Lift up in prayer Aasia Bibi’s upcoming appeal at the Supreme Court, which is due to take place in the second week of October. Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death after drinking water meant for her Muslim colleagues, will have her appeal heard by Pakistan’s Supreme Court in October. Bibi was accused of blasphemy after the incident, and has been held in custody since June 2009. In November 2010 she was sentenced to death. There has been international pressure calling for her release. The Anglican Consultative Council, at its meeting in Lusaka in April, called for a fresh investigation into her case, leading to her ‘honourable acquittal.’ The primate of Australia described the case as a disgraceful application of Pakistan’s blasphemy law that brought tragedy and shame upon that beautiful nation. Aasia Bibi’s appeal was originally scheduled for 26 March, but was cancelled amid increased protests from Pakistan’s Muslim community.

This is Dawn’s story: ‘When I was 12 the Vietnam crisis occurred. My parents, who at the time lived in Ontario, Canada, helped the Vietnamese ‘boat people’ through a small Bible study group. This grew from helping one family to supporting five families. When I was a teenager, the Ethiopian famine occurred. I recall reaching out to World Vision to see how I could help, but they said there was little I could do, I chose to study to become a nurse, to help others, to make a difference. After marrying and having three children we proceeded with three international adoptions from China and Ethiopia.’ Dawn goes on to tell how she and her husband have helped Syrian refugees in the present crisis to start a new chapter in their lives, giving their children opportunities that their parents could only dream of.

If the world won’t take the refugees, then 6-year-old Alex will. At least, he has offered to take in one Syrian, the child photographed last month while he sat in the back of an ambulance, his head dusty and bloodied after a bomb hit his family’s home. Alex wrote to President Obama, ‘Do you remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria? Can you please go get him and bring him to my home?’ Obama read the note recently at the UN leaders’ summit on refugees, and posted it online. Obama chided world leaders for not doing enough to help refugees, calling the global refugee crisis ‘one of the most urgent tests of our time.’ 65 million people are displaced from their homes; most of them come from countries of great poverty, or as in Syria’s case, that have experienced prolonged war. For a transcript of the letter, click the ‘More’ button.

Islamic law originated on the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century AD, a jurisprudence shaped by specific circumstances and therefore limited to individual cases. It is barely compatible with the requirements of a modern, technological society, but still regarded by many theologians as divinely given and therefore beyond question. A consistent application of its drastic forms of corporal punishment (amputation, lashing, execution, crucifixion, retribution) results in torture, crippling or inhuman forms of execution. The application of the Shari’a is particularly shameful where inbuilt curbs such as the requirement of four witnesses or due process are set aside, and influential rulers employ it as a means of repression against powerless minorities - often Christians. Although Shari’a has been highly controversial in the UK, harsh penalties are currently unknown. See also