A Zoroastrian Comments on the Asia Bibi Case

Havovi Cooper is a Pakistani writer over at The Huffington Post and she has written a very interesting article, titled Asia Bibi and Pakistan's Selective Persecution.

As you read Cooper's article, keep in mind that she is neither Muslim or Christian, but rather calls herself a zoroastrian.  Her comments are worth pondering.

I am a minority in Pakistan myself. Hailing from the Zoroastrian community, which has fewer than 2,000 people left in the biggest city, Karachi. I have never been overtly harassed by the Muslims surrounding me, but that may have more to do with the fact that I grew up in a metropolitan city with people who were exposed to diversity. Asia Bibi unfortunately was trapped in a small village in Punjab where tolerance is often more likely to be extended toward an animal than a human being from a different religion.

This case may lead most Westerners to cement their views of Muslims or Pakistanis as intolerable, religious fanatics who cannot tell right from wrong when it comes to their faith. And unfortunately, if Asia Bibi is forced to mete her fate at the gallows, I would have to agree with that viewpoint. That is the reason why it is important for all Pakistanis to be intolerant toward such intolerance and plead to our president, who's hands are supposedly tied by Islamic extremists and by stilted laws, to show that Pakistan as a nation will not stand by such hypocrisy. Having grown up in Pakistan, I know that the law is not impartial and that a poor person's suffering is not as important as that of a rich person and a woman's as that of a man. If a rich brat were to consume alcohol, steal or even kill in Pakistan it would not turn heads, but to establish religious absolutism and make an example of Asia bibi, is something the nation does not seem to be up in arms about.

Pakistani's are not the only ones who should feel responsible if she's put to death. Since America has inextricably tied its fate with Pakistan's, President Obama is now faced with a gift-wrapped situation whereby he can show that not only does America care about winning the war on terror, but it is also there to look out for the ordinary citizens of this country.