An evangelical professor launched a petition calling on the Pakistani government to change blasphemy laws and release Asia Bibi, the first woman sentenced to death under the laws.

Warren Throckmorton, a professor at the Christian institution Grove City College and a psychology and public policy fellow of its Center for Vision and Values, started the petition on Wednesday through Change.org, calling for the jailed 45-year-old mother to be released.

“Asia Bibi’s case requires an international outcry from people of all religious views. The bullying and murder of minority religious adherents in Pakistan must stop,” the petition reads.

Bibi, a Christian wife and mother, was convicted by a district court last month of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. The punishment is mandatory death. She is the first female in Pakistan to be sentenced to hang for blasphemy.

Bibi’s story of persecution has led many to call for an end to the blasphemy law.

The law dates back to the 1980s. Penalties for sins against the sacred such as blasphemy were enacted under the dictatorship of General Zia Al Haq. There is also another law which states that defiling the Quran merits imprisonment for life. Critics say the rules were meant as a means to prop his reign using Islam.

Throckmorton calls the laws “archaic” and says they’re now used as a means of control.
“These are methods or means of control that the devout or non-devout can use against their enemies,” he asserted.

Read More: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20101216/evangelical-petitions-to-stop-execution-of-pakistani-christian/