Last week, John Allen, a journalist for Crux and one of the loudest and most persistent voices defending persecuted Christians, wrote a piece on Asia Bibi, the Christian Pakistani woman who was just released from nine years in prison, and indeed on death row, on a blasphemy charge. The Pakistani Supreme Court courageously acquitted her of the charge. Now, Bibi’s life is threatened by mobs asking for her head and the Pakistani government is providing her protection within Pakistan. She is awaiting asylum from a foreign government, but thus far certain hopeful countries have demurred, including the U.K., who is citing security concerns.
Allen then, to my great delight, used Bibi’s case as a reason to revisit the Under Caesar’s Sword project, and especially our public report. He wrote:
Although there are several annual reports on religious freedom violations worldwide, few focus specifically on anti-Christian persecution, and this is the first to ever ponder not merely the fact of oppression but how Christians respond to it.
Read the rest of what he had to say. It was gratifying to see what Allen thought worth conveying and highlighting.
To continue to follow the Bibi case, this piece by Nina Shea, also one of the most passionate defenders of religious freedom, deftly zeroes in on the salient issues and stakes.