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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSupporters of radical Islamist party, Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam, rally to protest the release of Asia Bibi (pictured) in Karachi, Pakistan. EPA-EFE\/\/SHAHZAIB AKBER<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Radical Islamists in Pakistan \u2013 a nuclear-armed nation of 215 million people, 98% of which are Muslim \u2013 have regularly called for Bibi to be publicly executed and activists say she would not have been safe had she stayed in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The EU\u2019s Special Envoy for Religious Freedom Jan Figel played a key role in negotiating her release and eventual immigration to Canada. Figel first met with Pakistani government officials both in Brussels and in Islamabad to secure Bibi\u2019s safe passage out of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more than 30 years, Pakistan has struggled to quell the spread of radical Islam in the country following the introduction of harsh blasphemy laws by the country\u2019s hardline former dictator, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, both internal and external Islamist organisations \u2013 including branches of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam, and Lashkar-e-Taiba \u2013 have helped facilitate the growth of extremism and terrorism in the country. Religious fundamentalists and extremists, especially those influenced by Wahhabism, have regularly partnered with Pakistani state institutions to help further each other\u2019s interests as they shape society around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the situation became unbearable, the EU\u2019s representative linked the human rights conditions in Pakistan to the GSP+ trade agreement between the European Union and Pakistan, an accord that specifically states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe EU supports democratic reforms and equal, inclusive citizenship for all people in Pakistan, including its minorities of Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Sikhs, and others.\u201d Figel said in interviews with the media following Bibi\u2019s release,\u201d I realised how I may become a target of violent extremists\u2026They killed Asia Bibi\u2019s defenders in the past, they have many followers abroad as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three EU countries and Canada offered Bibi and her daughters to immigrate, a decision that Pakistan\u2019s government readily accepted but one that was denounced by the country\u2019s dozens of militant Islamist organisations, all of whom accused Islamabad of \u201ccaving into the European Union\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That did not deter Bibi, however, as she and her daughters were granted asylum by the Canadian government following a public announcement by Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Paris during last year\u2019s centennial commemoration of the end of the First World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n