Pakistan Lahore Christians Attacked

Over 170 homes are reported now burned and families are asking you for prayer.

Mob burning household (photo per Bishop Anjum).

Dearest in Christ,

Very sad to tell you about this incident that happened in Pakistan. Today, (March 9, 2013) around 158 houses belonging to the Christian community were vandalized and burnt by a mob in Badami Bagh area of Lahore. This is over an alleged blasphemy committed by a Christian man.

SSP Operations Suhail Sukhera and the SHO of Badami Bagh were also reportedly injured when the mob pelted a police party with stones.

On Friday, a mob of almost 3,000 people forced the Christian community to flee for their lives, leaving behind their houses and possessions unprotected.

The charged group gathered around Joseph Colony on Noor Road, led by Shafiq Ahmed, in search of the accused Savan, alias Bubby. The mob attacked Savan’s house, setting it on fire and pelting it with stones. Other houses in the locality – homes to about 150 Christian families – they also attacked. Many residents, including women and children, hastily fled to save themselves.

Savan has been arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.

We request all of you to please pray for them and share with your Friends.

Remember Savan Masih, his family, and all the Christian community of Joseph Colony, Badami Baghe, Lahore, in your prayers.  

They lost their homes, households, and everything they have. They have nothing to wear, to eat, or a place to sleep. They totally depend on help and prayers.

Please pray for them.

In Him,

Bishop Anjum

Pakistan

Pakistan Rules Justice Against Slander

Pakistani judge throws out slanderous blasphemy charge against Christian.

Justice is a grindstone to the Law
(Photo by Bill Hunt).

LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb. 19 (World Watch Monitor) — A Pakistan court last month surprised all involved when it dismissed charges of blasphemy against a Christian man accused of insulting Islam. 

The Jan. 28 ruling by a trial court in Punjab province surprised defendant Barkat Masih, his attorney and religious-rights advocates. It came two months after a different judge threw out similar charges against a teen-aged girl that drew worldwide criticism of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws. 

Masih was arrested in October 2011 on the basis of a complaint filed by two men who accused him of insulting the prophet Muhammad. After one judge balked at taking up the case, a second stepped in an ordered a police investigation of the charge. Police found evidence that the accusers were attempting to wrest property away from Masih, and prosecutors could provide no evidence to support the blasphemy charge. 

The judge then threw out the case and set Masih free. 

“This is a remarkable case in which a trial court judge has released a person charged with blasphemy,” said Masih’s lawyer, Allah Rakha. “In my several years of legal practice I have never seen a trial judge showing guts in such a sensitive matter.” 

Some government officials drew a link from the case of Barkat Masih to the much more widely covered case of Rimsha Masih, an Islamabad girl arrested in August on charges that she burned some pages of an Islamic text. The courts threw out the case when police provided evidence the burned pages were planted on the girl by a local Imam.

“Rimsha Masih’s case is a clear example of how the blasphemy laws are misused by people,” Peter Jacob, of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, told World Watch Monitor. 

“Even in Barkat Masih’s case, it’s quite clear that the complainants wanted to grab his property therefore they charged him with an allegation quite a few people in Pakistan dare to question. The government and judiciary should review all blasphemy cases because most of those accused are victims of jealousy and prejudice.”

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Copyright 2013 World Watch Monitor

World Watch Monitor is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only. For subscription information, contact: info@worldwatchmonitor.org

Egypt Christians Offer Water Wash Feet of Muslims

An Act of Love and Service touched the Cairo, Egypt, Muslims and the Christians.

Muslims Wash for Prayers in Pakistan (Photo by Bill Hunt)

  

Sept. 27, 2012 (Open Doors News) — Across much of the Muslim world, more than two weeks of backlash to the Internet video "Innocence of the Muslims" has occasionally been directed at Christians, from computer hacks to church burnings. Yet amid the anger and violence in several countries, there have been some moments of peace.

Unable to breach the perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Cairo, some Egyptian protesters turned their attention to the nearby Kasr-el-Dobara Evangelical Church.

"Death to the worshipers of the cross!" they painted on the wall. The mob began to damage the downstairs bookshop.

Then a man emerged from the crowd and started yelling. He said the Christians from the church had come to his aid, tending his wounds, during the 2011 popular uprising against the Egyptian government.

Then another man stepped forward, and said the church had offered water, earlier that very day, to wash the feet of Muslims before prayers.

The crowd fell silent, turned, and left.

In Zinder, Niger, on Sept. 14, about 1,000 Muslims emerged from the Friday Jumu'ah prayers, divided into groups of several hundred each, and started marching toward the churches in town. They set the Winners Chapel afire. They severely vandalized the Union of Evangelical and Protestant churches’ community center, the Church of the Assemblies of God, and a Catholic church.

Several Christians were injured, though the exact number has not been verified. After police regained control at the churches, smaller groups damaged the homes of the evangelical church pastor and homes of members of the Catholic church. Police made numerous arrests.

Meanwhile, as far away as Pakistan, Christians anticipated the wave of Muslim anger to wash into their country. On Sept. 21, an angry mob torched St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pakistan's Mardan district. Protestors destroyed not only the church building but a school attended by Christian and Muslim children.

Copyright 2012 Open Doors News
 www.opendoorsnews.org
See full article.



An Act of Love and Service touched the Muslims and the Christians.
--Bill Hunt

Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.

     

Pakistani Woman Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ for Refusing Islam

Compass Direct News

www.compassdirect.org

Relatives who became Muslims try to force her to renounce Christian faith.

By Murad Khan

Summary:

FORT ABBAS, Pakistan, March 12 (Compass Direct New) – A young mother has been falsely accused of “blaspheming” Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, because she rebuffed attempts by relatives who had converted to Islam to force her to renounce her Christian faith, family members said. Police in Khichiwala, Bahawalnagar district, in Punjab Province, charged 26-year-old Shamim Bibi, mother of a 5-month-old girl and resident of the village Chak No. 170/7R Colony, in the Fort Abbas area, under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s “blasphemy” statutes after neighbors accused her of uttering remarks against Muhammad. She was arrested on Feb. 28. Speaking ill of Muhammad in Pakistan is punishable by life imprisonment or death under Pakistan’s internationally condemned blasphemy laws. Shahbaz Masih, her brother-in-law, told Compass that one of the two men named as witnesses has denied hearing anything from Shamim Bibi that supports the charge. Bahawalnagar Superintendent of Police Investigation Irfan Ullah acknowledged that one of the two witnesses had admitted to not being present at the alleged “crime” scene at the time of the alleged remark. “The other witness is standing by his claim, and she has produced nothing so far which can prove her innocence,” Ullah told Compass by phone. He vehemently denied that police had caved in to pressure from local Muslims and had registered a case in undue haste.

Read the Story at www.compassdirect.org

Copyright 2012 Compass Direct News

Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.

A young mother, Shamim Bibi, has been ripped from her baby and imprisoned under penalty of death for her Christian Faith. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom." Actively Pray for her and the Persecuted Church.

--Bill