Asia Bibi

[Silentlyobserving]

Brendan on the abandonment of Asia Bibi in Spiked: www.spiked-online.com/2018/11/05/the-abandonment-of-asia-bibi/

I don't think we should speculate on her location.

? It was in the press. I'm hardly releasing classified information.

Just seen this on Twitter, I just hope it is not true that the UK is refusing to offer refuge: twitter.com/Ayaan/status/1061120690613452801

I'm really hoping that she has been granted asylum in a safe country and given a new identity. Much better for nobody to know her whereabouts. The poor woman and her family have been through enough already.

UK 'Won't Offer Asylum To Asia Bibi Amid Security Concerns'

The British Pakistani Christian Association said UK government is concerned about "unrest among certain sections of the community."

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/britain-not-prepared-to-offer-asylum-to-persecuted-pakistani-christian_uk_5be3342be4b0dbe871a61b95?ncid=other_twitter_cooo9wqtham&utm_campaign=share_twitter&guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlYW1lcmljYW5jb25zZXJ2YXRpdmUuY29tLw&guce_referrer_cs=W3CHPdoAdb7aEMQD_0B3Xw

I don't buy that Huff Po article. Ultimately it would be Sajid Javid's call as Home Secretary, and I very much get the impression his attitude to the extremists within the UK Muslim community is very much "fuck you and the horse you rode in on" - and as a Muslim himself, he's in a position to say this. (Probably without the swearing though - he doesn't strike me as a particularly sweary person).

I don't buy it either. I doubt very much that any country who has been contacted is saying anything.

At least it's being picked up by the right people (I may have mentioned it once or twice but Nawaz is probably my go-to pundit right now).

twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1061225729759854592

Would the country that gives her asylum actually announce it? Wouldn't it be more sensible to do it on the quiet? I don't know how it normally works.

The Telegraph has also run a similar story to HuffPo - again with quotes from the group representing Pakistani Christians in the UK, and the standard "We can't comment on individual cases" comment from the Home Office.

Reading between the lines I'd guess what's really going on is this - pressure group pushing for pre-emptive offer of no-strings asylum. Home Office saying "Sorry folks, that's not how the law works - if she gets on a plane here, and claims asylum on arrival, because that's how the law does work, her case will be considered in the same way as anyone else's. It may well be the case that she has a very strong case, but we can't pre-empt the legal process."

I very much doubt it's a case of "The UK will not offer her asylum."

Would the country that gives her asylum actually announce it? Wouldn't it be more sensible to do it on the quiet? I don't know how it normally works.

I don't think the problem is finding a country that grants her and her family asylum. The problem is for the Pakistani decision makers to find the right time and have the balls to let her leave the country. They surely don't want to risk another round of crazy, destabilizing protests, now do they want to be assassinated the way two politicians, who spoke out for Asia 7(?) years back, were.