The Voice of the Persecuted Church

LOS ANGELES, January 7 (CDN) — Pakistan’s blasphemy laws led to the murder of two Christians and a death penalty sentence for a Christian mother of five in 2010, topping Compass’ top 10 news stories. Following this blend of state and societal violence to Christians was a spike in attacks on Christians in Iraq; a possible death penalty for an Afghan Christian accused of apostasy; a 17-year-old Somali girl’s martyrdom; and large-scale attacks on Christians in Nigeria. The complete list follows.
 
1 – Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law Leads to Murder, Death Penalty for the Innocent
Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws led to the murder of two men and a death penalty sentence for a mother of five in 2010. On July 19 in Faisalabad, Pakistan, a suspected Islamic extremist shot dead two Christians accused of blasphemy. An armed gunman shot the Rev. Rashid Emmanuel, 32, and his 30-year-old brother Sajid Emmanuel after handwriting experts on July 14 notified police that signatures on papers denigrating Muhammad did not match those of the accused. Expected to be exonerated, the two leaders of United Ministries Pakistan were being led in handcuffs back to jail when they were shot. Advocacy group representatives said the two bodies bore cuts and other signs of having been tortured while the brothers were in police custody. Muslims had staged large demonstrations calling for the death penalty for the brothers, who were arrested when Rashid Emmanuel agreed to meet a mysterious caller at a train station but was instead surrounded by police carrying papers denigrating Muhammad – supposedly signed by the pastor and his brother and bearing their telephone numbers. The Muslim who allegedly placed the anonymous call to the pastor, Muhammad Khurram Shehzad, also filed blasphemy charges against the brothers, said Atif Jamil Pagaan, coordinator of the Harmony Foundation advocacy group. Khurram Shehzad had filed the blasphemy case on July 1 under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are commonly abused to settle personal scores. Section 295-C states that “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) shall be punishable with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall be liable to fine.” The shooter (or shooters) escaped.

The first woman to be sentenced to die in Pakistan for allegedly blaspheming Islam’s prophet said she was shaken and aghast that she was never asked for a statement in her defense. In an interview with Compass at Sheikhupura District Jail, Asia Noreen (alternatively spelled Aaysa, and also called Asia Bibi) said through tears and a shaking voice that she was heartbroken and shattered. The mother of two children and step-mother to three others asked a question that no one has been able to answer for her. “How can an innocent person be accused, have a case in court after a false FIR [First Information Report], and then be given the death sentence, without even once taking into consideration what he or she has to say?” Arrested on June 19, 2009, Noreen was accused of blaspheming Muhammad and defaming Islam. A judge under pressure from area Islamists convicted her under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes on Nov. 8. “In the entire year that I have spent in this jail,” she told Compass, “I have not been asked even once for my statement in court. Not by the lawyers and not by the judge.” Noreen said the triggering incident resulted from a “planned conspiracy” to “teach her a lesson” because villagers in Ittanwali, near Nankana Sahib about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Lahore, disliked her and her family. “They have been saying that I confessed to my crime, but the fact is that I said I was sorry for any word that I may have said during the argument that may have hurt their feelings,” she said. “What my village people have accused me of is a complete lie.”

In spite of the trauma the blasphemy laws have visited on Pakistan’s minorities as well as on Muslims, the U.N. General Assembly voted on Dec. 21 to pass a “Defamation of Religions” resolution that lends international legitimacy to such laws. The resolution was adopted with 79 votes in favor, 67 votes against and 40 abstentions – the smallest level of support it has received since it was first voted on 10 years ago.

*** Photos of Asia Noreen, as well as the bodies of Rashid and Sajid Emmanuel, are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

2 – Christians Increasingly Targeted in Iraq
An Islamic extremist assault on a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad on Oct. 31, one of the bloodiest attacks on the country’s dwindling Christian community, culminated a year of increasing violence against Christians in Iraq. Seven or eight Islamic militants stormed into Our Lady of Salvation church during evening mass after detonating bombs in the neighborhood, gunning down two policemen at the stock exchange across the street, and blowing up their own car. More than 100 people were reportedly attending mass. A militant organization called the Islamic State of Iraq, which has links to al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for the attack. The militants sprayed the sanctuary with bullets. Iraqi security forces launched an assault on the church building, and it was unclear how many of the 58 deaths resulted from the raid; the militants reportedly began killing hostages when the security force assault began.

Political tensions ahead of parliamentary elections in Iraq on March 7 left at least eight Chaldean Christians dead and hundreds of families fleeing Mosul. “The concern of Christians in Mosul is growing in the face of what is happening in the city,” said Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako. “The tension and struggle between political forces is creating an atmosphere of chaos and congestion. Christians are victims of political tension between political groups, but maybe also by fundamentalist sectarian cleansing.” On Feb. 23 the killing of Eshoee Marokee, a Christian, and his two sons in their home in front of other family members sent shock waves across the Christian community. The murder took place amid a string of murders that triggered the mass exodus of families to the surrounding towns and provinces. “It is not the first time Christians are attacked or killed,” said the archbishop of the Syrian Catholic Church in Mosul, Georges Casmoussa. “The new [element] in this question is to be killed in their own homes.”

Three Christian students were killed and 180 injured in a May 2 bomb attack on a bus outside Mosul. The blasts targeted three buses full of Christians traveling to the University of Mosul for classes. The convoy of buses, which brings Christian students from villages east of Mosul, was making its daily route accompanied by two Iraqi army cars.
 
By year’s end it was estimated that only 334,000 Christians were left in Iraq, less than half of the number in 1991.

*** Photos of the attacked Syrian Catholic Church building are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

3 – Afghan Christian Accused of ‘Apostasy’ Faces Death Sentence
A Christian in Afghanistan facing “apostasy” charges punishable by death was still without legal representation by year’s end after authorities blocked a foreign lawyer’s attempt to visit him in prison, sources said. A Christian lawyer from the region who requested anonymity travelled to Kabul on behalf of Christian legal rights organization Advocates International in November to represent 45-year-old Said Musa (alternatively spelled Sayed Mossa). Authorities denied him access to Musa and to his indictment file.

After several court hearing postponements, Musa appeared before a judge on Nov. 27 without prior notice. The judge sent Musa’s case file to the attorney general’s office for corrections, according to the lawyer. The prosecutor in charge of western Kabul, Din Mohammad Quraishi, said two men, Musa and Ahmad Shah, were accused of conversion to another religion. But Musa’s letters from prison and other sources indicate that Shah is a government informant posing as a Christian. Musa and Shah appeared before the judge on Nov. 27 “shackled and chained” to each other, according to a source who was present. Musa and the other sources claim Shah sent images of worshipping Christians to the country’s most popular broadcaster, Noorin TV, which aired them in May. The broadcast put in motion the events that got Musa arrested, sources said. In early June the deputy secretary of the Afghan Parliament, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, called for the execution of converts from Islam.

Another Afghan Christian is in prison for his faith, sources said. Shoib Assadullah, 25, was arrested on Oct. 21 for giving a New Testament to a man who reportedly turned him in to authorities. Assadullah is in a holding jail in a district of Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan.

4 – Somali Girl Killed for Embracing Christ
In a year in which Islamic militants from the al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group killed more underground Christian leaders, civilian Muslims also claimed at least one victim. A 17-year-old girl in Somalia who converted to Christianity from Islam was shot to death on Nov. 25 in an apparent “honor killing,” area sources said. Nurta Mohamed Farah had fled her village of Bardher, Gedo Region to Galgadud Region to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam. Area sources said they strongly suspected that the two unidentified men who shot her in the chest and head with a pistol were relatives or acting on their behest. She was killed in Abudwaq district about 200 meters from where she had taken refuge.

Her parents had severely beaten her for leaving Islam and regularly shackled her to a tree at their home, Christian sources said. She had been confined to her home since May 10, when her family found out that she had embraced Christianity, said a Christian leader who visited the area. Area Christians had reported that while living in her home village, Farah was put in a small, dark room at night. Her parents had taken her to a doctor who prescribed medication for a “mental illness.” Alarmed by her determination to keep her faith, her father, Hassan Kafi Ilmi, and mother, Hawo Godane Haf, decided she had gone crazy and forced her to take the prescribed medication, but it had no effect in swaying her from her faith, a source said. Traditionally, he added, many Somalis believe the Quran cures the sick, especially the mentally ill, so the Islamic scripture was recited to her twice a week. She had declined her family’s offer of forgiveness in exchange for renouncing Christianity, the source said. The confinement began after the medication and punishments failed.

5 – Mass Attacks on Christians in Nigeria
Large-scale attacks on Christians – interspersed with smaller, isolated assaults that were often more motivated by property disputes than anti-Christian sentiment – hit Nigeria in 2010. On March 7, hundreds of Christians were killed in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims. The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned. State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed that about 500 persons were killed in the attacks, which took place mainly in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages. The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state; security forces had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand. Bishop Andersen Bok, national coordinator of the Plateau State Elders Christian Fellowship, along with group Secretary General Musa Pam, described the attacks as yet another “jihad and provocation on Christians.” The Christian leaders said in a statement, “Eyewitnesses say the Hausa Fulani Muslim militants were chanting ‘Allah Akbar,’ broke into houses, cutting human beings, including children and women, with their knives and cutlasses.”

Muslim Fulani herdsmen unleashed more horrific violence on two Christian villages in Plateau state on March 17, killing 13 persons, including a pregnant woman and children. In attacks presumably over disputed property but with a level of violence characteristic of jihadist method and motive, men in military camouflage and others in customary clothing also burned 20 houses in Byei and Baten villages, in the Riyom Local Government Area of the state, about 45 kilometers (29 miles) from the state capital, Jos. The ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, have long faced off with Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land. Because the style of killing was typical of jihadist radicals, Christian leaders suspected Islamic extremists are encouraging the attacks, throwing religious gas on low-burning land and ethnic conflicts. Dalyop Nyango Mandung, a survivor of the attack whose 90-year-old mother, Ngo Hwo Dongo, was killed in her room, told newsmen that the villagers were awakened by gunshots from the Muslim herdsmen who were barricading their houses. Mandung, however, said the assailants were wearing military fatigues rather than the customary clothing of Fulani herders.

Attacks from another quarter came late in the year, when the Islamic sect Boko Haram exploded several bombs in Christian areas of Jos on Dec. 24, including one at a Catholic church, that killed scores of people. At the same time, the group killed a Baptist pastor and five other Christians on Christmas Eve in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in northern Nigeria. The Rev. Bulus Marwa and the other Christians were killed in the Dec. 24 attacks on Victory Baptist Church in Alemderi and a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in Sinimari. Another 25 persons were said to have been injured during the serial attacks by the Islamic group.

The Boko Haram members reportedly first stormed the COCIN church in two vehicles and detonated bombs that shattered the gate of the worship center and killed the security guard. Danjuma Akawu, who survived the attack on the Baptist church, said “they hacked the two choir members using knives and a petrol bomb before heading to the pastor’s residence, where he was killed.” Speaking during a visit to the Baptist church on Saturday (Dec. 25), Borno Gov. Ali Modu Sheriff noted that the attack on the Christian community was an attempt by Boko Haram to create conflict between Christians and Muslims in the state.

*** Photos of victims of the Fulani herdsmen attacks are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

6 – Hostilities toward Christians in Egypt Hit Boiling Point
In a year that began with a drive-by shooting after a Coptic Christmas Eve service on Jan. 6 that killed six Christians, hostilities from Egypt’s Muslim majority toward the Coptic Christian minority reached a fever pitch as the year wore on, with weeks of protests against Christians. Tensions grew after the wife of a Coptic priest, Camilia Zakher, disappeared in July. According to government sources and published media reports, Zakher left her home after a heated argument with her husband. But Coptic demonstrators, who started gathering to protest at churches after Zakher disappeared, claimed she had been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.

The next month, Egyptian media reported in error that Egypt’s State Security Intelligence had seized a ship from Israel laden with explosives headed for the son of an official of the Coptic Orthodox church, and rumors began that Copts were stockpiling weapons in the basements of their churches with plans to overthrow the Muslim majority. The Front of Religious Scholars then called for a complete boycott of Christians in Egypt. The group called Christians “immoral,” labeled them “terrorists” and said Muslims should not patronize their businesses or even say “hello” to them. When a group of Islamic extremists on Oct. 31 burst into Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, Iraq during evening mass and began spraying the sanctuary with gunfire, the militant organization that took responsibility said Christians in Egypt also would be targeted if its demands were not met. The threats against Christians caused a flurry of activity at churches in Egypt, and security increased throughout the country.

In the Jan. 6 shooting, three men suspected to be Muslims, including one with a criminal record sought by police, were in a moving car from which automatic gunfire hit Coptic Christians who had attended services at St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi, 455 kilometers (282 miles) south of Cairo. A Muslim security guard was also killed, and nine other Coptic Christians were wounded, with three of them in critical condition. Copts, along with many Orthodox communities, celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.

*** Photos of a mosque next to a Coptic church building are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

7 – Christian Villagers in Laos Driven into Jungle
Officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih district, Saravan Province, on Dec. 26 destroyed rice paddies farmed by 11 Christian families previously living in the village after the expulsion of another seven families on Dec. 23. Residents drained water from the rice paddies, burned fencing that protected the crop from animals and stomped on new seedlings to ensure the rice would not grow, advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported. The fields were destroyed just a few days after the Katin village chief and other village authorities armed with guns entered the homes of another seven Christian families, totaling 15 people, and ordered them to give up their faith. When they refused, officials marched them out of the village and warned them not to return. Two of these families professed faith after officials expelled 11 Christian families last January, and another four families joined them after officials in July threatened to shoot any of the expelled Christians who attempted to return to Katin. Yet another family professed allegiance to Jesus Christ after officials in late October warned that the six Christian families would be evicted in January 2011 if they held to their beliefs. The newly-expelled Christians then sought shelter with the 11 families who were still living at the edge of the jungle despite assurances from provincial and district officials that they had every right to remain in Katin village. HRWLRF representatives believe district-level officials may have secretly approved the expulsions. “Village officials don’t usually do anything without informally consulting the district head,” a spokesman told Compass.

When village officials last January expelled the 11 families, totaling 48 people, for refusing to give up their faith, the Christians built simple shelters at the edge of the jungle but suffered from a lack of adequate food and water. Officials also destroyed their houses, confiscated livestock and essential registration documents and denied their children access to the village school. In May, village officials granted the families permission to take rice stored in their family rice barns to ward off starvation. Shortly afterwards, members of the 11 families returned off-season to farm their family rice paddies, adjacent to the village, in order to preserve land rights and maintain their food supplies.

8 – Foreign Christians Suddenly Expelled from Morocco
Between March and June authorities expelled 128 foreign Christians in an effort to purge the country of any foreign Christian influences. In April, nearly 7,000 Muslim religious leaders backed the deportations by signing a document describing the work of Christians within Morocco as “moral rape” and “religious terrorism.” The statement from the religious leaders came amid a nationwide mudslinging campaign geared to vilify Christians in Morocco for “proselytism” – widely perceived as bribing people to change their faith. In the same time period, Moroccan authorities applied pressure on Moroccan converts to Christianity through interrogations, searches and arrests. Christians on the ground said that, although these have not continued, there is still a general sense that the government is increasingly intolerant of Christian activities.

The government’s portrayal of foreign Christians created an atmosphere in which national Christians suffered more societal harassment and discrimination. By the end of the year more than 150 foreign Christians were deported or declared persona non grata, with police arresting and interrogating national Christians in the search for evidence to justify the expulsion of the expatriates.

9 – Wave of Persecution in India’s Karnataka State
A report in March found a wave of persecution had struck Karnataka state, where Christians faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days. An independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court found that the spate began on Sept. 14, 2008, when at least 12 churches were attacked in one day in Karnataka’s Mangalore city, in Dakshina Kannada district, and the number of attacks reached 1,000 in January 2010. “On Jan. 26 – the day we celebrated India’s Republic Day – Karnataka’s 1,000th attack took place in Mysore city,” said Justice Michael Saldanha, former judge of the Karnataka High Court. Saldanha told Compass the figure was based on reports from faith-based organizations. Blaming the state government for the attacks, Saldanha said the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had “outdone Orissa.” The wave of persecution in Karnataka began as fallout of the anti-Christian mayhem in eastern Orissa state, where Maoists killed a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader on Aug. 23, 2008, with Hindu extremists wrongly accusing Christians. The attacks in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, the epicenter of the bloodbath, killed more than 100 people and burned 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions.

Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya denied the results of the inquiry. “The allegation of Karnataka having faced 1,000 attacks is absolutely false,” Acharya told Compass. “Karnataka is the most peaceful state in India, and the people are law-abiding.” But the stream of reports of violence against Christians in Karnataka continued throughout the year. In addition to the attacks, numerous Christians also have faced false charges of fraudulent or forced conversions throughout Karnataka. “I have been to many police stations where complaints of [forced] conversions have been lodged against Christians, and when I asked the police why they were acting on frivolous complaints, most of them told me that they had orders from above,” Saldanha said. In his report, he notes that Christians “are dragged to the police station under false allegations, immediately locked up, beaten up and denied bail by the lower judiciary, which functions as the loyal partner of the police department and refuses bail on the grounds that ‘the police have objected.’” The report says 468 Christian workers in rural areas had been targeted with such actions since September 2008. “Numerous others have been threatened and beaten up,” the report states. “The police are totally out of control, with the lower judiciary having abdicated its constitutional obligation of safeguarding the citizens’ rights, particularly from a tyrannical state machinery, while the state government proclaims that everything is peaceful.”

Chief Minister Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa and Home Minister Acharya belong to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Hindu nationalist conglomerate or the RSS), believed to be the parent organization of the BJP, Saldanha pointed out. He also said that although the attacks on Christians had turned public sentiment against the BJP in Karnataka, the party seemed to care little as both opposition parties, the Congress Party and the regional Janata Dal- Secular (JD-S) party, were “in shambles” in the state.

In May 2009 the BJP lost national elections, and since then sections of the party are in desperation, he said, adding, “Perhaps this is one of the reasons why attacks continue to happen in Karnataka.” The BJP came to sole power in Karnataka in May 2008. Prior to that, it ruled in alliance with the JD-S party for 20 months. There are a little more than 1 million Christians in Karnataka, where the total population is over 52 million.
 
*** A photo of a desecrated statue in Karnataka is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

10 – China Releases Gao Zhisheng – and then Seizes Him Again
Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, captured in February 2009 and released by Chinese officials on April 6, 2010, went missing again on April 20. Bob Fu of the China Aid Association (CAA) said Gao went back into the hands of Chinese security forces. Gao, initially seized from his home in Shaanxi Province on Feb. 4, 2009 and held incommunicado by security officials for 13 months, was permitted to phone family members and colleagues in late March before officials finally returned him to his Beijing apartment on April 6. Gao had told a reporter from the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that he expected to travel to Urumqi within days of his release to visit his in-laws, and witnesses saw him leaving his apartment sometime between April 9 and 12, SCMP reported on April 30. Gao’s father-in-law reportedly confirmed that Gao arrived at his home with an escort of four police officers but spent just one night there before police took him away again. Gao phoned his father-in-law shortly before he was due to board a flight back to Beijing on April 20. He promised to call again after returning home but failed to do so, according to the SCMP report. Fu said he believes international pressure forced authorities to allow Gao a brief re-appearance to prove that he was alive before seizing him again to prevent information leaking out about his experiences over the past year.

During a previous detention in 2007, Gao’s captors brutally tortured him and threatened him with death if he spoke about his treatment. Gao later described the torture in an open letter published by CAA in 2009. He had come to the attention of authorities when he began to investigate the persecution of house church Christians and Falun Gong members. In 2005 he wrote a series of open letters to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao accusing the government of torturing Falun Gong members. When the letters appeared, authorities revoked Gao’s law license and shut down his law firm, sources told CAA. He was given a suspended three-year jail sentence in December 2006, following a confession that Gao later claimed was made under extreme duress, including torture and threats against his wife and children. Gao was then confined to his Beijing apartment under constant surveillance – forbidden to leave his home, use his phone or computer or otherwise communicate with the outside world, according to a report by The New York Times. A self-taught lawyer and a Communist Party member until 2005, Gao was once recognized by the Ministry of Justice as one of the mainland’s top 10 lawyers for his pro bono work on human rights cases, according to SCMP.

Pakistan: Murder of governor darkens ‘blasphemy’ case
The case of Asia Bibi, the first Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan on blasphemy charges, suffered a major setback on 4 January when her most vocal supporter, the governor of Punjab Province, was gunned down by one of his police bodyguards in Islamabad.

The bodyguard, Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, told police that he killed Governor Salman Taseer because of the governor’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Asia’s life has been at risk ever since the governor highlighted her case following a visit to her in Sheikhupura District Jail on 22 November, according to Sohail Johnson of Sharing Life Ministries Pakistan, which has pursued Asia’s case from the onset. Taseer had openly criticised the blasphemy statutes and vowed to try to repeal them in parliament. He also promised Asia that he would recommend a presidential pardon for her.

“The local Islamist forces believed that President Zardari would pardon Asia on Taseer’s recommendation, and this was unacceptable to them,” said Johnson, confirming that intelligence agencies had determined that Islamists had plotted to kill Asia inside jail to make an example of her.

Taseer and Asia were declared “Wajibul Qatil” (liable to be killed) by radical Islamic clerics. A cleric in Peshawar and a local politician in Multan offered a combined sum of 50 million rupees (US$579,300) for anyone who killed Taseer and Asia.

Taseer, however, continued to publicly vent his opposition – even using Twitter – to the blasphemy laws, which effectively mandate death for anyone convicted of insulting Muhammad. On 31 December, Taseer had tweeted: “I was under huge pressure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”

Hopes diminished
Taseer’s support for Asia had given new hope to the impoverished mother of five – and drew violent condemnation from Islamist forces, sparking countrywide protests. “The governor’s visit gave us hope that all was not lost,” said Johnson. “We believed that God had sent the governor to help us… his words of support boosted Asia’s morale, and she was actually quite optimistic about the outcome of her appeal in the high court.”

Johnson said that the murder of Taseer in broad daylight had shocked all those opposing the blasphemy laws, and that ‘there is little hope of these laws ever being repealed’.

He added that Asia’s appeal of her conviction had yet to be taken up for hearing by the Lahore High Court, but the murder would definitely affect the course of justice. “The governor’s brutal murder has diminished our hopes for justice for Asia.”

Her family has been in hiding since Islamist parties started protests in favour of the blasphemy laws.

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: ………………………………………………………

Canon Yaqub has now returned from pakistan after taking 17.000 pounds for the victims of the floods, here is a selection of photos of his trip.

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A Christian woman in Pakistan has been sentenced to death by hanging after she was convicted of allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed.  Asia, who is from Ittanwali in Punjab province, laboured in the fields for a Muslim landlord. She was arrested after a heated discussion about religion with her fellow farm workers. Hers was one of only three Christian families in the village.

Asia Bibi, who is 45 years of age and has five children, has denied blaspheming and informed investigators that she is being persecuted for her Christian faith in a country where followers of Christianity often face harassment and discrimination.

It is believed she will now put in a appeal against the sentence, which was handed down by a local court in Sheikhupura near Lahore.

Her husband, Mr Ashiq Masih, told the media he didn’t have the heart to inform two of the couple’s youngest children about the ruling and that they had asked him many times when they would be able to see their mother again.

In the court it was heard how Bibi had been employed as a farmhand in the countryside with other women that were all Muslims. After bringing them water, her colleagues refused to drink it while deeming it unclean as it was brought by a Christian – a claim that sparked a row.

It is also alleged that some of the women workers had been putting her under pressure to renounce her Christian faith and accept Islam. On June 19, 2009, the women pressed Asia about Islam. She responded by sharing with them about her faith in Christ.  She spoke of how Jesus Christ had died on the cross for their sins and then asked them what Mohammed had done for them.

On hearing this response the Muslim women became very angry and began to beat her. Some men took Asia by force and locked her in a room. They used the PA system of a local mosque to broadcast plans to punish Asia by blackening her face and parading her through the village on a donkey.

Asia and her children were set upon by an angry mob later on, and then taken to a police station after some Christians informed the local Police and had her put into protective custody. Later that evening a Blasphemy Case was registered against her after pressure was placed on the Police by local Muslim Leaders. Asia was also fined £728 – the equivalent of two-and-a half years’ salary for an unskilled worker.

This miscarriage of justice and violent social condition illustrates the severe and intense persecution that people of a minority faith experience in Pakistan.  The British Pakistani Christan Association condemns the awful attack and the maladministration of Justice exhibited.  We have formed a petition and intend to submit this to 10 Downing Street and the Pakistani Embassy on the 17th November 2010.  Please sign the petition below and share this with other colleagues:

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/justice4asia

We ask all readers to pray for justice and succour for Asia Bibi and her family.

For the first time in history Pakistan has sentenced to death a Christian woman for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, who is 45 years of age and has five children, has denied blaspheming and believes that she is being persecuted for her Christian faith in a country where followers of Christianity often face harassment and discrimination.

For further details and to sign a petition that will be presented to 10 Downing Street, please follow the link here

FLOOD VICTIMS GO BACK TO SCHOOL THANKS TO THE CHURCH IN WAKEFIELD
CHILDREN in flood-ravaged Pakistan went back to school this week thanks to the generosity of churchgoers in the Wakefield diocese.

Money raised by churches in Halifax, Huddersfield, Barnsley, Pontefract and Wakefield helped clean up two schools in the Noshera district – one of the worst hit areas of Pakistan – and gave the children 550 new desk-chairs to work from.

Canon Yaqub Masih has just returned from an eight-day mercy- mission to Pakistan where he helped distribute £17,500 raised in the diocese and saw first-hand the impact the new chairs and the clean-up campaign was having on the schoolchildren.

He said: “These children could never imagine their school could be so different after all they have been through and I wanted them to know and understand that it is the generosity of Christians in Wakefield who have taken them from the floors and put them on chairs.

“If only one in 10 of those young children remember that in the future, then it will build bridges between Christians and Muslims in that part of the world,” he added.

Yaqub, of Pakistan Christian Concern is also general secretary of the UK Asian Christian network and a lay Canon at Wakefield Cathedral. He visited three different dioceses in Pakistan to help with the flood aid including Faisalabad with which the diocese of Wakefield is linked.

The money was used to clean up a middle school and a primary school in Noshera district and was distributed to give much needed financial help to over 200 families – both Muslim and Christian.

“I wanted to show we treat everyone as equal regardless of their faith,” said Yaqub.

“The devastation is so widespread and has brought illness and despair to young and old, Christian and Muslim – all we can do is watch and observe the story and be ready to help,” he added.

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.