Pakistani Christian Youth Accused of Blasphemy Killed in Jail

By Joseph Keenan

CP South and Southeast Asia Correspondent

Tue, Sep। 15 2009 05:25 PM EDT
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090915/report-pakistani-christian-youth-accused-of-blasphemy-killed-in-jail/index.html

Robert Danish, a Pakistani Christian youth jailed for allegedly desecrating Quran was found dead inside prison on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m in Sialkot, Punjab province.

“The authorities said he committed suicide, but we believe he was killed by Muslim police officials,” one of the relatives of the Christian youth was quoted as saying by Pakistan Christian Post (PCP).

What has surprised Christians and the family of Robert is that he was killed in a special security zone of Sialkot Central Jail on Saturday, reported PCP.

Robert Danish, also known as Falish Masih was arrested by police on 11 September after Mohammad Asghar Ali, resident of village Jhethey Key lodged a complaint against him. Mohammad Asghar Ali, the village barber accused Robert Danish of pushing his daughter Hina Ali on the way, letting her drop the Quran in side-drain, thus desecrating the holy book of Muslim. It happened when Hina, who is also rumoured to have an affair Robert was coming home after Quran recitation.

PCP said Hina's father, Asghar Ali complained in FIR with police that Robert Danish took the Quran from the hand of his daughter and threw it in a drain and a case under blasphemy was registered.

Earlier, the Muslims of the village also accused Robert Danish of having an affair with Hina and threatening to kill him if he will not leave her, that may have prompted the girl’s father to implicate him, the report said.

Friends of Robert Danish told PCP that because of the situation there was rumour involving Robert in blasphemy case from months, that has finally happened when he was arrested.

Robert was produced before local magistrate on 11 September itself and sent to judicial custody in Sialkot Central Jail where he was killed on Saturday morning, according to the family of the Christian youth.

PCP said Mr. Riasat Masih, father of Robert Danish has refused to perform funeral of his son until killers are arrested, the report said.

Talking to the PCP, the family members said they do not believe in suicide theory of jail authorities. They said, “Robert was not a coward who presents himself in Police Station when police detained his father.

“Muslim jail officers are involved in his killing” one of Robert Danish’s relatives told PCP.

PCP said there is widespread anger among Christians in Pakistan after news of killing of Robert Danish in jail custody. Christians of Sialkot have announced to observe two days strike and mourning on killing of Christian youth, it said.

The incident was conspired by local Muslim clerics who hoisted banners with slogans “Kill the blasphemers” on Wazirabad-Sialkot road in Sambarial after incident of Gojra where Muslim burnt alive Christians on August 1, the report said.

The village Jhethe Key is some of 20 km from Sialkot and in jurisdiction of Sambarial sub-district of Punjab province where 30 Christian families are living with 100 hundred Muslim families over a century with religious harmony until the recent allegation of blasphemy had happened, the report said.

Pakistan is under great pressure from Christians and the international community after 8 Christians were burnt to death in Gojra town in Punjab province on an alleged desecration of Quran, the holy book of Muslims on Aug. 1, dozens of Christian homes were also burnt. It was the repetition of the incident in a Christian village of Korian on 29 July where over 100 Christian homes were also burnt.

Christians have demanded that the blasphemy law be repealed; they said the law has often been used to settle personal scores against them and other religious minorities.

According to Pakistan Penal code “Use of derogatory remarks, etc in respect of the Holy Prophet; whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC) said it is strongly condemning killing of Robert Danish and has demanded the arrest of the killers; and justice be brought for Robert’s family.

• Pakistani Christians Give Gov't Ultimatum on Blasphemy Laws
• WCC Urges Pakistan to Repeal Blasphemy Law
• Christians in Pakistan Fear Further Firestorms
• Report: Church Burnt Down in Pakistan over Alleged Blasphemy
• Four Militants Arrested in Attack on Pakistani Christians

4 Militants Held in Fatal Attack on Christians in Pakistani Town

Police officials said Wednesday that four militants belonging to two banned groups had been arrested and accused of involvement in the killings of Christians and riots in a Punjabi town on Aug. 1.

At least seven people were killed when armed mobs of Muslims attacked a Christian colony in Gojra, a shabby town in Punjab Province, over a claim that a Koran had been defiled.

More than 100 houses belonging to Christians were burned, and dozens of people were wounded in the riots, which sent shock waves across the country.

A private advocacy group, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, called the attacks “barbaric” and a “comprehensive failure by the government to protect minorities.” Pakistan is overwhelmingly Muslim; non-Muslims make up only about 5 percent of the population. Christian Pakistanis are often treated as second-class citizens.

Giving details of the arrests on Wednesday, Ahmad Raza Tahir, the highest ranking police official in the Faisalabad region, where Gojra is located, said that three of the men who were arrested belonged to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a banned Sunni extremist group known for violence against Shiite Muslims and others. The fourth man, he said, belonged to Harkatul Jehad al-Islami, a banned extremist group with close ties to the Taliban. All four, he said, were trained in Afghanistan. Mr. Tahir criticized local politicians and clerics for not helping to avert the violence.

Rights groups have maintained that the attacks were planned and coordinated, with announcements made through mosque loudspeakers on July 31, urging Muslims to “make a mincemeat” of Christians.

Concerns about the rise of militancy in Punjab, the most populous and prosperous of Pakistan’s provinces, have increased in recent months. The southern part of the province — with rampant poverty and a large number of religious schools — is considered fertile ground for a militant brand of Islam.

A commission investigating the Aug. 1 violence has taken statements from victims, police officers and intelligence officials, and is expected to report its findings in less than two weeks.

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Waqar Gillani from Lahore.

Sunni Muslims Killing and Persecuting Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus

http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/08/06/pakistan-and-burning-alive-of-christians/

Posted by Lee Jay Walker on 8/06/09 • Categorized as Persecution

By Lee Jay Walker

Tokyo Correspondent – THE SEOUL TIMES


In Pakistan the relentless hatred of Sunni Islamic fanatics towards all minorities is continuing and the reasons, like always, are based on their hate-filled minds. Therefore, at least six innocent Christians have been killed on the grounds that the Koran was desecrated. Of course, no evidence, and even if evidence, does this mean you can burn alive women, men, and children? Well in the eyes of radical Sunni Islam it does.

You see, in the past few weeks many Shia Muslims have been murdered by radical Sunni Islamic fanatics in Iraq; meanwhile Buddhists are often killed or beheaded by Sunni fanatics in Thailand; and now it is the turn of Christians to be killed at random in nations like Somalia and Pakistan.

The connection, just like September 11 in America, is the burning hatred within Sunni Islam towards people of different faiths and towards minority Muslims who belong to the Shia or Ahmadiyya.

Yes, of course not all Sunni Muslims are fanatics, it would be foolish to claim they were but simply put, it is clear that Sunni Islam is inflicted with mass hatred amongst a sizeable minority of followers. This hatred is being aimed across the board, irrespective if you are Buddhist, Christian, Shia Muslim, Ahmadiyya Muslim, Hindu, or whatever. The pattern is the same but world leaders are either looking in the wrong direction or they are in mass denial.

Returning back to the massacre of these innocent Christians in Pakistan, just let us judge it in the complete light of day. Why were they killed, simple, because it was alleged that the Koran was desecrated. Even if it was desecrated, and no evidence to say it was, but does desecrating a book mean that you have the right to burn women, children, and men alive or to kill them by other means?

Just imagine the complete fear of being a minority in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and other majority ruled Sunni Muslim nations. It is a living nightmare, for one moment you can be at peace with your neighbours but over one small incident you may be killed or persecuted. It is complete dhimmitude (http://www.dhimmitude.org/) and servitude to the ruling Sunni Muslim majority.

Also, even Buddhists are being slaughtered in parts of Thailand despite being the mass majority in this nation. After all, in the Muslim majority regions of southern Thailand it is now a living hell for Buddhists and moderate Muslims who oppose Sunni Islamic fanatics. However, Buddhists on the whole are not attacking Muslims in Buddhist dominated areas outside of the south where the current civil war is. So where does this burning hatred come from?

Of course a lot of the burning hatred comes from the Koran, the Hadiths and Islamic Sharia law. Other faiths in the past have modernized and changed but some Muslims want to go back to year zero, or year Mohammed!

You have co-existence in some nations like Kazakhstan and Malaysia because minorities are sizeable and tensions are minor when compared with nations like Pakistan. Yet even in nations like Turkey the small Christian population faces mass discrimination and sporadic attacks by Sunni Islamic fanatics.

Remember, we are not talking about a civil war in Pakistan or Somalia, no; we are talking about a small Christian population which is being attacked because Sunni Islamic fanatics do not want equality, liberty, or freedom. Therefore, when Muslims are killing each other in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia; the minority Christian community is targeted at the same time because these fanatics despise diversity.

Therefore, we have the mass stupidity of the President of America going to Egypt and talking about tolerance and co-existence and the need to reach out. Yet he fully knows that in nations very close to Egypt, for example in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen; that Sunni Islam is persecuting all minorities and internal Muslim civil wars in Somalia and Sudan have killed millions.

Also, in Egypt itself, many Coptic Christian women have been raped by Sunni Muslims or kidnapped and converted to Islam, or a mixture of both. Not only this, while President Obama was praising Egypt he must think that to manipulate reality is in vogue. After all, the Coptic Christian community suffers systematic persecution and many have been killed by Sunni Islamic fanatics in the past, and of course the legal system is anti-Christian in Egypt when it comes to family law, building new churches, and so forth.

Turning back to Pakistan and the latest massacre of six Christians in Gojira (the figure may be higher) it is clear that burning women and children in order to protect a book, is deemed to be both logical and Godly in the eyes of these Sunni Muslim fanatics. Yet of course it is not logical and it is certainly not Godly because it is an act of mass barbarity against innocents.

Remember, if you close your eyes and visualize the area of modern day Pakistan in the past you would have seen a world of many religions. Buddhists would have wandered this land in the past to preach about the Buddha and of course Hinduism is the very fabric of the Indian sub-continent. While other faiths, for example Jains, Zoroastrians fleeing Islamic persecution in Persia (Iran), and Sikhs, would have wandered far and wide.

Yet in modern day Pakistan you have virtually no Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and other minorities left because they all either fled because of persecution or to escape dhimmitude. While in the distant past, massive persecution and countless massacres eroded this rich diversity.

Therefore, in modern day Pakistan this Sunni Islamic madness continues and now they are killing each other in the north of the nation, while causing mayhem in Afghanistan. At the same time, they are killing minority Christians, Shia Muslims and Ahmadiyya Muslims. It is like a state of madness with no end game apart from complete Sunni Islamization and then an internal Sunni Islamic war on the grounds of who is the most radical.

The end result of this madness is that Sunni Islamic fanatics were shouting Allah Akbar (God is great), Allah Akbar, while they were burning people alive. Why, simply because they are being taught hate and this hate is being taught in many mosques and this hatred is inspired by the teachings of their own faith.

Therefore, will the world wake up to this hatred which is persecuting small minorities or will people be silenced because of fear or ignorance?

LEE JAY WALKER

Pakistani Police Arrest Two Christians for Eating During Ramadan

Washington, D.C. (September 1,2009) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on August 25, police in Pakistan arrested two Christians for eating during the Islamic fasting season of Ramadan in the city of Silanwali.

Gull Masih and Ashir Sohail were traveling to Lahore when their bus stopped at the Bismillah Hotel to let off passengers. After the waiter served them tea and a snack, several policemen started to question them as to why they were desecrating Ramadan by eating during the Islamic fasting season. The two Christians told the police that since they are Christians, they are not supposed to fast during Ramadan.

The police then threw them in a van and took them to the Silanwali police station and registered a case against them, alleging that the Christians desecrated the Islamic fasting month. Later the police transferred the Christians to the district jail in Sargodha. Now their case is pending before a court.

Azzaq Bhatti, the father of Gull Masih and paternal uncle of Ashir Sohail, in an interview with ICC said that, “during Lent, all Muslims eat, drink and smoke publicly and neither police nor government authorities take notice of it. And none of the Muslims are arrested for desecrating Christians’ Lent season.”

ICC’s Jonathan Racho said, “Forcing Christians to fast during the Islamic fasting month is both outrageous and a clear violation of freedom of religion. We call upon Pakistani officials to immediately release Gull and Ashir and take appropriate legal measures against police officers who detained them."

Please contact the Embassy of Pakistan in your country and politely ask the Pakistani officials to immediately release Gull and Ashir.

Pakistan Embassies:

USA: (202) 243-6500
Canada: (613) 238-7881
UK: 0870-005-6967

"But What Can I Do??"

While this has not gotten as bad as the Holocaust -- there are no concentration camps or mass graves and it is not a systematic elimination by the government -- there ARE ghettos and persecution, rape, torture, murder. People have had their tongues cut out, have been imprisoned for years for false "blasphemy" charges. There has also been reports that people have had hot metal dripped into their ear canal. A man recently was beaten to death for drinking from a "Muslim only" cup. That is on my blog.

The Gojra massacre all happened over a little illiterate boy of about five who made little toy boats with some scraps of paper he found outside that ended up being from the Quran. While the local Muslims got their underwear in a knot over this, they in the end did not arrest anyone and let it go. But it was the extremists -- gang members and Taliban -- who descended on Gojra and set it aflame.

My friend's cause will be helped by creating a general outrage and outcry. It will make things worse for Christians there I fear, but in the long run, it may end up helping their cause. If we can shame the Pakistani government on an international scale, maybe they will take these issues seriously, crack down on the gangs, and repeal their blasphemy laws.

But maybe it is all for naught. Remember Benezir Bhutto? She came out of hiding, and one of the things she had in the works was the repealing of the blasphemy laws. She was the one beacon of Muslim hope to Pakistani Christians, and she was murdered mere weeks after coming out of hiding.



"What can I do?"
But things one can do, if one does not have money to give or simply does not trust the vacuous poverty hole that currently exists in this situation, is to call and write to people. Calling is more effective, but you can do both.



Call AND write to:

US Pakistan Embassy
info@embassyofpakistanusa.org
202-243-6500

United States Embassy in Pakistan
Tel: (+92) 51-2082060
Fax: (+92) 51-2278607
E-mail: webmasterisb@state.gov

Your senator/representative

Amnesty International
Telephone: +44-20-74135500
Write: http://www.amnesty.org/en/contact
http://www.amnestyusa.org/take-action-on

line/page.do?id=1031043

Contact the Urgent Action Network

E-Mai: luan@aiusa.org

Mail
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, 5th Fl.
Washington, DC 20003

Telephone
1 202 544 0200 (Ask for "Urgent Action Office")
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Church World Service
202-544-2350
info@churchworldservice.org

UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency)
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a324fcc6.html
(write to both the US and Pakistan)

The UNHCR is based in Geneva.
address:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Suisse.
telephone number: +41 22 739 8111 (automatic switchboard).
Working hours are from 8:30 to 17:30 (7:30 GMT to 16:30 GMT) Monday to Friday.

International Christian Concern
persecution.org
phone: 800-ICC-5441
email: superadmin@persecution.org
http://www.persecution.org/suffering/what_can_i_do.php

Ministry Information: (877) 337-0302

National News Stations: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and NPR

Katie Couric: evening@cbsnews.com

The President of the United States: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/


Persecution.org is doing little "gift bags" for these people of Gojra who have lost their homes.: http://etools.781net.com/a/vomso/bg_vomso_wdbm_382.html