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Pakistani Muslims Kidnap Christian Girl over Brother’s ‘Affair’

Religious tensions high in village where influential family has threatened further retaliation.
LAHORE, Pakistan, May 19 (CDN) — An influential Muslim family in a village near Sheikhupura is holding a 17-year-old Christian girl hostage because one of her brothers allegedly eloped with a woman from the Muslim family.

The Muslim parents have threatened further retaliation against the Christian family if they do not produce their daughter, whom they have also threatened to publicly shoot dead as an “honor killing.”

An area clergyman identified only as Father Emmanuel called the situation “critical,” saying it has pitted the area’s 1,800 Muslim families against its 70-to-100 Christian families and could lead to violence.

“It’s always been like this,” Emmanuel said. “No one objects when a Christian girl is forcibly taken or dishonored by a Muslim man, but when a Muslim girl falls in love with a Christian boy it becomes a matter of their honor,” he said.

Abid Masih, a welder at a factory in Sheikhupura, about 40 kilometers from the Punjab Province capital of Lahore, told Compass by telephone that the family was asleep in their home in Ghazi Minara village on Friday night (May 13) when armed Muslims belonging to the village’s influential Gujjar family arrived at their doorstep.

“When I opened the door, the men told me that my younger brother, Sajid, had eloped with a girl from their family, and they had come to search for them,” Masih said.

He said he tried to convince them that the family did not know Sajid’s whereabouts, as he had not been home for two days, and they began threatening to harm Masih unless his family found the runaway couple and handed them over.

“By this time my maternal uncle and cousin had also come out, and together we tried to tell them that we didn’t even know that Sajid was having an affair with the girl, so how could we know where they had gone?” Masih said.

The Muslim woman who allegedly eloped with Sajid was identified as Saleha; both are in their early 20s.

Masih said that the men then forcibly took him, his younger sister Rakhel, his uncle Mukhtar Gill and maternal cousin Indryas with them to their house.

“As soon as we reached their home, they started beating and cursing us and continued to torture us all night” in an effort to get them to disclose the couple’s “hideout,” he said.

Masih said that at daybreak on Saturday (May 14), the Gujjars freed the three Christian men but kept Rakhel hostage in their home, saying that she would be returned only after they found and handed over the couple to them. Rakhel is in her early 20s.

“We were helpless,” Masih said. “The Gujjars are very powerful, and we could not convince them to send Rakhel with us. Since Saturday we have been trying to locate Sajid but failed.”

The Muslim family has sternly forbid them to report the abduction of Rakhel to police, warning that they would be unable to escape the consequences, he said.

On Monday (May 16), Masih said, Saleha’s father, Aslam Gujjar, telephoned him and told him that if the family did not find the couple soon they would also abduct Rakhel’s 17-year-old sister, Maryam. The next night, the Gujjars released Rakhel and forcibly took Maryam, he said.

Masih said the Gujjars have announced that they would shoot Saleha dead in the village center as an “honor killing” for eloping with the Christian.

“They have warned us that if we approach the police, they will turn the issue into a religious matter, and the bloodshed there would make the Gojra carnage small by comparison,” he said. At least seven Christians were burned alive by Muslim mobs in Gojra after the spread of a rumor of blaspheming Islam on Aug. 1, 2009.

Emmanuel, who has long ministered in the area, said he was trying to help reduce tensions.

“We are trying to talk to some local Muslim leaders to convince the Gujjars that it was an individual’s action, and they should not vent their anger at the innocent family, but it seems an uphill task at the moment,” he said.

Asif Aqeel, director of European Centre for Law and Justice’s branch office in Pakistan, told Compass that his organization was in contact with the family and was considering measures to address the situation.

“We were quite perturbed over Rakhel’s abduction and have been thinking of ways how to resolve the situation amicably, but now Maryam’s kidnapping has forced us to rethink our options,” he said.

Aqeel said the options include registration of a criminal case over the abductions and enlisting a court bailiff to recover Maryam from illegal detention, but this could exacerbate tensions, as the Gujjars are influential and would be forewarned by police of an impending raid.

“A failed raid may endanger the lives of the entire family and imperil the security of other Christians of the area,” he said, adding that family members were also caught in a dilemma as the Gujjars had threatened retaliation if they sought legal assistance.

Aqeel said they were trying to gather mediators from both sides to convince the Gujjars not to hold the entire Christian family responsible for Sajid’s apparent action.

“This is perhaps the safest way to avoid bloodshed and rescue the Christian girl, who is left at the mercy of the angry Muslims who feel they have been dishonored by a ‘petty’ Christian,” he said.

“The British Government should speak up for persecuted Christians”
says Canon Yaqub Masih who was speaking to Christians in the Government on the subject of Persecuted Christians around the World at the Foreign Office. His audience included the Under Secretary of State. He claimed that worldwide anti-Christian persecution is not only increasing but also becoming more violent and deadly. “I think it is fair to say that today Christians are the single most heavily and extensively persecuted group in the world,” Canon Masih said. “The British government ought to speak out more firmly, clearly and frequently, but the major obstacle to speaking out more forcefully is political correctness and a misplaced reticence on the part of the Foreign Office and the rest of the British government regarding Britain’s deep historical and cultural connection with Christianity, and a misguided desire not to be seen to be defending the human rights of Christians.”  He was highlighting the situation in Iraq Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Pakistan – especially its Blasphemy Law which he described as being ‘like a sword hanging over the Christians’.
“Those who are accused of blasphemy are subject to harassment, threats and attacks,” Canon Masih continued. “They are subject to immediate incarceration, most are denied bail, and those who are acquitted of blasphemy usually go into hiding or leave Pakistan. Recently two high profile individuals have been killed, because they raised their voice against the blasphemy law. As Christians we should feel the pain of those who are suffering, because we are all part of the body of Christ. We should also be concerned for this nation, as some people are becoming intolerant in our own society, and are too fearful to express their views, in case they are accused of racism. God has put us where we are for a purpose, so show let us show our concern and raise our voice for the voiceless.”
 
I am convinced that neither death nor life will be able to separate us from of God, that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Canon Yaqub Masih
pakistanchristianconcern@blogspot.com

Administrator Heather Ahmed

Heatherahmedpcc@gmail.com

Canon Yaqub Masih can be contacted on Yaqubmasihpcc@hotmail.co.uk
Or administrator Heather Ahmed on heatherahmedpcc@gmail.com

I would like to urge you all to please sign a copy of the two letter we have posted unto Pakistan Christian concerns website.

High Commission for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
35-36 Lowndes Square
London
SWIX 9JN

Name: ………………………………
Address: ………………………………
………………………………
Postcode: ………………………………

His Excellency Mr Wajid Shamsul Hassan, High Commission

I, the undersigned, condemn the human rights violations of Christian Communities, in the name of religion, in Pakistan. The blasphemy law has become a source of victimisation of minorities in the country. The recent case of Asia Bibi and others, under blasphemy law has caused a great concern among the Pakistani Community of the United Kingdom.

I demand an immediate release of Asia Bibi and provide her and her family security and freedom from the fanatic Muslims. I also demand the Government of Pakistan to repeal the blasphemy law.

Signed: ………………………………………………………
Date: ………………………………………………………

Rt. Hon. David Cameron, Prime Minister.
10 Downing Street,
London
SW1A 2AA

Name: ………………………………
Address: ………………………………
………………………………
Postcode: ………………………………

Dear Sir

I, the undersigned, would like to draw your attention to the human rights violations of Christian Communities, in the name of religion, in Pakistan. The blasphemy law has become a source of victimisation of minorities in the country. The recent case of Asia Bibi and others, under blasphemy law has caused a great concern among the Pakistani Community of the United Kingdom.

I would request you put pressure on the Pakistan Government for an immediate release of Asia Bibi and provide her and her family security and freedom from the fanatic Muslims. I also request you demand the Government of Pakistan to repeal the blasphemy law.

Signed: ………………………………………………………
Date: ………………………………………………………

Churches’ solidarity with Pakistan flood victims

Yaqub Masih, Lay Canon of Wakefield Cathedral and Chairman of Pakistan Christian Concern, will travel to Pakistan on Wednesday 20 October to hand over £17,500 raised by parishes in the Church of England’s Wakefield Diocese to help the flood relief effort.

The money has been given in response to a request in August by the Bishop of Wakefield, the Right Reverend Stephen Platten, to the 188 parishes of the Wakefield Diocese, which extends from Todmorden to Barnsley and Pontefract, and includes Wakefield, Huddersfield and Halifax.

Canon Masih has worked with the Bishops of Wakefield and Pontefract to highlight the desperate situation of many Pakistani communities. In August the Bishop of Wakefield wrote, “The situation is dire and Yaqub and I would like to ask for your prayers and to ask you to please continue to highlight the situation in your parishes.”

The Wakefield Diocese has links with the Anglican Diocese of Faisalabad, Pakistan, but Yaqub Masih stresses that the money raised in the Diocese is to help the needy of any faith or none.

“I want to make the Pakistani people and government aware of the generosity of Christians in our region,” says Yaqub Masih. “This gift is an act of solidarity with all those so badly affected by the floods.”

ENDS

For further information contact Martin Sheppard or Jane Bower on 01924 371802.

Photo attached: Canon Yaqub Masih (second from left) at Wakefield Cathedral before his departure to Pakistan with (from left) Chief Superintendent Barry South (West Yorkshire Police); newly-appointed Pakistani Consul-General in Bradford Syd Sahil Abbas; Bishop of Pontefract the Right Reverend Tony Robinson; and Simon Reevell, Member of Parliament for Dewsbury.

Note:
The Red Cross estimates that around 17.2 million people have been affected and 1.2 million homes have been damaged or destroyed in Pakistan’s worst floods for 80 years. There is an urgent need to house the homeless, and to control the threat of diseases such as malaria, acute diarrhoea and cholera.

Christian community in Toronto Canada launched a Rally against hundreds of houses burnt in Gojra.

The First picture on the left is of the family who lost seven family members in the attacks.

Pakistan Christian Concern (PCC) has started its camp in Korian feeding 400-500 people daily.

A planning meeting was held in Luton yesterday to discuss the recent attacks on Christians in Pakistan. After intensive discussions it was decided by the majority of  people that the protest will be held on 19th of August at 11:30 am at 10 Downing Street.

PCC also encouraged people to join other protests held in different cities to raise awareness and put pressure on the government including the protest organised on the 11th of August at the Pakistan High Commssion in London.

Please remember these events in your prayers and make every effort to join them.