Two Christian Girls Kidnapped and Forced to Pronounce the Shahada

www.pakistanchristianpost.com

Multan, Pakistan: December 18, 2008. (The Sikh Times) After a judge placed new financial and social pressure on the captors of a Pakistani girl who was kidnapped and converted to Islam, attorneys have guarded optimism they can return her to custody of her Christian parents, one news from Pakistan has reported. Judge Malik Saeed Ijaz ordered the girl’s husband, Amjad Ali, to pay a dowry of 100,000 rupees (US$1,275) and allow her parents visitation rights, two actions required by typical Pakistani marriage protocol. So far he has done neither.

The judge gave Saba Masih, 13, the opportunity to talk with her family during yesterday’s hearing, but she remained mostly silent behind her veil, offering only blunt replies. “I don’t want to see my parents. They are Christians and I am a Muslim,” she said, according to her parents’ attorney. Her younger sister Aneela Masih, who was also kidnapped but returned to her family three months ago, pleaded with her older sister to return home.

The 10-year-old told her that Christmas was coming and she didn’t want her sister to spend it with those “who are not our people.” Saba Masih appeared at the Multan branch of Lahore’s High Court yesterday along with her Muslim husband and his family. Her parents filed a contempt petition last month against her captors for failing to follow Pakistani marriage protocol. Islamic law (sharia), however, gives a wife the right to relinquish a dowry.

Lawyers said they fear that the Muslim family will pressure Saba Masih to claim this right in order to offset growing financial pressure. Lawyers hope that if her mother can visit her, it will convince her to leave her husband and come home to the family; her family believes he has threatened her with violence if she attempts to rejoin them. At Monday’s hearing, Saba Masih still appeared reluctant to return to her family. Relatives said they were praying that she would change her mind and that the captors would lose their influence over her. “The main thing is Saba must be ready herself to come back,” said her uncle, Khalid Raheel, the family spokesman. “But she isn’t ready to come back yet, and I don’t know how they are convincing her.” On Wednesday (Dec. 17) the judge is expected to adjourn the case and issue a deed requiring Ali to pay the dowry at the convenience of the Masih family.

The judge yesterday threatened Ali with prison time if he failed to carry out this order. Akbar Durrani, attorney for the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), said the attorneys might try to use Aneela Masih’s testimony of kidnapping to take the case to the Supreme Court if other options fail. The Christian family’s lawyer said the attempt to force Ali to pay a dowry was a tactic to mount financial pressure on Saba Masih’s husband and to convince her to return home. Her family and their lawyers believe she has stayed with her Muslim husband because he and his family have issued death threats.

The Christian family’s chances of winning run against the judicial status quo for Pakistani religious minorities, but the new push comes after a Sept. 9 ruling that returned Aneela Masih to her parents, a rare legal victory for non-Muslims. Aneela and Saba Masih were kidnapped on June 26 while travelling to visit their uncle in Sarwar Shaheed, northwest of Multan. Their parents say local fruit vendor Muhammad Arif Bajwa and three others kidnapped them in Chawk Munda, a small town in south Punjab. Saba Masih was married to Ali the next day. Bajwa and Ali registered a case with the police on June 28 for custody of the girls based on their alleged conversion to Islam. Local residents regard the men as serial kidnappers with connections to a human trafficking ring.

The girls’ first defense attorney believed they could have been raped and sold to a brothel. Ironically, attorneys said, the kidnappers’ alleged desire to exploit Saba Masih may now be the best hope of her returning to her parents, as keeping her has become not lucrative but increasingly costly with court hearings continuing and legal fees multiplying. “These [kidnappers] don’t have an emotional link to Saba,” Durrani told Compass by phone. “They are in the business of prostitution and only wanted to use these girls for their business.”

Prosecuting attorneys said they have a growing optimism that they can regain custody of Saba Masih, something they thought unlikely two months ago. In previous hearings, a judge allowed Saba Masih to choose whether or not she would return to her family, even though Pakistan marriage law requires the approval of legal guardians at the age of 16. The judge determined that her age was 17 based on her testimony and a report by a medical board pressured by Muslim groups to inflate her age. He did not accept as evidence her birth certificate and baptismal record that showed her age as 13.

Younis Masih and his wife first saw their daughters after their kidnapping at a July hearing. The girls were in the company of 16 Muslims and were said to be under pressure to claim they had converted to Islam. After Aneela Masih returned to her family in September, she claimed that their captors threatened to kill them and their family if they did not do everything asked of them. Previously it had been reported that she was raped while in captivity, but there was no medical evidence that she was sexually abused or manhandled, lawyers said. Her sister appears to be suffering, Durrani said.

“The family has told us that Saba Masih is not in good condition – most of the time she cries and is not satisfied there,” Durrani said. Kidnapping of Christians in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million is not uncommon. Many captors believe they will not be convicted if caught due to the penal code’s influence by sharia, which grants non-Muslims second-class status in society. Every year there are cases of Pakistani Christian children kidnapped, killed or exploited by those who believe their parents are powerless. Last month a Muslim family in Nankan kidnapped the 7-year-old son of Pakistani Christian Binyamin Yusef, 30, over a land dispute.

Two days later police found his son’s body, which showed signs of torture and rape. Police did not register the case when Yusef initially approached them. CLAAS representatives hope to open court action against the alleged perpetrators.

Gujrat Community Seeks to Lessen Harship through Art

The Christian community of Gujrat, Pakistan, is bursting forth with both a dire need for steady income and with creativity. Many people in Gujrat, both men and women, have excellent skills in knitting, sewing and textiles, painting, toy-making, and much more. The community, under the guidance of Nadeem Feroze, a novitiate in the Tertiary lay order of St. Benedict of the Roman Catholic Church, and with the assistance of an American liaison in the United States, Kristen Pantle, are attempting to organize the community into a network of artisans.

"Due to this discrimination," Nadeem explained, "Christians do not have many opportunities to acquire jobs in Pakistan. Most days we struggle to earn a living wage simply to feed our children or care for aging parents. It is very hard."

Nadeem is very involved in his community, and when he isn't doing odd jobs along with the rest of his poor neighborhoods, he spends his time in service to them. Teaching catechism or helping children with homework, making rosaries and bringing the Eucharist to shut-ins, partaking in peace conferences and organizing church events, are just a glimpse into the daily efforts Nadeem exercises in order to uplift his community of faith. "Nadeem wants to live out the Gospel message the best he can," Kristen, student at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, OH, explains. "He is compelled by something deep within to bring hope, dignity, and self-sufficiency to all his persecuted brethren. He wishes so much to help them, but he also has a family of his own to care for." Nadeem has a wife and a daughter with another child on the way, as well as two elderly parents for whom he cares.

Sewing Hope

The pride of the community's artistic work is their tapestries. Taught by the members from the religious order Sisters of the Cross, the community hand-sews tapestries of religious images from strips of fabric. One of the sisters is pictured (left) with their Resurrection Tapestry. "It takes almost twelve hours to make, depending on the skill of the artist," Nadeem explains. "Most of the artists don't have sewing machines and so have to do everything by hand."

They sell religious cards made by the sisters, as well as cards made by the little children in Sunday school. They make animal statues out of jewels and street tar. "Necessity is the mother of invention," Kristen says. There is also an artist who paints pastoral scenes on stretches of velvet (pictured below).

Nadeem and Kristen are hoping to establish a dependable source of income. "This may take awhile," sighs Kristen. "I don't know a lot about these things, but I would love to be able to create a Fair Trade market for this community. For them to be able to produce things that people want to buy will not only give them a sense of pride, it will put food on the table and provide much-needed medical care. It is going to take a lot of work and ingenuity. I hope to find some help with this."

If you wish to purchase one of the items made by the Christians of Gujrat, help with this ministry, or simply would like to donate, please email Kristen at k.louise77@gmail.com.

Churches Attacked

From The Persecution Times

By Sheraz Khurram Khan
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service in Pakistan

GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN (ANS) — In an attempt to grab the land where a church stands now, three Muslim men allegedly incited and led a Muslim mob to attack a church on Tuesday, March 18, in Gajrakh, a Christian neighborhood in the Pakistani city of Gujranwala, during the Holy Week.

This prompted angry Christians to stage a protest demonstration on March 19 against the incident, International Christian Concern has reported.

Earlier, a Christian man, Zahid Salamat was executed in Pakistani city of Multan during Lent on March 12 for murdering a 9 year old Muslim minor, Muhammad Adnan. The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and some other Christian rights groups had called for postponement of Zahid’s execution but government went ahead with hanging Zahid during Lent.

The latest church attack has been carried out by Muslim mob to grab the church property, but Pakistani Christians had been fearing attacks on churches, missionary schools and other church properties since staging of the anti-cartoon protests in Pakistan last month following reprinting of sacrilegious caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by some western newspapers.

According to a story released by the International Christian Concern (ICC) (www.persecution.org) the mob wanted to seize a community centre that belonged to a church in Gajrakh started tearing down the walls of the church.

The mob manhandled Pastor Shairf Bhatti, who appeared at the scene of incident along with a group of Christians, apparently to stop the mob from attacking the church.

The angry mob, according to the story, hurled stones at the church. The local Christians rushed to the scene, forcing the mob to flee.

The Christian residents of the area staged a protest demonstration, the next day, on March 19 to express their anger against the attack on the church. They called for protection of religious minorities and their places of worship, said the story.

The protesters, the story said, blocked the main government transport road at Gondlawala, a major intersection, by parking tractors laden with garbage across the road.

It said the enraged protesters during the demonstration that lasted for more than two hours raised slogans against the people responsible for the church attack and demanded that the culprits be arrested.

Pastor Sharif Bhatti, Pastor Sabir and other union leaders threatened to stage protests in front of offices of police officials if they did not arrest those responsible for the Church attack, it said.

In a latest development, the ICC reported that Adnan Gujar who along with two other Muslim men including Muhammad Asghar and Muhammad Ashraf had allegedly led the mob to attack the Church has been arrested. The others it said are still at large.

The Christians, the latest ICC update said, had bought the land where the church is standing now in 1984 from a Muslim man, Muhammad Nazir. It said the sale angered his sons who have been trying to get the land back since then. It described the attack on the church as an attempt by Nazir’s sons to get the land back.

Condemning the latest attack on a church in Pakistan, Chief Coordinator of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, Mr. Sohail Johnson has called on government to take stern action against the land mafia.

The land mafia attempts to grab Christian properties and Churches in connivance with some black sheep, said Johnson while referring to some unscrupulous government officials.

He also called upon Christians across the country to rise above their petty differences and emerge as a united force against any possible future attempts by the land mafia to occupy churches or Christian properties.

Many Pakistanis believe bishop died a martyr, but persecution goes on-- Bishop John Joseph

National Catholic Reporter
May 7, 1999
Denis Coday

One year ago, on May 6, Bishop John Joseph of Faisalabad, Pakistan, stood outside a courthouse and shot himself in the head with a pistol. His action -- widely understood as a protest against persecution of Christians in Pakistan -- resounded through the country and echoed into the wider world.

In Pakistan, Joseph is hailed as a martyr. His death is never described as "suicide" -- an act condemned by the Catholic church -- but as a sacrifice on behalf of his people.

"The very night he gave his sacrifice, people sent out messages, first in the city of Sahiwal, later by telephones all over the country," recalled Fr. Bonnie Mendes, a priest of Faisalabad diocese. "At once there were demonstrations, processions, rallies and the unanimous slogan, `Bishop John Joseph, martyr.' For the people, he is no less than that."

A few days before Joseph shot himself, a Christian man, Ayub Masih, had been condemned to death at the courthouse for blasphemy against Islam. His crime: He allegedly had spoken favorably of British author Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Muslim officials called for Rushdie's death in 1989, forcing him into hiding.

For Joseph, the persecution of Ayub Masih symbolized the plight of all Christians in Pakistan. Masih -- a name given to all Christians in Pakistan -- was the fourth Christian to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in that country since the early 1990s. It was a use of religion by Islamic authorities that amounts to "purely political gimmickry," according to Peter Jacob, executive secretary of Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace. Three others had their convictions overturned by higher courts, but death threats forced them into exile. Several Christians have been killed in mob violence while awaiting trail for blasphemy charges.

Joseph said the charges against Ayub Masih had been trumped up to force 15 Christian families out in a local land dispute.

Speaking at a rally in Vienna, Austria, in March 1998, one of his last public speeches outside Pakistan, Joseph, summed up the sentiments of Christians in Pakistan, had warned, "We have had enough. We shall protest in such a way that the world will be shocked."

Bishop Joseph Coutts, Joseph's successor, said, "For the people, Bishop John is quite clearly a martyr," whether he is officially accepted as one or not. In Pakistan, people saw his action as like that of a mother who throws herself in the line of fire to save her child from being killed, he said. "The words of Ayub Masih's mother sum it up: `He died to save my son's life.'"

This popular sentiment is evident at the bishop's grave today. His gravesite in the compound at the Faisalabad cathedral has become a shrine that pilgrims visit.

A calculated risk

Those who knew the bishop well deny speculation that he was depressed or ailing.

"He was of sound mind -- one of the most sound minds in the Catholic church of Pakistan," says Mendes, who first met Joseph in 1956 when they were both seminarians. Mendes spent years struggling beside Joseph on the peace and justice commission and many other projects.

Mendes describes the bishop's suicide as "a well thought out calculated risk. I am sure he prayed over it for a long time. In the last year or more, he kept saying, the time for sacrifice has come. You could say that he was full of hope that his death would help highlight the sufferings of the minorities internationally."

"I think it became quite clear to him that now was the time to give a big push and to do something dramatic," said Coutts, who studied dogmatic theology under then-Fr. Joseph at the National Theology Seminary in Karachi and in 1976 joined the seminary faculty when Joseph was dean of studies. The two served together on the bishops' conference of Pakistan for 10 years.

In Lahore on April 7, 1994, at the funeral of Manzoor Masih (another Christian charged with blasphemy who was gunned down outside the courthouse while still on trial), Joseph publicly announced that he was ready to die if necessary.

Mendes recalls the words the bishop preached at Manzoor Masih's funeral: "Bishop John said, `Manzoor, we are sorry this happened to you. If anybody's blood was needed, I should have been the first. I shall shed my blood but will not allow the blood of my people to spill in the country.'"

Mendes says that the bishop's last public address, which he faxed to a seminar to be held in Rome in conjunction with the Synod of Bishops for Asia in March 1998, is significant. The last two paragraphs read:

"I shall count myself fortunate if in this mission of breaking the barriers, Our Lord accepts the sacrifice of my blood for the benefit of his people. As St. Paul wrote, `It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the church' (Colossians 1:24).

"This is the only effective response to the ever-growing phenomena of violence around us. Are we ready to take up the challenge and follow him, carrying this cross on our own shoulder? Are we ready to drink the cup of suffering to the bitter end as Jesus did? Each one of us has to formulate his or her personal response. May the crucified and risen Lord give us the courage to do so. Amen."