PERSECUTION International Christian Concern | April 2013
Issue 3/4
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MIDDLE EAST
The family of a boy accused of blasphemy in Faisalabad
UNTOLD STORIES:
The Flight of Pakistan’s Christian ‘Blasphemers’ When 16-year-old Ryan Stanten and his father, Bryan Patrus, returned to their Karachi home the night of October 8, they were stunned to find the local imam and twelve enraged Muslims waiting for them. “Do you see this blasphemy?” one of the men shouted while shoving a cell phone in Bryan’s face. “Admit to your son’s guilt!” “They told my father that some people… had received a blasphemous text message from my phone number… they were fully poised to kill me,” Ryan told Morning Star News.
know why they’d think a Christian would dare do such a thing when so many of us have been killed for blasphemy in Pakistan.”
As the mob walked away shouting death threats outside Ryan’s house the next evening, he and Bryan knew their lives would forever be changed. “As soon as they left, my father told my mother and younger sister to get into the car. He could sense THEY TOLD MY FATHER THAT SOME danger,” Ryan explained. Ryan and his family have been living in hiding ever PEOPLE...HAD RECEIVED A BLASsince.
PHEMOUS TEXT MESSAGE FROM MY PHONE NUMBER...THEY WERE FULLY POISED TO KILL ME.
“GET OUT OR BE KILLED” The day before, a friend had barrowed Ryan’s cell phone during Threats against Christians alleged to RYAN, ONE OF PAKISTAN’S a cricket match they were attendhave insulted Islam are nothing new ing. When Ryan returned home in Pakistani neighborhoods where exCHRISTIAN ‘BLASPHEMERS’ that evening, the friend’s brother tremists often dictate an offender’s called him. “Why did you send punishment by stirring the religious a text mocking Muhammad?” emotions of local Muslims. In the he asked. “Do you know what you have done?” towns of Gojra and Korian, for example, a false accusation of blasphemy led to seven Christians killed and 50 homes Ryan was shocked. “I never sent the text but of course I destroyed, in what is considered the worse violence against knew the consequences!” he told ICC in December. “I don’t a community for blasphemy allegations in recent memory.
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Mukhtar Masih was celebrating his daughter’s wedding on July 25, 2009 when word spread that his son had cut pages out of the Quran to use for confetti. When Muslims visited Mukhtar’s home, he denied the accusations. “Nothing like that had happened,” said Shabir, a local resident. “But they immediately began beating Mukhtar and left when he fell unconscious.” Announcements were made in local mosques declaring that, “We will teach the infidel Christians a lesson for profaning the Holy Quran,” and that “Muslims who love Muhammad should [go] with [us] to defend Islam because it is in danger,” according to World Watch Monitor. On August 1, the final announcement came: “If any infidel Christian wants to save his or her life, then get out of here or you will be killed.”
I HID IN THE CAFETERIA, BUT...THE MOB WAS COMING AFTER ME. TWELVE OF THEM SURROUNDED ME. THEY KICKED AND BEAT ME. POLICE GRABBED ME AND RUSHED ME OUT OF THE BUILDING. MUMTAZ, A CHRISTIAN TEACHER ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY WHEN A STUDENT INQUIRED OF CHRIST’S ROLE ON JUDGMENT DAY
Above: Victims of blasphemy accusations. Below: Family of blasphemy victim that ICC helped to relocate.
Hours later, a hundred furious Muslims converged on Gojra and Korian, looting more than a hundred homes, burning 50 to the ground, and killing seven Christians. To this day, Mukhtar remains in hiding; to return home would mean imminent death.
by a student if Jesus would come on judgment day as a follower of Muhammad, Mumtaz replied: “No, Jesus will come to judge the world.” The student repeated Mumtaz’s response to his Islamic teacher and days later a mob gathered outside the school calling Mumtaz a blasphemer.
UNTOLD STORIES
“I hid in the cafeteria, but no more than 30 minutes passed before the school watchman shouted that the mob was coming in after me,” Mumtaz told ICC. “Twelve of them surrounded me. They kicked and beat me. Police grabbed me and rushed me out of the building.”
While there are several Christians currently languishing in Pakistani prisons on charges of blasphemy, there are a hundred more untold stories of Christians, like Ryan and Mukhtar, who have fled their homes because of mere accusations of blasphemy. Accusations alone warrant the death sentence on Pakistan’s streets. In the past 25 years, 46 people charged for blasphemy have been killed by vigilantes while awaiting trial or after having been acquitted, according to Human Rights First. Once accused, Christians have no other choice but to live a life in hiding. Such was the story of Mumtaz Sadar, a public high school teacher, in Silanwali, in the Punjab province. When asked
There are an unknown number of Christians who have been imprisoned or forced to flee their homes due to accusations of blasphemy. ICC met with 16 such families during a brief December visit to Pakistan alone. Once accused, Christians and their families cannot walk the streets without watching their backs, fearful that every stranger they meet may be a potential assassin. As a result, hundreds of families live in hiding. Sadly, the only hope that remains is to leave the country for good. You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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