The husband of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death by hanging in 2010 for blasphemy, is urging the governments of the U.S., U.K., and Canada to grant her and his family asylum. Bibi is a Roman Catholic living under the repressive religious caste system in Pakistan. She was born and raised in the Sheikhupura district of Punjab, a place where Christians are second- or third-class citizens and relegated to lower-class jobs like cleaning and sweeping.
In 2009, Bibi was harvesting berries with a group of other women in a field, when she was ordered by a Muslim peer to fetch water from a well. She dutifully obeyed, but according to the strict religious norms of the region, committed an atrocious crime: She took a drink of water from a nearby cup, thereby contaminating the Muslim-reserved water with her Christian uncleanliness.
For this crime, a Pakistani court convicted her of blasphemy and sentenced her to death in 2010. The verdict was confirmed by the Lahore High Court, the ruling jurisdiction of Punjab, to the joy of many Islamic leaders around the country. Her case reverberated around the world and drew the attention of other religious leaders like Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, who defended her, dutifully adopting the modern view that this so-called blasphemy ought to be tolerated.
For the past nine years, Bibi has been living mostly in solitary confinement in an eight-by-ten-foot jail cell without windows in a Lahore prison. The Masihi Foundation, a human rights group, described her physical condition as “very frail,” and her health was reported to be in decline due to poor living conditions. She has on multiple occasions suffered from abuse by prison guards in an institution which is already known for killing inmates accused of blasphemy.
In 2011, the governor of Islamabad, Salmaan Taseer, was assassinated by his bodyguard in the middle of a market for defending Bibi. His son was kidnapped and held hostage for five years. The minority affairs minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, who also voiced opposition to the blasphemy law in question, suffered a similar fate at the hands of gunmen who ambushed his car and killed him.
In October 2018, the Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted her, citing contradictory and inconsistent testimonies. Islamists around the country protested, demanding she be killed.
On Nov. 2, the government of Pakistan struck a deal with the Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik that barred Bibi and her family from leaving the country. She is currently on the no-fly list and under constant threat of death by Islamist groups. Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said, “Placing Asia Bibi on the [Pakistani Exit Control List] is like signing her death warrant.” Despite being acquitted and “released,” she remains incarcerated.
I have in the past written in opposition to President Trump’s illiberal outbursts. His crass, brutish, and simplistic rhetoric is worrisome and dangerous, most notably his bypassing of institutions, anti-press ranting, and his shameless flirting with the nastiest of autocrats. But Trump is still president, a position frequently referred to as “leader of the free world.” With such a title, and its attendant power, comes the moral responsibility to defend religious minorities and hold countries to a standard of religious tolerance.
The U.S. was founded as a haven from the religious persecution at the time common in Europe. The Founding Fathers took great care to instill strict separation between religion and politics and have established the U.S. as a beacon for secularism worldwide, starting with our prized Constitution. Trump has never been shy of flaunting America’s greatness, and on some points, he is right.
He needs to reassert confidence in America’s moral superiority by granting Bibi political asylum and ensuring safe passage for her and her family to the U.S. as soon as possible.
It is clear this is a case of conflicting cultural values. Western values must prevail at all cost. It is the moral obligation of the United States, France, and the U.K. to intervene and circumvent the travel ban. In doing so, Trump would score political points at home across the board, from his Christian base to classical liberals and avowed secularists like myself. He needs to disregard the bien pensant multiculturalists and their self-loathing rhetoric who might oppose such interventionism. Their significance is little compared to the necessity of opposing the irrational plague that is religious sectarianism, of which Bibi is among many victims.
There are many reasons why millions of past and present immigrants, myself included, flock to the United States. Trump has a legitimate opportunity to embody these reasons. He needs to act on this opportunity with the vigor and conviction that the Oval Office requires.
Louis Sarkozy is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a student in philosophy and religion at New York University. He is the youngest son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
