It pains me to say it – but Boris Johnson is right about Asia Bibi

Sadly, offering Bibi refuge would prove controversial within a segment of the Muslim population in the UK, and around the world – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t follow through

Despite being freed by her country’s Supreme Court, Asia Bibi’s life is in danger. Violent mobs held the nation hostage in the aftermath of the verdict, demanding that the Pakistani Christian farm labourer, who had falsely been accused of blasphemy, be hanged.

The Pakistani government has appeared helpless in tackling the hardliners calling for her head, choosing instead a policy of appeasement. Disheartened by the government’s capitulation and afraid for his life, her lawyer has already fled to the Netherlands, and there are calls across the western world for her to be given asylum. Several countries have stepped forward to offer her sanctuary, but the UK is not one of them. Now, politicians such as Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid are urging the government to do so.

It seems likely that the reason for the UK dragging its feet is out of concerns of hostile reactions from within the Muslim population in Britain, and fear of attacks on its embassies overseas. If true, this would signal a shameful abandonment of our moral and humanitarian obligations.

Asia Bibi has lost almost a decade of her life due to religious bigotry for a crime she didn’t commit. The government could never give her back the time lost, but ensuring that she and her family live out their lives without persecution and fear of death is the very least it can do.

Relocating her to a sympathetic ally is the most practical step to take. In such a volatile environment, preventing her from leaving Pakistan may as well be a death sentence.

Boris Johnson argued that “we cannot allow the threat of violence to deter us from doing the right thing”, and you know things are bad when he seems like the voice of reason. But it is hard to disagree when he says that Bibi had an “overwhelming claim for compassion from the British government”.

Sadly, I think it is true that offering Bibi refuge would prove controversial within a segment of the Muslim population in the UK, and around the world – there is a lack of understanding of the facts surrounding the case as well as what the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s verdict actually entailed.

The fact that the Dutch have had to recall staff from their embassy in Pakistan, following threats after news of Bibi’s lawyer being offered asylum there got out, indicates that the UK does have genuine cause for concern. However, allowing fear to dictate our actions would only embolden extremist elements because it would indicate that their violent tactics are effective.

There have been several instances of clerics that hold extremist views on matters such as blasphemy, including some that have been banned in their home countries for being too incendiary such as Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri, being given a platform to spew their hatred to impressionable congregants in British mosques. In 2016, a Bradford taxi driver stabbed shopkeeper Asad Shah to death in Glasgow in a religiously motivated murder. He had been reportedly inspired by Mumtaz Qadri, the Pakistani bodyguard who murdered Governor Salman Taseer over his support for reforming the blasphemy laws that imprisoned Asia Bibi.

It is important to remember that British Muslims are not some monolithic entity, and there is no universal opinion on any matter, much less on Asia Bibi or blasphemy. Those with extremist views and violent tendencies are a very small minority. However, Muslim organisations like the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which describes itself as a “national umbrella body for Muslim organisations with over 500 mosques, educational and charitable associations affiliated to it”, can play an important role in shaping the opinion of the British Muslim community.

The MCB was at the forefront of the effort to tackle Islamophobia within the Conservative party, but had its credibility questioned by several politicians and commentators, including home secretary Sajid Javid who refused to deal with the organisation alleging that “too many of their members have had favourable comments on extremists and that’s not acceptable”.

This is the perfect opportunity for the MCB to alleviate its detractors’ concerns by stepping up and issuing a statement in support of Asia Bibi. Other smaller Muslim organisations and individual imams have already done so.

Bibi was innocent. Justice Khosa of the Pakistan Supreme Court described the evidence against her as “nothing short of concoction incarnate”.

Detractors of the Supreme Court verdict are demanding that Asia be tried under Islamic law, which is disingenuous because even a cursory reading of the verdict would have revealed that it was written in accordance with the Quran, hadiths, and Pakistani law – which itself is based on Islamic law. The people protesting possess neither the wisdom nor the integrity to appreciate it.

If imams in the hundreds of mosques affiliated with the MCB utilise their Friday sermons to discuss the matter in a constructive manner, this could have a major impact on the perceptions of those congregants that are mistrustful of the government and media or hold misguided notions on the topic.

This might not be an easy task to undertake, and might not prove popular within certain circles, but it is the right thing to do.