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Pakistani Christian man demands justice for wife abducted, raped and beaten by wealthy Muslim captor

 By Anugrah Kumar

A wealthy Muslim man in Pakistan’s Punjab Province ordered his workers to abduct a Christian mother of five and then he repeatedly raped, drugged and beat her for 20 days, according to a report.

The 30-year-old Christian woman, Venus Bibi, who is from Sahoo Ki Malian village near Sheikhupura city, had gone out for household shopping on April 1 when she was abducted and held captive until April 20, according to her husband, Warris Masih, the Pakistan Christian Post reported.

When she was returning home, some Muslim men blocked her way and told her to accompany them without making a noise, Masih said, adding that before she could respond, they grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to a car that was parked nearby.

Masih identified the abductor as Muhamad Akbar, a wealthy and influential Muslim man who had previously kidnapped a separate Christian woman but escaped punishment. After several attempts, Masih said policemen forced Akbar to release Bibi, who was later found on a roadside near her village but she was unable to walk.

Bibi and Masih are both brick kiln workers, and they suspect that police accepted a bribe from Akbar.

“I want justice for my wife,” Masih was quoted as saying. “I want all the kidnappers arrested and punished for their crimes so they can stop kidnapping more Christian women.”

Commenting on the incident, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said, “With the second-largest Muslim population in the world, Christians in Pakistan are seen as second-class citizens and are provided little protection by their government.

“As a result, Christian girls and women are often kidnapped, tortured, and killed without consequence for their perpetrators.”

The incidence of abduction of Christian girls and women, and, in many cases, also their forced marriage and conversion to Islam, is high in Pakistan.

International persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA ranks Pakistan No. 5 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution due to an “extreme” level of Islamic oppression. Pakistan is also listed by the U.S. State Department as a "country of particular concern" for tolerating in or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom. 

Last month, a 32-year-old Christian man, Arif Masih, was allegedly poisoned and killed by a group of radical Muslims for defending his sister from harassment on the street in the Muslim-majority Tariqabad village of the Punjab province on May 23, the Union of Catholic Asian News reported.

Earlier that week, two young men dragged his sister into the street and stripped her naked after following her home from the store and breaking into the home.

They fought her brother, Masih, who filed a complaint against Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Majid, the two men who harassed his sister on May 20.

According to Asia News, the men were not arrested and Masih was reportedly threatened for not dropping the complaint and was attacked by the perpetrators three days later.

The perpetrators allegedly loaded Masih on their motorcycle, beat him, poisoned him and threw him into the street. He was taken to the hospital but did not survive his injuries.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/pakistani-christian-man-demands-justice-for-wife-abducted-raped-by-wealthy-muslim-captor.html

Governor of Punjab Says Pakistan is the Safest Country for Religious Minorities

 The Governor of Punjab, Chaudry Mohammad Sarwar, declared that Pakistan is the safest country for religious minorities. The statement came just days before the Hight Court of Pakistan acquitted a couple (Shafqat and Shagufta) for being accused of blasphemy, after having served seven years on death row.

They are not a unique case—religious minorities live under constant fear of being accused of blasphemy. The blasphemy law is consistently held over the religious minorities of Pakistan as a tool of oppression and persecution.

Governments and advocacy groups around the world consistently call attention to Pakistan’s blasphemy law as one of the harshest, with punishments including life in prison and the death penalty. Religious minorities are accused of blasphemy disproportionately compared to those of the religious majority community.

The governor’s statement comes at a time when much of the world’s attention is directed at Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Radicals in the country have appealed to the concept of blasphemy in calling for the French ambassador to be kicked out of the country after President Macron defended a cartoonist who ridiculed Islam.

Pakistan’s leadership is desperately trying to defend its religious freedom record on the international stage, but is falling short of as more evidence comes to surface on the realities of life for religious minorities in Pakistan.

https://www.persecution.org/2021/06/07/governor-punjab-says-pakistan-safest-country-religious-minorities/

#Pakistan #Peshawar - Edwardes College - An old Christian school seized from the Church: minority rights trampled on

 

The Edwardes College in the city of Peshawar, a historic institute of the "Church of Pakistan" (the Anglican Church), in the Anglican diocese of Peshawar, has been entrusted to the management of the state. This was decided by the Supreme Court of Peshawar, ruling in favor of the government of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, within the framework of the current legal battle between the Church and the provincial government for the control and management of the institute. The Supreme Court's ruling comes after Peshawar High Court issued an order in October 2019 to nationalize the oldest educational institution in the provincial territory. The recent verdict of the Supreme Court is totally rejected by the Christian communities which, as the Anglican Bishops in Pakistan say, "do not see their constitutional right protected and see justice trampled on".

Zeeshan Yaqub, an activist for the rights of minorities from Peshawar, tells Fides that "the Christian community in Pakistan is making great efforts in the fields of education, health and other humanitarian services, which benefit the entire population, people of all religions. We ask for the protection of the rights of minorities, as provided for by the Constitution of Pakistan, even in their properties".
Edwardes College was born as a Christian missionary school called "Edwardes High School", founded by the British "Church Missionary Society" in 1853. In 1900 it was transformed into a College and has since functioned as a private institution, officially run by the "Anglican Church". The institute remained under the leadership of the Church even after the Government of Pakistan decided in 1972 to nationalize private educational institutions.
Many institutes were returned to the churches in the following decades, following a policy of de-nationalization.
The legal controversy over the administration of Edwardes College began in 2014, after American missionaries left the leadership of the institute to members of the local Church and the first Pakistani Christian principal was appointed. A Muslim academic, who challenged this appointment, brought the case before the High Court in 2016. Based on the decisions of the High Court, the Anglican Bishop of Peshawar, Monsignor Humphrey Sarfraz Peters (to whom, in the meantime, the jurisdiction had passed, with the erection of that diocese) reestablished the original Board of Directors, in accordance with the Constitution promulgated by the "Church Missionary Society". Among other things, the Church has exclusive ownership of the College's land and buildings: therefore, the College did not meet the criteria for nationalization. Monsignor Humphrey Sarfraz Peters recalled that the College covered all educational expenses, like any other private educational institution, without the State having to assume any burden.
The current government of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa did not accept the configuration of the College as a "private institution", owned by the Church, and continued the legal battle trying to wrest full control of the structure from the Church. The sentence of the High Court of Peshawar of October 2019 proved the civil government right and, after the latest appeal presented by the Church, the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa.
A recent investigation by the NGO "Center for Social Justice" has verified the strong weakening of the once Christian schools and institutes after the nationalization, in the quality of the education provided. 

(KN-PA) (Agenzia Fides, 8/6/2021)

http://www.fides.org/en/news/70273-ASIA_PAKISTAN_An_old_Christian_school_seized_from_the_Church_minority_rights_trampled_on

European Parliament Condemns Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws

By Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab

On April 28, 2021, the European Parliament adopted a joint motion for a resolution on the blasphemy laws in Pakistan calling for more comprehensive approaches to address the abuses of blasphemy laws in Pakistan.

The motion refers to two specific cases, those of Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel. They are a Pakistani Christian couple convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court, and sentenced to death by hanging back in 2013. They are alleged to have sent a blasphemous message against the Prophet. Despite the couple being illiterate and the message being in English, the couple did not stand a chance of succeeding in their defense against the dangerous blasphemy provisions and a failed legal system. In 2014, they appealed, however, the High Court of Lahore has since postponed the trial. Both suffer from medical conditions, Shafqat Emmanuel from damage to his spinal cord and Shagufta Kausar from depression. They are not provided with any adequate medical assistance.

Understandably, their cases are not the only ones. The Centre for Social Justice in Pakistan reports that at least 1,855 people have been charged under the blasphemy laws between 1987 and February 2021, with a significant spike in 2020.

Blasphemy laws seek to restrict any speech that may be perceived as offensive to Prophets and holy personages. Despite a global movement to abolish blasphemy laws, many countries maintain these laws. In fact, at least thirteen countries sentence the death penalty for offenses committed in contravention of blasphemy laws. Blasphemy laws have always been problematic as they rely on the notion of causing offense, which is subjective and vague. Blasphemy laws are based on the notion of statements outraging religious feelings and representations insulting the religion or religious beliefs. Both outrage and insult are inexact concepts which create legal uncertainty and encourage an unhelpful degree of subjectivity.

Apart from being subjective in nature, what is also glaring is that despite the fact that blasphemy laws tend to apply to all religions, they are being disproportionally used against religious minorities in states where such laws exist. Public support for strict blasphemy laws in Pakistan is reportedly strong. However, it is clear that those who are calling for strict blasphemy laws are unlikely to ever have to face the charges of blasphemy. The majority of those convicted under blasphemy laws are minorities, especially Ahmadiyya and Christian minorities. The targeting of religious minorities confirms the numerous problems posed by blasphemy laws. They are not being used to prosecute genuine claims of blasphemy but are instead used to persecute religious minorities for daring to live in accordance with their religious beliefs.

In Pakistan, blasphemy laws have often been used by groups of mobs to exact extrajudicial justice. Reports suggest that, since 1990, at least 80 people have been killed in Pakistan over claims of blasphemy. Among others, in April 2017, Mashal Khan, a Muslim student, was killed by an angry mob following allegations that he posted blasphemous content online. In 2014, a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan were reportedly beaten to death and burnt by a crowd of over a thousand people for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

Furthermore, anyone who tries to help those charged with blasphemy, are also subjected to threats and violence. Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian Minister, was killed in an ambush for attempting to reform the blasphemy law. The house of Shahbaz Gurmani, a lawyer defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy, Junaid Hafeez, was raided by gunmen on motorcycles warning him to withdraw from the case. The lawyer of Asia Bibi, Saif-ul-Mulook, had to flee the country in fear of his life.

Such attacks are also common online, particularly, on journalists, academics and civil society organizations.

The situation did not change, as one would have hoped, with Imran Khan becoming the Prime Minister. To the contrary, reportedly, Imran Khan has been calling for the introduction of blasphemy laws in other countries. He is reported to say that “Together, we should ask Europe, the European Union and United Nations to stop hurting the feelings of 1.25 billion Muslim like they do not do in case of Jews. (…) I want the Muslim countries to devise a joint line of action over the blasphemy issue with a warning of trade boycott of countries where such incidents will happen. This will be the most effective way to achieve the goal.”

Considering how dangerous blasphemy laws are in Pakistan, it would be a significant damage to human rights of all to have such provisions adopted in other countries, as reportedly proposed by Imran Khan. The case of Pakistan is a clear warning of the dangers of blasphemy laws.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2021/05/26/european-parliament-condemns-pakistans-blasphemy-laws/?sh=2760937344f3