Recently an entire neighborhood in Pakistan was destroyed by thousands of angry protestors. The protestors were angry over blasphemy allegations against a Pakistani Christian.
Sawan Masih, the Pakistani Christian, says he is innocent. Masih says the charges of blasphemy against Islam in March of 2013 were motivated by a property dispute involving a Muslim friend. On March 27 a court in the city of Lahore found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
The French news agency Agence France-Presse reports Masiah has appealed his conviction claiming the charges were exaggerated to speed the eviction of minority Christians from their land.
The Lahore High Court is set to hear his appeal on July 25th.
According to International Christian Concern, two days after Masih was accused of making the comments a mob of over 3,000 Muslims gathered and attacked his neighborhood, burning Christian homes, shops and two churches. Local police, aware of the attack, had evacuated hundreds of Christians ahead of the incident. ICC says most of the Christians who returned to the neighborhood found their homes and businesses destroyed.
AsiaNews reports the Catholic Church of Pakistan recently held a day of prayer and fasting for Christians.
Some Muslims also joined with the Christians in the prayer. Aqueel Mehadi is a Muslim and human rights activist from LaHore.
“As we pray and fast, we join our Christian brothers and sisters in solidarity,” said Mehadi.
“As a Muslim,” he added, “I am disgusted by what has happened and what continues to happen.”
Mehadi went on to say that Ali Jinnah, the Founding Father of modern Pakistan, always stressed in his speeches the principle of a religious freedom, imagining a liberal and multicultural nation where all citizens have “the right to practice their religion and not be imprisoned because of their faith.”
In 2010 Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, was sentenced to death. She is accused of blasphemy against Islam. She denies the accusations, saying she simply stated “our Christ sacrificed his life on the cross for our sins … our Christ is alive”, while engaged in a discussion with a Muslim woman.
The Fides News Agency says Asia Bibi is still in prison, ‘in good health and safe conditions.” She is appealing her case and has had several hearings concerning the charges postponed.
William Stark is a regional manager with International Christian Concern. The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) spoke with him concerning these cases.
“Christians across Pakistan live in fear of the country’s controversial blasphemy laws,” Stark stated. “Since the blasphemy laws were enacted in 1986, Christians and other religious minorities have been disproportionately accused and convicted of blasphemy.”
A recent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report has found that Pakistan leads the world in prisoners accused of blasphemy. Officials at USCIRF report 14 individuals are currently on death row on blasphemy convictions and 19 others are serving life sentences.
The USCIRF report says there are no safeguards and the law is often abused. The USCIRF reports that mere allegations often cause mob attacks and give power to extremists. The report days the death penalty for blasphemy has never been carried out, but individuals accused of blasphemy have been murdered in violence.
The USCIRF also reports that despite the difficulties associated with the law, Pakistan’s Federal Sharia Court has recently ruled that the death penalty should be the sole penalty for blasphemy.
The IRD recently interviewed a Christian inside Pakistan (identified only as “Brother Steven” for security reasons).
Steven says Pakistani Christians have seen increases in persecution because of such situations as the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. He says Christianity is often seen by radical Islamists as sympathy with Western nations.
Teams vaccinating children in Pakistan have been targeted by radical Islamists. The BBC reports more than 40 people linked to the vaccination program have been killed in Pakistan since December 2012.
The IRD asked “Brother Steven” what he feels is the reason behind these attacks.
“The Taliban think that through the Polio vaccinations and other vaccines the west is involved in a conspiracy by making Muslim men impotent and women unfit for birth,” Steven stated. He went on to say that the Taliban think that Western nations want to decrease the Muslim population and also they view family planning or population control as a western conspiracy.
Steven says it is difficult for Christians from other countries to enter the country and help the local Christian community. He says one of the reasons is that any contact with foreign nationals from western nations can put the local Christians in serious danger, even death.
Barnabas Fund cites the story of one Pakistani teenager and how persecution has increased his faith.
Teenager Shaloom Naeem’s family were among more than 100 Christians who died in the attack on All Saints Church in Peshawar Pakistan on September 22nd, 2013. The attack was the deadliest ever attack on Pakistan’s Christian minority. According to Barnabas Aid, many of those killed and wounded were children.
Shaloom Naeem told Barnabas Fund “I came [to church] in the morning with my whole family for prayers and worship but returned home with no-one. My mum took her last breath in my arms; my dad and sister died.”
Even with this loss, Shaloom stated “Though my entire family is dead I am not afraid to go to the church. We should thank God for his great love.”
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