Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 069 | Wed 18 Aug 2010

RLPB 066 (July Update) noted two appalling attacks against Pakistani
Christians: that of Christian trainee nurse Magdalene Ashraf, who had
been beaten, tortured, gang-raped and thrown from a hospital window;
and the case of brothers Rev Rashid Emmanuel (32) and Sajid Emmanuel
(30) who had been arrested on a false blasphemy charge, imprisoned,
tortured, and then shot dead outside the Faisalabad courthouse. Islamic
intolerance is escalating unchecked across Pakistan. Original Muslim
teachings emanating from mosques and madrassas cultivate hatred which
is then fuelled by the impunity the perpetrators enjoy. As chaos and
lawlessness escalate, the situation for Christians deteriorates.

KHYBER PAKHTOONKHWA (formerly North West Frontier Province {NWFP}). On
14 June Samuel John, a Christian psychology professor at the University
of Peshawar, was savagely beaten by students outside his home for
refusing to convert to Islam. When his wife rushed to his aid she too
was beaten. Both required hospitalisation, with the professor in a
critical condition. The police refuse to register a First Information
Report (FIR) and John continues to be threatened with death unless he
converts to Islam or leaves the University.

PUNJAB PROVINCE. Sunil Masih, Shazia Masih and Nasir Naeem, three
Christian 8th grade students in Danna village, southern Punjab, have
long faced pressure from teachers to convert to Islam. On 16 June,
after their parents complained, the principal backed his staff and told
the parents that if the students would not convert to Islam then they
would have to leave the school. When the police refused to help, the
three Christian families fled the area. On 19 June Rehmat Masih (85) of
Faisalabad district was arrested and jailed after a hard-line Muslim,
Muhammad Sajjid Hameed, filed a false blasphemy charge against him.
Hameed and Masih had both made application for the same parcel of land.

Jamshed Masih, a policeman and a Christian, was recently transferred to
the predominantly Muslim Mustafa Colony in Jhelum, south of Islamabad.
However, local Muslims were not willing to have the Christian family
living amongst them. On 21 June a mob led by local Muslim religious
leader Maulana Mahfooz Khan descended on the family’s home after Masih
had left for work. Sensing trouble Masih’s wife, Razia, had already
phoned her husband and asked him to come home urgently. Khan accused
the eldest son (11) of blasphemy, drawing a crowd. As Razia pleaded for
mercy someone in the crowd hit her on the head with a hard object,
causing her to bleed and her children to cry. The agitated crowd began
baying for blood, and by the time Jamshed Masih got home, his wife and
four children lay murdered. Masih tried to file a complaint, but the
Station House Officer refused to register a FIR.

In Farooqabad in eastern Punjab, three Muslim co-workers of a Christian
man allegedly raped his 16-year-old daughter at gunpoint on the night
of 21 July. On 29 July, after Masih had complained to police, two other
Muslims who work for his employer kidnapped him and took him to the
employer’s farmhouse. There they reportedly shackled and tortured
Masih, leaving him in a critical condition.

In Rawalpindi district students from the local Jamia Islamia Madrassa
(Qur’anic school) have been harassing Christians in the villages around
Gujar Khan. According to a local pastor they routinely beat Christian
children and throw stones at the church. ‘They openly announce that
“the Christians are our enemies, we should not talk to them, eat with
them or do business with them”.’ (The Qur’an repeatedly commands
Muslims to maintain enmity towards and separation from Christians.) On
22 July a 12-year-old girl from a local Christian family was gang-raped
by seven or eight madrassa students. A teacher who witnessed the
incident overheard one of the 16-strong student mob saying, ‘We will
teach these Christians a lesson they will never forget.’ When the
girl’s distraught parents went to the police station to file a
complaint, the officer in charge refused to register it, yielding to
local Muslim pressure. According to the Center for Legal Aid Assistance
and Settlement (CLAAS), ‘Such vicious incidents are not being stopped
by the government, and day by day the rate of rapes of Christian girls
is escalating instead of plunging.’ This would be expected when rape is
rewarded with impunity.

SINDH PROVINCE. On 15 July Pastor Aaron John, Rohail Bhatti, Salman
John, Abid Gill and Shamin Mall were shot dead and six others were
wounded when a dozen masked men opened fire on them as they left their
church property in Sukkur, Sindh Province. The church members had been
meeting to discuss security in the light of recent threatening letters
the church had received. Students from a local madrassa have been
threatening the church since 2008. After the shooting the police and
ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive. A church member told Compass
Direct News that, not only had the police refused to register an FIR in
relation to the threats, they have also yielded to Muslim pressure and
refused to register a FIR in relation to the killings.

FLOODS. Pakistan’s devastating floods are the result of unprecedented
monsoonal rains and bad governance, for Pakistan has one of the highest
rates of deforestation in the world. Pakistan today has less than five
percent forest cover. The floods have wiped out millions of homes and
millions of acres of prime agricultural land. A humanitarian crisis of
monumental proportions is unfolding. Further to this, Bishop Humphrey
Peters of Peshawar warns that aid is unlikely to reach marginalised
minority Christians. The people are angry, hungry and desperate. That
combined with the government’s virtual collapse in credibility, along
with the Army’s diversion into rescue and relief, provides the al-Qaeda-
Taliban with a phenomenal window of opportunity.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT:

* our sovereign God and compassionate Father will make provision for
his desperately needy people: material provision in the midst of
calamity; spiritual provision in the midst of persecution; and
sanctuary in the midst of insecurity.

* Yahweh Sabaoth — the ‘Lord of Hosts’ / the Commander of Heaven’s
forces — will frustrate the ways of the wicked (Psalm 146),
obstructing and confounding any al-Qaeda-Taliban attempt to exploit
Pakistan’s catastrophic flood for the advancement of their own evil
agenda.

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE

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PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS’ PLIGHT CRITICAL

Islamic intolerance is mounting unchecked across Pakistan as the
original Muslim teachings emanating from mosques and madrassas
cultivate hatred. As chaos and lawlessness proliferate, the situation
for Christians deteriorates. The frequency of Christian girls being
raped is escalating, and Muslims increasingly reject having Christians
live amongst them. Police are more frequently unwilling to register
complaints against Muslims who assault, extort, rape, torture or murder
Christians, so that the impunity fuels the persecution. The blasphemy
law continues to be exploited for religious hatred and personal gain,
and a false accusation of blasphemy is as good as a death sentence.
Furthermore when catastrophe like the flood strikes, aid rarely reaches
marginalised minority Christians. The Church in Pakistan greatly needs
our prayers. (See Psalm 146.)

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We suggest that churches and fellowships using the above Summary might
also provide a copy of the listed prayer points to be used in their
worship by people who are leading in prayer.

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal’s
blog ‘Religious Liberty Monitoring’
.

This RLPB was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international
religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC
team. Previous bulletins may be viewed at .