Falsely Accused of Blasphemy, Source of Islamist Outrage: Just Another Pakistani Christian’s Story

World Watch Monitor (WWM), a service that provides news on worldwide persecuted church, on December 16, 2013 reported on a visit with Pakistani Christian Adnan Prince (or Adnan Masih) at his jail cell in Lahore.

Prince, aged 26, was arrested under the dreaded charge of blasphemy, Pakistan Penal Code’s Section 295, parts A, B and C – for allegedly outraging religious feelings, defiling the Koran and defaming Mohammed. This easily-manipulated charge, under which so many Pakistani Christians (not to mention many Muslims) have suffered, carries a sentence of either life imprisonment or execution.

WWM reported that the accusation came when Prince found a copy of a book written by Maulana Ameer Hamza, the leader of Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a political arm of the jihadi organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, which claimed responsibility for the Mumbai bombings, while he was filling in for his brother at the Diamond Glass shop in Lahore on October 7, 2013.

Prince, who has a Master’s degree in English literature and training from United Pentecostal seminary, began to read Hamza’s book entitled  I asked the Bible why the Qur’ans were set on fire (Urdu: Mein ney Bible sey poocha Qur’an kyun jaley), and take notes inside it.

Literature majors the world over will know the impulse to underline and take notes while reading a book. If, however, one is in Pakistan, and particularly if one is Christian, one should be very circumspect about writing in any book, let alone a book with the word Qur’an in the title.

Sure enough, a Muslim co-worker saw him, and, says WWM — using the phrase repeated o’er and o’er — “took offense.” The man, Abid Mehmood, reported Prince to the local police station for marking the book with “abusive words against the Prophet of Islam,” Prince recounted to WWM. Morning Star News, another Christian news service, reported that Mehmood also notified the JuD, who issued a fatwa against Prince.

The young Christian, who is married and the father of two little girls, told WWM that he had done nothing wrong. He explained, “I found the book quite erroneous, giving incorrect information about Christianity. So I wrote comments with Biblical references in several places, but no abusive language was used.”

Once the declaration of blasphemy has been made in Pakistan, no amount of factual evidence, rational thought, or logic ever seems to make a difference in how things play out. Prince fled for his life, but returned to Lahore on November 6, after police arrested his mother, brother, aunt, and uncle and warned they would not be released until he turned himself in.

The false accusation against Prince and his imprisonment set in motion the usual chain of events that takes place when a Pakistani Christian is charged with blasphemy:

1. Mistreatment by the authorities.

Prince told WWM that he was tortured at night. “The police were on the verge of killing me after I surrendered to them, but God kept me safe by His grace,” he said. “When I came to my senses [after one round of torture], I was told that a heavy machine would be rolled over my thighs, which would not only be painful but would render me permanently impotent. Then the deputy superintendent of police pushed the barrel of a pistol into my mouth and told me to confess that I had written abusive words in the book. He said he would count to three and that if I didn’t confess, he would pull the trigger.”

Prince added that he was also taken outside and told that he was free to go. “But I knew they were lying and would shoot me from behind if I left,” he said. “I told them that if you want to shoot me, then shoot me in the chest and not in the back. They stopped torturing me when they felt they would not be able to shake my resolve.”

2. Growing rage from extremists.

Prince’s lawyer, Aneeqa Maria, told WWM, “Every day dozens of bearded men crowded the courtroom where Adnan was to be presented, so the police kept lingering on.” She said after Prince’s surrender, she was told about the pressure from the Jamat-ud-Dawa, “who wanted to take law and order into their own hands.”

Morning Star News quoted Hafiz Abdul Malik of the JuD who said the group “would not tolerate one word against their prophet.” “How dare someone use derogatory language against our beloved prophet … Don’t they know that the Koran orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to Allah’s beloved prophet?” Malik demanded.

Other prisoners also pose a danger to Prince. He has been confined to a small cell on his own for his own protection.

3. The whole Christian community suffers.

WWM said that before Prince turned himself in to the police on November 6 the Christian colony of Wassanpura, Lahore, received a threatening letter from Ashiqaan-Rusool (Devotees of the Apostles), one of the four Islamist groups in the region. The letter declared that “Every Christian household in this area is being told to immediately vacate their houses. This time you are verbally warned, but the next time you will be burned and killed.”

Refreshingly, one of the Christians, Javed Masih, filed a complaint with the police. He told WWM, “After Adnan and his family had fled from their houses, these extremists were looking for an excuse to attack us. For this reason about 12 families fled, while several other families sent their women to their relatives for fear of an attack from the Muslims.”

Because of Masih’s complaint the police stationed themselves outside the colony to prevent the Islamists from proceeding with their threatened attack. When the police left after a week, Masih submitted another petition to the court for continued protection. WWM says that on November 25, 2013 the judge ordered the police to “readdress the grievance.”

In spite of the ongoing injustices surrounding this latest blasphemy case, Javed Masih’s boldness to demand justice and protection for the Christians, and to be persistent in his petitioning, appears to have had an impact for this particular Christian community. More must be done, though, by the work of reformers in Pakistan and by petitions from the international community — including churches around the world — to pressure Pakistan to change or dissolve the draconian blasphemy laws.

Please remember to pray for Adnan Prince, all of those who have been accused of blasphemy, and for all of Pakistan’s Christians.