohammed,"
that Jesus had "died on the cross for the sins of mankind,"
and asked, "What did your Prophet Muhammad ever do to save mankind?"
She was accused of insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad and put on
trial for "blasphemy." She was told to convert to Islam or
die.
by Ruthie Blum • November 14, 2018
at 4:00 am
- David Littman, before
his untimely death from leukemia in 2012, had intended this book
on the Maghreb to be the first in a series that would cover the
social condition of the Jews in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria,
Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Turkey -- an ambitious project
that he was unable to tackle in its entirety.
- "To his credit,
King Mohammad VI has made a point of preserving the Jewish
heritage of Morocco, especially its cemeteries. He has better
relations with Israel than other Muslim countries but still does
not recognize Israel and have diplomatic relations with the
nation state of the Jewish People." — Alan M. Dershowitz,
"What Is a 'Refugee'?"
- "[T]he task of
completing this exploration of the historical reality of Jewish
existence under the Crescent rests upon future generations of
researchers, to whom, it is hoped, our modest contribution will
serve as an inspiration." — David Littman.
Exile in the Maghreb, co-authored by the great historian David G. Littman
and Paul B. Fenton, is an ambitious tome contradicting the myth of
how breezy it was for Jews to live in their homelands in the Middle
East and North Africa when they came under Muslim rule.
"Ever since the Middle Ages," the book
jarringly illustrates, "anti-Jewish persecution has been endemic
to Muslim North Africa."
Littman, before his untimely death from leukemia in
2012, had intended this book on the Maghreb to be the first in a
series that would cover the social condition of the Jews of Tunisia,
Libya, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Turkey -- an
ambitious project that he was unable to tackle in its entirety.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment