The ordeal for this couple started in 2013. Shafqat Emmanuel is reported to be disabled, and both he and his wife, Shagufta, who works as a waitress, are illiterate.
Since the couple is illiterate, these charges are clearly yet another lie by yet another Islamic cleric threatening the lives of innocent Christians. The accusations of blasphemy was said to be “motivated by a minor quarrel between the couple’s children and their neighbors which took place six months prior to the text messages.” This kind of abuse is routine in Pakistan, just as it is routine for the world to ignore it so as to not offend Muslims and avoid the label of “Islamophobia.”
Many people are well aware of the notorious case of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was persecuted in Pakistan as the result of an argument with a Muslim woman. Bibi’s case particularly highlighted the barbarity of Pakistan’s Sharia blasphemy laws. In the words of Bibi, Christians “live with this sword of Damocles over their head.” Christians routinely face trumped-up blasphemy charges that could result in their execution, and along with them, the threat of Muslim mobs in their home villages and of being jailed under the worst of conditions. All this is urged on by Islamic clerics.
In the case of Shafqat Emmanuel and his wife, Shagufta Kausar:
The case was prompted by a Muslim cleric claiming he received a blasphemous text message from Shagufta’s phone. The cleric, Muhammad Hussain of Gojra, and his lawyer, Anwar Mansoor Goraya, claimed to have later received further blasphemous messages from Shagufta.
“Flaw found in prosecutor’s death-penalty blasphemy case,” WND, May 30, 2020:
A flaw has been found in a Pakistani prosecutor’s blasphemy case against a Christian couple, who are now appealing their death sentences.
The years-long case against Shafqat Emmanuel and his wife, Shagufta Kausar, was cited by the Family Research Council as part of its campaign against blasphemy laws, which violate free speech regarding religion.
The case was prompted by a Muslim cleric claiming he received a blasphemous text message from Shagufta’s phone.
The cleric, Muhammad Hussain of Gojra, and his lawyer, Anwar Mansoor Goraya, claimed to have later received further blasphemous messages from Shagufta, written in English.
The problem, as FRC explained, is that both husband and wife are illiterate. They speak Urdu but cannot write. And they are unfamiliar with English.
“They could not have crafted such a text in their native Urdu and certainly not in English,” FRC said.
Shafqat said he confessed when police threatened to torture his wife.
“According to Shagufta, Hussain’s accusation against her and her husband is motivated by a minor quarrel between the couple’s children and their neighbors which took place six months prior to the text messages. Shagufta claims that Hussain conspired with a friend to steal her National Identity Card and use it to purchase a SIM card in her name. Using this SIM card, Hussain sent blasphemous text messages to himself,” FRC said….
The defendants believe the accusation from the cleric is in retaliation for an argument between their children and their neighbors.
Nevertheless, authorities arrested them and charged them both with “insulting the Qur’an.”
The two now are in separate prisons, unable to see each other or their children, FRC said…..