R.E.A.L. urges all people to Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.
Security officials examine the site of suicide bomb attacks at the Saint Syed Ali bin Osman Al-Hajvery shrine, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore on July 2, 2010. - Photo by AFP.
“Faisalabad: June 25, 2010. (PCP) A 73 year old Christian named Rehmat Masih son of Barkat Masih resident of village Jandwali Chak # 165/RB, Teshil Jhumra, District Faisalabad has been charged under blasphemy law vide FIR # 321 dated 19th June 2010, under section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code with Police Station Jhumra, for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad and his wife Hazrat Khadija. He was arrested from his residence on the same day and presently he is behind the bars in District Jail Faisalabad. He will be reappeared before Magistrate Muhammad Sajawal on 4th July 2010 for complete challan. It is learned that the charge is clearly based on false allegations due to some land dispute between the accuser Sajid Hameed and the Christian community. This case of land dispute is still pending before civil courts. The overall law and order situation in the said area is clam and no unpleasant incident is happened till now, but Christian residents are fearful due to attacks by Muslim mob on Christian settlements as taken place in the history of Pakistan after such blasphemy incidents. ”
Background and Detail of the Incident:
“According to local sources, Dr. Palus (one of the relative of Rehmat Masih) told to NCJP’s coordinator Shahid Anwar that dates back in April 2010, Rehmat Masih had some serious discussion over religion with some Muslims of his village. Both the parties exchanged remarks in favour of each other’s faith. At that time, no untoward incident took place but after the silence of two months, this matter was brought into light again in June by some Muslims of the village namely Sajid Hameed (Accuser), Shahbaz Khalid, Afzaal Bashir. On 10th June, they spread rumors in the locality that Rehmat Masih has committed blasphemy by passing remarks against the Prophet Muhammad. After hearing the news of blasphemy, a Muslim delegation came to Dr. Palus and complaint against Rehmat Masih for his sacrilegious act. Dr. Palus told them to calm down and to reconcile the matter peacefully. ”
“On 19th June, the police of Chak Jhumra arrested Rehmat Masih (accused) from his residence on the complaint of Sajid Hameed for disgracing Prophet Muhammad. On 20th June, police presented him before Magistrate Muhammad Sajawal and sent him to the lockup on judicial remand. ”
“On 23rd June 2010, Shahid Anwar (Coordinator-National Commission of Justice and Peace) visited Rehmat Masih (accused) in District Jail, and collected some facts regarding the incident. During the interview in jail, Rehmat Masih stated that while he was on his duty two months ago, some Muslims namely Muhammad Amir, Akbar Ali and Ashgar Ali came to him and started asking questions about Christianity. Muhammad Amir asked Rehmat Masih about Hazrat Mariam (mother Mary, mother of Jesus), but in reply, Rehmat Masih asked Muhammad Amir about Hazrat Khadija (wife of Prophet Mohammad). They exchanged arguments with each other and then moved to their homes peacefully. ”
“Dr. Palus also added that complainant Sajid Hameed has falsely implicated Rehmat Masih in this case, because he has some interpersonal and land dispute with Christian community. It is also learned that Shahbaz Khalid and Afzaal Bashir who are named in the FIR as witness, has political differences with Rehmat Masih, therefore they are trying to involve Rehmat Masih in the fabricated case in order to take political revenge.”
— “Muslim mob attack Christian in Essa Nagri Karachi”
— “Karachi, Pakistan: May 3, 2010. (PCP) The reports are coming up of Muslim mob attack on Christian colony in Karachi. according to initial reports, hundreds of Pushtoon Muslims attacked Essa Nagri, a biggest residential pocket of Christians in Pakistan. Essa Nagri have more than fifty thousand Christians residential area in Metropolitan Karachi city which is surrounded by Pushto speaking groups immigrants from former NWFP and renamed Khyber-Pukhtunkhawa province which is base of Pakistani Taliban. According to PCP sources, Pukhtoon ethnic Muslim mob equipped with firearms and automatic assault rifles attacked Essa Nagri. The Pushtoon Muslim mob took out Christian women and children and injured them with rifle buts and fired in air to harass innocent Christians. The broke doors of Christian’s homes who have locked them in homes with fear.”
Pakistan: Christians protest occupation of church
— Pakistan Daily Times: “People belonging to the Christian community held a protest demonstration here on Sunday against Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Malik Iftikhar belonging to PML-N for occupying a church with the help of armed hooligans.”
— AP reports: “Five Sikh men who fled their hometown on the Afghan border were making a quick trip back home when masked men blocked their way with a pickup on a mountain road not far from the Khyber Pass. There were no houses, no buildings, no other cars in sight. The kidnappers covered their faces with black scarves and carried machine-guns.”
— “In a country beset by a powerful Islamist insurgency, where suicide bombings are commonplace and government offensives widely dismissed as ineffective, anyone can become a victim. But for the nation’s minorities — its small communities of Hindus, Christians and Sikhs — life is particularly precarious. Thousands have fled their villages, crowding into urban slums. Thousands more have fled the country.”
— “‘With the rise in militancy in our society in general, and in the northwest in particular, minorities are feeling more threatened,’ said I.A. Rehman, a senior official with Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission. He noted many Sikhs have been driven from their homes, and those who remain are now often forced to pay militants a ‘jizya’ — a traditional tax for non-Muslim.”
AP: "In this photo made on March 19, 2010, Surjeet Singh, from Pakistan's Sikh community, sits with family members after his release in Peshawar, Pakistan. Singh, who had been kidnapped for ransom by alleged militants, was freed after 42 days as a result of a crackdown operation by security forces" (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
— “Singh’s journey, which began on a cold morning in January and ended 42 days later with a March 1 bloody gunbattle, underscores the threats to those minorities, as well as the lawlessness of Pakistan’s frontier regions.”
— “Two months later, it’s still not clear exactly why the Sikhs were targeted: Were the bandits waiting for them? Would they have kidnapped anyone who came by? Certainly their religion made them easier targets, since it is more difficult for them to make use of the region’s informal power networks, the tribal and religious leaders who can protect people in the semiautonomous areas.”
— “On that day, though, as armed men swarmed toward their car, shouting for the five Sikh men to move quickly, all Singh and his friends were thinking about was survival.”
— “Two of them managed to slip away amid the chaos, but three — all sharing the same common Sikh surname, Singh — were quickly captured.”
— “‘They held us at gunpoint, immediately dragged us out of our car,’ said Surjeet Singh, a quiet composed man. He and his friends were blindfolded and driven for about an hour. Then they began walking.”
— “They could see nothing through their blindfolds. They could only feel cold pressing in as they climbed higher into the Hindu Kush mountains.”
— “After hours of walking, they were brought to a set of rooms carved into the mountainside. It would be their home for the next 42 days. There they would be kept chained and often blindfolded. Occasionally, they were beaten. The prisoners never saw their captors’ faces — which were always covered with scarves — and even now they do not know who they were.”
— “They clearly were militant Muslims, forcibly cutting their prisoners hair. Keeping hair uncut is a deeply important religious precept for Sikh men.”
In Pakistan, media sourcesreport that a Christian woman was raped for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.
Catholic Newshas updated this story to state that the husband self-immolated himself in despair (and died) over the rape and torture of his wife who was falsely accused of a “crime,” and who refused religious conversion.
BosNews is reporting that Christian groups sought to protest the ” ‘refusal’ of police to detain” those allegedly responsible, and that such Christian group protests were denied because of “terrorism threats.”
“Pakistani Christian couple refuses to convert: husband is burnt alive, wife raped by police” by Fareed Khan“Both husband and wife worked for a wealthy Muslim businessman in Rawalpindi. Their three children, ranging from 7 and 12, were forced to watch their parents brutalised. The man has suffered 80 per cent burns, and hospital doctors do not think he will survive. Christian organisations stage protests.”
“Arshed Masih, 38, is still fighting for his life in Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, a city not far from Pakistan’s capital. With the help of police, Muslim extremists last Friday set him on fire for refusing to convert to Islam and raped his wife, local sources told AsiaNews. The incident occurred in front of a local police station.”
“In 2005, Masih and his wife began working for a wealthy Muslim businessman, he as driver and she as his wife’s maid. Recently, the two fell out of favour with their employer and his family because they insisted on remaining Christian.”
“During the incident, Masih’s wife, Martha, ‘was raped by police agents,’ local sources said. The couple’s three children, ranging in age from 7 and 12, were forced to watch their parents being brutalised.”
“‘Masih and his wife are currently being treated in hospital,’ Holy Family Hospital officials said. ‘He was listed in serious condition with about 80 per cent of his body burned,’ the BosNewsLife agency reported. With that kind of burns, hospital officials said the 38-year-old victim (pictured) is not likely to survive.”
“On Sunday, the Government of Punjab government announced an investigation into what happened. ‘The matter will be investigated and the culprits will be arrested,’ Punjab’s Minister of Law Rana Sanaullah said.”
“The Christian couple lived with their children in the servant quarters of Sheikh Mohammad Sultan’s estate in Rawalpindi. In January, religious leaders and Sultan reportedly told Arshed to convert to Islam with his whole family. After he refused, they threatened him with ‘dire consequences’.”
“Arshed offered to quit his job, but the businessman allegedly said he would ‘kill’ him if he were to leave.”
“Last week, tensions rose after Sultan reported the theft of 500,000 Pakistani rupees (almost US$ 6,000), and an official complaint (First Information Report) was filed with police.”
“Although the Christian couple was not named as suspect, the businessman offered them to drop the case if they converted to Islam or ‘else that both would not see their children again.'”
“The rest is known. Arshed Masih chose to remain loyal to his Christian faith, and last Friday he was set on fire and his wife raped by police.”
“Citing ‘terrorism threats’, the government of Pakistan’s Punjab province banned protests Monday, March 22, against the ‘refusal’ by police to detain those who burned a Christian man for not converting to Islam, while raping his wife.
“‘There is a possible threat of terrorism, so it is better to avoid any processions,’ the government told Life for All, one of the Christian advocacy groups organizing the demonstrations.”
“It wasn’t clear who had made the threats. Officials of Pakistan’s Christian minority expressed concerns however about attacks by extremists, including fighters linked to al-Qaida and other militant groups.”
“Monday’s demonstrations were to be organized in the cities of Lahore and Rawilpindi, where police and religious leaders allegedly attacked the Christian couple Friday, March 19.”
On March 12, 2010 at the Washington DC National Press Club, the Voice of the Copts held a press conference to address the subject of ongoing Egyptian Coptic Christian oppression and the oppression of Pakistani Christians.
The Voice of the Copts’ Ashraf Ramelah spoke on the human rights issues regarding the Copts in Egypt. He addressed the attack on Coptic Christians on the Coptic Christmas Eve in January 2010, which resulted in 6 Copts and a Muslim police officer were killed. He also discussed the case of Mohammed Bishoy Hegazy, an Egyptian Christian who converted to Christian from Islam, and who has asked the Egyptian government to allow his Egyptian identity card (which describes a person’s religion) to be changed from Muslim to Christian.
On January 22. 2010, the Voice of the Copts announced that the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) submitted application into UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights “seeking judgment against the Egyptian government for refusing to recognize the fact that Mr. Mohammed Bishoy Hegazy and his family members are Christians converted from Islam.” The Voice of the Copts stated that Mr. Hegazy’s Egyptian attorney was Mr. Ashraf Edward.
Attorney Ashraf Edward was supposed to be at the March 12, 2010 press conference, but Ashraf Ramelah stated that his visa application to come to the United States was stalled by government officials, even though it was filed on a timely basis. Voice of the Copts’ Ashraf Ramelah stated that some U.S. government officials questioned why the Copts even needed to have such a press conference in the United States to speak on behalf of Coptic freedom, equality, and liberty in Egypt.
In attorney Ashraf Edward’s prepared remarks, he states that “the case of Mohamed Hegazy, which was to take its first steps before the United Nations will be the first step to the issues of converts from Islam to Christianity in Egypt in particular and the Arab society in general.” Ashraf Edward’s prepared remarks also stated that the Egyptian Constitution’s definition of Islam as the state religion and Sharia as the source of all legislation is the cause of the “suffering of all minorities within Egyptian society… [violating] all freedom proclaimed by the international conventions and treaties” as well as the International Covenant of Human Rights.
Voice of the Copts’ Ashraf Ramelah also spoke of his and the Voice of the Copts’ support for religious freedom, and that “I would be against anyone that would be creating any hate or pointing his finger just because this person is not a Christian or this person is a Muslim.” Ashraf Ramelah concluded that “each one has the right to believe whatever he wants to believe… I don’t accept to be forced to be follow that belief.”
Ashraf Ramelah also summarized some of Christian convert Mr. Hegazy’s remarks in Arabic stating “sisters and brothers freedom is the most noble thing that we fight for and one of those freedoms that we fight for is the freedom of religion, as defined in article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Mr. Ramelah stated that Mr. Hegazy said that he was arrested for preaching for Christianity, and has been oppressed and discriminated against for converting from Islam to Christianity. Mr. Ramelah also read that Mr. Hegazy stated that fatwas had been issued against him due to his conversion to Christianity. Ashraf Ramelah also described Mr. Hegazy’s struggle to get his Christian identity recognized, as well as the situation in Egypt where those who convert from Christianity to Islam are widely accepted, whereas the religious freedom to convert from Islam to Christianity was met with oppression and threats.
(See also video of Ashraf Ramelah’s statements, part 1, part 2, part 3).
Voice of the Copts' Ashraf Ramelah Speaks at DC National Press Club on Coptic and Christian Oppression in Egypt
Jordan Sekulow provided a description of the ACLJ’s mission as a partner to the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) that submitted Mohammed Bishoy Hegazy’s application to the U.N. human rights group seeking to have Egypt recognize Mr. Hegazy as a Christian. Mr. Sekulow described how the ACLJ and the ECLJ sought to defend the human and legal rights of Christians around the world. (See also video of Mr. Sekulow’s statement.)
ACLJ's Jordan Sekulow
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)’s Shaheryar S. Gill also addressed the press conference, discussing details of Mr. Hegazy’s case. Mr. Gill worked on Mr. Hegazy’s petition submitted to the United Nations in January 2010. Mr. Gill also addressed the oppression of Christians both in Egypt and in Pakistan, as part of a global refusal by some nations to accept religious plurality. (See also video of Mr. Gill’s statement, part 1, part 2).
ACLJ's Shaheryar Gill
Dr. Nazir Bhatti of the Pakistan Christian Congress and Pakistan Christian Post further described the oppression of Pakistani Christians today. Dr. Nazir Bhatti spoke about the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, Shazia Bashir, on January 23, who was employed as a domestic in Lahore, Pakistan by a powerful Muslim lawyer Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem who is the primary suspect in this crime. He spoke about how Pakistan Muslim League and others offered financial compensation to Shazia Bashir’s family, believing this would ensure “justice.” Dr. Bhatti also described the formation of a medical board comprised of Muslim doctors who stated that Shazia Bashir was not raped, but claim that she died of a “skin infection.” He also told of how the Lahore Bar Association passed a resolution that would call for the cancellation of lawyers’ membership who would follow the Shazia Bashir case. Dr. Nazir Bhatti also spoke about the attack on Pakistan Christians attacked by a mob in Gojra, and how the accused parties were readily dismissed. (See also video of Dr. Bhatti’s statement).
Dr. Nazir Bhatti of the Pakistan Christian Congress and Pakistan Christian Post Speaks of Oppression of Minority Christians in Pakistan
Faith McDonnell, of The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), spoke about oppression of women under Sharia. She described her focus of seeking to change the witness of churches towards “the persecuted church and human rights in general.” Faith McDonnell spoke about the release of the DVD of the film “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” which was released on the week of International Women’s Day. She stated that the film reminds the world that “under Sharia, [for Muslim women] it is a struggle for women to stay alive,” and described how the rights for non-Muslim women under Sharia were even worse. She spoke of the double standards and abuse of women under Sharia, as a “religiously sanctioned form of misogyny.”
IRD's Faith McDonnell Speaks on Oppression of Women
Jeffrey Imm of Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) spoke on “Egypt and the Undiscovered Country,” stating that America once also had to find the courage to live up its human rights commitments. He stated that America did so by the majority of whites who once oppressed black Americans realizing that they had the responsibility to change. He urged Egyptian Muslims to “don’t look to just the Coptic victims of oppression for the solution to peace and human rights in Egypt. Don’t expect only the Copts and their diaspora around the world to deal with this problem.” He urged Egyptian Muslims to take responsibility for changing the oppression of Copts in Egypt.
“To both the Copts and to their oppressors, I invite you to consider seeking a path to a new Egypt, to an Undiscovered Country, where freedom of religion, where freedom of conscience, where our universal human rights of equality and liberty, are not just special privileges, but are guaranteed rights for all human beings. I invite you to pursue a path where human rights and peace are not considered as opposite choices, but are recognized as equal priorities. And I invite you to pursue a path where we leave hate in our past, and choose love for our future.” (See also video, part 1, part 2).
Pakistan Daily Times: “Blasphemy in a human world” – Sikander Amani: “Whether you like it or not, the notion of blasphemy, or of ‘defamation of religion’, creates a hierarchy of beliefs which is simply incompatible with the plurality of the world, and the very right to hold a belief.” “On the contrary, it seems to be the first step towards allowing for the supremacy of one religion…”
Pakistan Christian Post reports:
— “Mr. Ezra Shujaat advocate have filed a Writ Petition in High Court to lodge First Information Report FIR against Muslim attackers on a Christian Family when police denied to register case on request of injured family.”
— “According to reports, on February 26, 2010, at 3;00 PM when Muneeran Bibi along with her father and other sisters was doing house hold, five Muslims, Mohammad Sajid equipped with pistol, Mohammad Shareef equipped with Knife, Mohammad Wajid holing a stick, and two unknown persons forcibly entered in their home and started beating them,”
— “Mohammad Shreef loudly instructed his companions to kidnap Muneeran and her younger sister Sheena, but when the family resisted, they torn the clothes of Muneeran and others.”
— “Mohammad Shareef attacked Muneeran and gave four injures with knife, Muneeran fell down unconscious, during this people from neighbor hood came and attackers ran away.”
— “Muuneeran Bibi was taken to hospital but fist police refused to lodge FIR on which Advocate Ezra Shujaat filed writ petition in court and got the order for lodging FIR,”
— “In fact on 8th April 2007,on Easter Sunday .the younger sister of Muneeran ,named Sheena aged 13 years was kidnapped and sexually abused by four Muslims.”
— “The trial of kidnapping of Sheena is pending in court and on final stage. Now,the family was attacked to pressurize them to withdraw pending case”
