The Wrong Colour Of Black? by Les May

IN November 2018, I wrote an article for Northern Voices with the title ‘The Silent Sisterhood’. It raised the question of why feminist politicians and journalists had so little to say about the plight of Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman who had fallen foul of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws, had spent eight years in jail, had finally been declared innocent by the Supreme Court, and was still being held in custody so that the court’s decision could be ‘reviewed’ as a sop to the mobs demanding that she be hanged.

As I pointed out at the time there has never been any shortage of white, affluent, western feminists ready to discover examples of ‘misogyny’. Just another case of selective outrage it would seem. Is it going to happen all over again with the Black Lives Matter supporters displaying their own unique brand of selective outrage?

On Tuesday a 22-year-old woman died of severe injuries in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after being gang raped. The same day another 19-year-old woman died two weeks after she was gang-raped and strangled by upper caste men. Both were Dalits and in India's caste-based hierarchy Dalits are ranked the lowest and have been referred to as ‘untouchables’ in the past. Last month, a 13 year old Dalit girl was raped and murdered in the same state. Last year, two Dalit children were allegedly beaten to death after defecating in the open.

As with religious minorities in Pakistan where Christians like Asia Bibi are persecuted and young Hindu women forcibly converted to Islam before being married to older men, India’s caste system is structural discrimination because although in both cases technically illegal, it is built into the fabric of those societies.

Concern is expressed about Facebook, Instagram and Twitter becoming echo chambers reinforcing the existing attitudes and prejudices of their users. We hear nothing about how the choice of issues by the mainstream media determines what is ‘news’ and what is not; what causes outrage and what does not. We all know and can remember the name of George Floyd because his murder has been extensively covered in the press and on television. Unlike the USA, India and Pakistan are not part of the affluent West where ‘people are just like us’ and those of us who happen to have been born with a white skin can be made to feel guilty about events which happened a long time ago and in which we played no part.

Will anyone be asked if they will ‘take a knee’ in memory of these two young Dalit women; will some ‘Royal’ chip in his four penn’orth? I doubt it; selective outrage is the order of the day!

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'FREE AT LAST' THE MEMOIR OF ASIA BIBI

FREE AT LAST - ASIA BIBI

Asia Bibi was called the 'world's most persecuted woman'. A Roman Catholic Pakistani, she was sentenced to death for blasphemy after a dispute over a cup of water with Muslim villagers who were picking fruit with her. She spent eight years on death row waiting to be hung before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, quashed the case against her. Although some Pakistanis wanted to lynch her, some spoke out in support of her. A provincial governor in the Punjab, Salman Taseer, was murdered after speaking in support of her and for opposing Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Shahbaz Batti, Pakistan’s Christian minority’s minister was also shot dead for his opposition to the blasphemy law. Her defence lawyer, Saiful Mulook, fled to the Netherlands in fear of his life.

As a persecuted Christian, the family of Asia Bibi sought asylum from the UK Government, but this was refused by the Conservative Government led by Theresa May, the daughter of an English vicar. May refused the family asylum on the grounds that it might increase community tension in the UK and put the lives of British embassy staff working in Pakistan at risk. When Asia Bibi's husband and daughter came to London, they were told by the government's trade envoy for Pakistan, Rehman Chishti MP, that nobody representing the government was prepared to meet them. He resigned his position in protest.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour Party, also seemed reluctant to speak up for Asia Bibi. Brian Bamford, a Unite member and the Secretary of Tameside Trades Union Council, wrote on two occasions to Jeremy Corbyn asking where Labour stood in respect of an asylum claim from the family of Asia Bibi, but he never received a reply to his emails.

At a meeting organised by the North West TUC, Bamford asked during a discussion about racism and Tommy Robinson, whether cases like Asia Bibi involving religious persecution of Christian's by the mob, played into the hands of the far right in England and made racism more likely.  The Asian speaker replied that this was a matter for Pakistan and that this country had no right to interfere in the affairs of another country.

Angela Rayner, the local MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, incorrectly told a local Labour Party member that Labour were keen to help Asia Bibi but her family had made no application for asylum. Yet, Jeremy Corbyn didn't hesitate to take up the cudgel for the so-called ISIS bride, Shamima Begum. The Trades Council concluded that the Labour Party were possibly afraid of alienating the Muslim Labour vote.

When I circulated details of the desperate plight of Asia Bibi to various people, including the Momentum member, Sheila Sheppard, the Secretary of Stalybridge Constituency Labour Party, she politely told me to piss off, questioning why I had included her and pointed out that I was not a member of Stalybridge CLP and that there was nothing they could do to help Asia Bibi. I was told not to send her any more communications.

Many feminists were also conspicuously silent about the case of Asia Bibi possibly because they feared  offending cultural sensibilities or because she was a Roman Catholic Pakistani peasant woman and not a famous actress who'd been sexually violated.

Fortunately, the Canadian Government had more guts than the British Conservative government that let the Pakistani mobs dictate British asylum policy, or the Labour Party that gave preference to Labour votes before compassion and humanitarianism.

Asia Bibi and her family are now settled in Canada, despite the death threats of Muslim fanatics. From her new home in Canada, she now campaigns on behalf of other persecuted Christian's in Pakistan. I hope to get a copy of her autobiography 'Enfin Libre', when it becomes available in English - its been written in French - and possibly review it. It should be a compelling and interesting read.

Is Labour losing its traditional voters?

by Brian Bamford

A POST ELECTION REPORT   from  Steve Gillan (POA), the TUC-JCC General   Secretary, POA, claimed 'Brexit was a key issue' and Labour lost 37% of leave voters who voted Labour in 2017, and 21% of remain voters who voted Labour in 2017.

A recent comment in Heywood and Middleton from a Labour canvasser, campaigning on the doorstep, told me people were closing their front doors when they realised it was Labour on the knocker.  

It was said that this dislike seemed to be down to two things: an intense dislike of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour's stance on Brexit.

Heywood, near Rochdale, has long been a solid Labour constituency but at the General Election in December the local Labour candidate was defeated by the Conservative.  

Steve Gillan in his report also claimed 'we should be building on, increasing and challenging the growth of the far right, anti-semitism and Islamophobia.'

 Yet,  as the Secretary of Tameside TUC, I wrote twice to Jeremy Corbyn asking him where he stood as regards the case of the persecuted Pakistani Catholic Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan.  She had drank water from a cup used by Muslim fruit pickers to quench her thirst and had spent eight years on death row.  The family sought asylum for Asia in the UK but nobody from Theresa May's government was prepared to meet her husband and daughter when they came to London.  May refused asylum to the family because she said it could lead to racial unrest in the UK and put the lives of British diplomats at risk in Pakistan. 

Meanwhile, Corbyn never gave us a reply and I'm not aware of him speaking publicly about her case. We concluded that he was frightened of alienating the Muslim Labour vote.  I asked a Labour Party friend to speak to Angela Rayner about Asia Bibi. Rayner told him that Labour was supportive but the problem was the family hadn't applied for asylum in the UK, which was untrue.  Corbyn, did however, speak out publicly in support of the Isis bride, Shamima Begum, demanding that her British citizenship be restored. Asia Bibi and her family were eventually given asylum in Canada where she campaigns on behalf of other persecuted Christian's in Pakistan.

The Heywood and Middleton constituency in Lancashire has a strong Roman Catholic presence, having received immigrants following the Irish potato famine in the 19th Century.   Among today's fashionable addicts they they are now yesterday's people and the recent failure of Rochdale's Labour councillors to condemn an axe attack on four tree surgeons working in the Newbold area of Rochdale in October 2017 by an Asian gang shouting 'white bastards' at them, seems to be a symptom of post-modernity.  This might sound like blatant 'Orientalism', but the thing is Irish Catholics are no longer the flavour of the month in politics, and the local Labour Party is more inclined to wag-its-tail and fly the flag of Kashmir or Pakistan outside Rochdale Town Hall these days. This may go some way to explaining why Heywood and Middleton, which is one of the two Rochdale constituencies, now has a conservative MP.  Labour is so frightened of offending the Asian clans that it appears to be losing the white working class.

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An Opportunity for Feminists to Speak Out

by Les May

TODAY the ‘i’ newspaper carried an item which read;

‘Cleaners at HM Revenue and Customs offices are to stage a 48 hour strike.  Members of the Public and Commercial Services union at ISS in Bootle and Liverpool will walk out on 15 and 16 July.  The union wants a £10 an hour minimum and terms and conditions equivalent to other HMRC staff’. (my emphasis)

Many feminists focus only upon any differences in the pay received by men and women.   They want those to be removed but the hierarchies within groups to remain.  That includes hierarchical differences in terms and conditions.

What the cleaners are looking for is equivalence with HMRC staff in the terms of leave and sick pay.   No doubt many of them will be women, perhaps a majority. Is this going to be another case like that of Asia Bibi where the usually vocal feminists remain silent?

https://www.pcs.org.uk/news/iss-cleaners-vote-for-strike-action

I would like to see it mandatory for all employees of a company or organisation to have the same terms and conditions of employment.   If more unions press for this the Labour party may be persuaded to adopt it as something to appear in the next manifesto.

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ASIA BIBI LEAVES PAKISTAN

ASIA BIBI, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy, has left the country, officials have confirmed.

Her conviction was overturned last year by the Supreme Court.  She was originally convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a row with her neighbours.

Asia Bibi has always maintained her innocence in a case that has polarised Pakistan.
Pakistani government officials did not reveal her destination, or say when she left.

But her lawyer Saif ul Malook told the BBC she had already arrived in Canada, where two of her daughters are understood to have been granted asylum.

Asia Noreen - commonly known as Asia Bibi - was kept at a secret location while arrangements were made for her to leave the country.

The Supreme Court's quashing of her sentence last October led to violent protests by religious hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws, while more liberal sections of society urged her release.

The trial stemed from an argument Asia Bibi had with a group of women in June 2009.  They were harvesting fruit when a row broke out about a bucket of water. The women said that because she had used a cup, they could no longer touch it, as her faith had made it unclean.

Prosecutors alleged that in the row which followed, the women said Asia Bibi should convert to Islam and that she made offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in response.
She was later beaten up at her home, during which her accusers say she confessed to blasphemy. She was arrested after a police investigation.

Acquitting her, the Supreme Court said that the case was based on unreliable evidence and her confession was delivered in front of a crowd "threatening to kill her".

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Asia Bibi offered Asylum by Canada!

   

Source: HuffPost 29-1-2019

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy, is expected to soon arrive in  Canada after accepting an offer of asylum, says a source close to her family.

The news comes as Pakistan’s top court today rejected a challenge to the acquittal of the mother-of-five on blasphemy charges, after she was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

The Supreme Court upheld its decision to overturn Asia Bibi’s conviction and death sentence sparking fears of civil unrest which plagued her release last year.

Wilson Chowdhry of the British Pakistani Association told HuffPost UK: “I can confirm that Asia Bibi will be flown out to Canada very, very soon and be joined in Canada by the rest of her family in due time.”

He said Canadian diplomats are making the necessary arrangements and that Bibi “is looking forward to her new life in a new country.”

It is hoped Bibi will join two of her daughters, who have already been secretly transported to Canada, Chowdhry said.

Canada’s Global Affairs department would not confirm Chowdhry’s update, but said that Bibi’s case is a “priority” for the Canadian government.  

“Canada is prepared to do everything we can to ensure the safety of Asia Bibi,” Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Brittany Fletcher said on Tuesday. “We urge the Government of Pakistan to take all necessary steps to keep her safe. Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right, and must be fully respected.”

Speaking on background, officials told HuffPost Canada they are actively working to secure her release but won’t confirm details due to safety concerns for Bibi and diplomats.

Chowdhry, a close friend of the Bibi family who travelled the world trying to secure her asylum, said Bibi was moving to a secret and “relatively remote” part of Canada.

“Security concerns are still paramount. Even in Canada, Asia’s life is in potential danger.”

Bibi, a farm labourer, was released from prison two months ago after Pakistan’s highest court acquitted her in a landmark decision.

Last month, a delegation from the British Pakistani Christian Association visited Canada and garnered support from MPs there, who said they would welcome Asia and her family to the country.

The Trudeau government has the support of the opposition Conservatives, who have urged him to “use every mechanism at his disposal to offer the Bibi family asylum.”

Last November, Trudeau told reporters, while in Paris: “There is a delicate domestic context that we respect which is why I don’t want to say any more about that, but I will remind people Canada is a welcoming country.”

Bibi spent years in solitary confinement after an argument with a group of Muslim women in June 2009, who accused her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. But last fall, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned her conviction, saying the case against her was based on flimsy evidence.

Her acquittal sparked violent protests across the country, led by Islamic religious hardliners from the extremist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik, whose leaders were later arrested and detained on terrorism and sedition charges.

Days after her release, Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih made an impassioned video plea to British Prime Minister Theresa May asking for asylum in the UK.

But her appeal for sanctuary was denied by the UK’s home office because of fears British embassies and diplomatic staff would be targeted by Islamic extremists.

Several countries have reportedly offered Bibi asylum, including: France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Italy and Australia.

Chowdhry told HuffPost that  Bibi and her family spent Christmas together in a “safe and secret location” with a core of “international diplomats” guarding her.

With reporting from HuffPost Canada’s Samantha Beattie and Althia Raj. 

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story reported that Asia Bibi had accepted an offer of asylum from the Canadian government. Officials say they are still “working” on the “priority” case. The story has been updated to reflect that.

WHAT If the court refuses to allow the appeal?

 

 If the court refuses to allow the appeal, it will remove the last legal hurdle facing Asia Bibi.

PAKISTAN's Supreme Court will decide on January 29 whether to allow an appeal against its acquittal of a Christian woman at the centre of a blasphemy row, a lawyer involved in the case said on Thursday.

If the court refuses to allow the appeal, it will remove the last legal hurdle facing Asia Bibi, who is a prime target in Pakistan and remains in protective custody.

Bibi was on death row for eight years for blasphemy, a hugely sensitive charge.

The Supreme Court's decision in October last year to overturn her conviction ignited days of violent demonstrations, with enraged militants calling for her beheading, mutiny within the powerful military and the assassination of the country's top judges.

The government has since launched a crackdown on the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party - the militant group driving the violent protests - charging its leaders with sedition and terrorism.

But authorities also struck a deal with the protesters to end the violence, forming an agreement which included allowing a final review of the Supreme Court's judgement.

On January 29, "the court will determine if our appeal against her acquittal is admitted", Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, the lawyer who filed the petition seeking an appeal, told AFP.

"Usually the court decides on the same day if the appeal is admitted or not," he added.

Under Pakistan's legal system any private citizen can petition the courts on any matter of public interest or human rights, as in the Bibi case.

However legal experts said it would be highly unusual for the Supreme Court to overturn its own decision, especially one that as carefully drafted as the Bibi ruling.

"It is very rare," lawyer Saad Rasool told AFP.

The three-member bench that will hear the petition will be headed by new Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, considered the country's top expert in criminal law and who helped draft the decision to acquit Bibi.

Approximately 40 people are believed to be on death row or serving a life sentence for blasphemy, according to a 2018 report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Speculation has been rife since Bibi's acquittal that an asylum deal with a European or North American country may be in the works.

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Asia Bibi Needs a Smartphone

by Les May

RAHAF Mohammed al-Nun is an 18 years old woman who has renounced Islam, fled Saudi Arabia, claims that if she were returned she would be killed, has been declared a refugee by the United Nations and has been granted asylum in Canada. Asia Bibi is 52 years old Pakistani woman who was on death row for eight years before being declared innocent of blasphemy by the Pakistan Supreme Court.  Since 2 November last year she has been in protective custody to keep her safe from mobs who refuse to accept the verdict of the court and want to hang her.

Whilst Rahaf has been enabled to start a new life Asia is still effectively a prisoner separated from her children and her husband.  So why the difference? Why has Rahaf attracted world wide attention and Asia been largely forgotten?

There’s a clue in a long article by Janet Street-Porter (JSP) in today’s Independent.  JSP slants her article so that Rahaf is to be seen as a woman fleeing from a male dominated society.  She even manages to bring in the 120 or so women at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre who, like Asia Bibi are separated from their family, as no doubt the men are too.  Rahef’s ‘crime’ is to simply want to make decisions about her own life. Asia Bibi’s is to be a Christian in a predominantly Muslim country.   The option she was given was convert to Islam or be tried for blasphemy. There’s no ‘feminist’ angle here.  It is, or should be, a human rights issue and deserving of our support for that reason.

There are two other reasons why these two women have been treated differently. When Rahaf reached Canada she was greeted by a government minister who went on to praise her countries diplomats.  Giving her asylum will not improve relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan has close ties with the UK, but Asia Bibi is something of an embarrassment to our government.   The Foreign Office has opposed offering her asylum, though it has been unwilling to go on the public record as to why it has taken this stance. Some people have viewed this as a willingness to ‘bend the knee’ to right wing extremists in Pakistan. I’m one of them.

The second reason is the simple fact that Rahaf has a smartphone and Asia Bibi does not. In one day Rahaf acquired 27,000 ‘followers’ on Twitter with her hashtag #SaveRahaf. For the Saudis the plight of one young woman had grown to an international incident overnight.

At present Asia Bibi is an innocent woman being held under what is effectively house arrest.  The president of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has shown himself unwilling to act to make sure she goes free immediately. Governments treat him with kid gloves in the hope of keeping him ‘on side’.  Saudi Arabia pumps money into the country to keep it solvent.   There’s little sign that the Bibi case will ever ‘go viral’ on Twitter. It seems being a Christian is seriously uncool amongst the Twitterati.

No doubt Rahaf’s story will get an outing in the Sunday papers this weekend and probably next week she’ll feature on Woman’s Hour.  As for Asia Bibi I’m not holding my breath as I wait for the feministas to notice.

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Scottish Nationalists call for Asylum for Asia Bibi

SCOTTISH National party MPs, according to The Guardian today, have written to Theresa May calling on the UK to grant asylum to Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi and her family, who have been in hiding in their home country since her acquittal on blasphemy charges last month.

A letter from SNP frontbencher Carol Monaghan, co-signed by the party’s other 34 Westminster MPs, warns that Bibi lives in extreme danger in Pakistan where “violent mobs are calling for her execution”.

Monaghan and her colleagues 'commend Canada, Spain and France for their offers of asylum, and note that Germany and Italy have reportedly held talks with Pakistan on the issue'.

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A Symbol of Global Repression

by Les May

THE title of this piece is that used by the ‘i’ newspaper to preface two extracts, one from The Times and the other from the Daily Telegraph.  Both relate to the case of Asia Bibi the Pakistani Christian woman who was held on death row for eight years accused of blasphemy before finally being acquitted by the Pakistan Supreme Court.   The acquittal resulted in mobs taking to the streets demanding that she be hanged.  The rioting mobs were only placated when the president of Pakistan Imran Khan said that her acquittal would be ‘reviewed’.  Since then she has been in hiding and her defence lawyer has fled to the Netherlands of fear of his life.

A report in The Telegraph quoted Jeremy Hunt the Foreign Secretary as saying:  ‘So often, the persecution of Christians is a telling early warning sign of the persecution of every minority. But I am not convinced that our response to the threats facing this group has always matched the scale of the problem’.

A Times editorial said ‘Asia Bibi’s case symbolises the fate of persecuted Christians around the world. It is welcome that the Foreign Secretary has clarified the Government’s stance whilst acknowledging the UK’s failings with regard to safeguarding Christian’s overseas.’

What is both surprising and disappointing is that it has been left to a Tory cabinet minister and two Tory supporting papers to take up the Asia Bibi case. The normally very vocal so called ‘liberal left’ with its obsession with identity politics has ignored her plight.  I am also aware that some time ago one of the Northern Voices editors contacted Jeremy Corbyn’s office for a response to the Asia Bibi case.  A reply is still awaited.

As I have mentioned before I have no axe to grind on this as I am an atheist.   But I cannot help noticing that all too often, because some Christians express views about homosexuality and abortion that some people do not like, Christians are seen only as persecutors of others and never as victims of persecution.

So far as I am concerned Christians are free to believe that they know what God thinks about homosexuality or abortion and to tell the rest of us if they are minded to do so.  I am free to ignore them. It’s called tolerance and stems from the belief that freedom of speech is having the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Given that Asia Bibi is in fear of her life, yet her plight is ignored by the so called ‘liberal left’, puts into perspective the constant whingeing from assorted self interest groups about trivial incidents which they claim are ‘offensive’. A stray hand on someone’s knee or calling someone with full set of wedding tackle ‘he’ when they claim to be ‘she’, doesn’t really compare with having mobs on the street determined to hang you from the nearest lamp post.

Asia Bibi's solicitor to go back to Pakistan

 No date yet set for review of Asia Bibi case by Pakistan's Supreme Court

THE Pakistani solicitor, Saiful Malook, who successfully fought a long legal struggle to get Asia Bibi, the Christian woman at the centre of the current high-profile blasphemy case acquited, now says he will return home to represent her whenever the country's Supreme Court takes up a review petition against her.

Saiful Malook, who fled in fear for his life to the Netherlands following threats to him from radical Islamists after the Oct. 21 acquittal of Asia Bibi, said on Christmas Day that no date has been set by the court to hear the petition.

This announcement by Malook came as Asia, the 54-year-old mother of five, celebrated Christmas amid security despite being freed. Bibi had been on death row since 2010 on charges of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The extemely radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik political party held violent nationwide protests demanding her public execution after her release.

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Back To The Dark Ages?

by Les May

A WEEK or so ago Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan said that his government was spearheading efforts to get countries to sign upto an ‘International Convention on Preventing the Defamation of Religions’. Given that he is the head of a country which has perhaps the vaguest and most draconian blasphemy laws in the world, this is not good news.

The depth of Pakistan’s commitment to religions other than Islam can perhaps best be judged from the fact that in May the Punjab assembly passed legislation with the title Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Qur’an Bill, which makes it mandatory for children to learn the Muslim religious text in schools. The bill incudes the passage ‘Being an Islamic country, the free and the compulsory teaching of Holy Qur’an will definitely be a source of the establishment of a society based on the teachings of Islam’.

No alternative programme has been announced for non-Muslim students of Punjab.

Khan’s real intention seems to be to protect both religious and political Islam from criticism in an effort to maintain peace in his country where rioters have taken to the streets to demand that a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, be hanged for blasphemy.

The notion that his words ‘There were prophets of Allah other [than Muhammad], but there is no mention of them in human history.  There is negligible mention of them. Moses is mentioned, but there is no mention of Jesus in history.  But the entire life of Muhammad, who was Allah's last prophet, is part of history.’ might be offensive to Christians and indeed to anyone who, to paraphrase Tom Paine, ‘refuses to have their lives willed away by the manuscript authority of the dead’, does not seem to have occurred to him. (If you are offended you’ll just have to do as I have had to do, ‘get over it’.)

Modern scholarship has a different view of the origins of Islam which throws doubt on Khan’s claim that Muhammad is ‘part of history’.  This is what Amazon has to say about the book The Hidden Origins of Islam: New Research into Its Early History;

Despite Muhammad's exalted place in Islam, even today there is still surprisingly little actually known about this shadowy figure and the origins of the Qur'an because of an astounding lack of verifiable biographical material.  Furthermore, most of the existing biographical traditions that can be used to substantiate the life of Muhammad date to nearly two centuries after his death, a time when a powerful, expansive, and idealized empire had become synonymous with his name and vision - thus resulting in an exaggerated and often artificial characterization of the prophetic figure coupled with many questionable interpretations of the holy book of Islam.

On the basis of datable and localizable artifacts from the seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era, many of the historical developments, misconceptions, and fallacies of Islam can now be seen in a different light.  Excavated coins that predate Islam and the old inscription in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem utilize symbols used in a documented Syrian Arabic theology - a theology with Christian roots.

Interpreting traditional contexts of historical evidence and rereading passages of the Qur'an, the researchers in this thought-provoking volume unveil a surprising - and highly unconventional - picture of the very foundations of Islamic religious history.

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Origins-Islam-Research-History/dp/1591026342?tag=firstthings20-20#customerReviews

This book would undoubtedly fall foul of any international convention which enacted what Imran Khan is proposing, because it strikes at the beliefs of many Muslims, by questioning the origin of their faith.  That would mean that the authors and the publishers would be liable to prosecution.  The answer is not to ban it, but to provide the evidence that it’s conclusions are wrong.

Sadly Khan is only takIng to its logical conclusion a trend which is already well established in the West.   Increasingly we have people trying to grab the moral high ground by claiming that something they read or hear, and do not like, is racist, anti-semitic, islamo-phobic, mysoginistic, trans-phobic, homo-phobic, patriarchal or in the latest catch all phrase, ‘hate speech’, and should not be said.

These terms have become the first response of people who seem to think they have the right never to be offended, but are seemingly unwilling to engage in any kind of debate which might change their perceptions. It is not just ‘activist’ groups which behave like this, it is the default position of many columnists in the mainstream press.

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