Muslims Continue to Rage against Christianity*

Costs of remaining steadfast include family, home, even life

Posted: May 18, 2007
Voice of the Martyrs

Christian churches are being ordered closed and those who are steadfast
in the faith are losing homes, families and jobs as the cost of being
Christian in Pakistan is rising, according to new reports from the Voice
of the Martyrs and others. Even the death penalty soon could be a
possibility.

The Voice of the Martyrs said, however, Christians are remaining
faithful under the persecution, and are in need of prayer.

"The Voice of the Martyrs recently received information from Pakistani
contacts that Christians remain steadfast in their faith, although they
are losing relationships with their families because of their faith in
Jesus Christ," the VOM report said.

The VOM cited one specific case, that of "Karim," who comes from a
devout Muslim family.

He routinely suffers the loss of jobs, contact with friends, and even
homes, because of his Christianity, VOM said.

"After I became a Christian in 1997, I visited my family during the
Muslim festival called, 'Eid-ul-Zaha,' where Muslims sacrifice animals
before Allah," he told VOM. "I questioned my mother asking her why she
was sacrificing animals to Allah and yet in the Christian faith Jesus
Christ sacrificed himself for us. I explained there was no need to
sacrifice any animals. My mother was shocked. She started verbally
abusing me and told me she had noticed a change in me, but had never
thought it was because I had converted to Christianity."

She warned him the rest of the family would not be as understanding as
she was.

"Before I left home my brother asked if I was reading the Bible and if I
had an interest in the Christian faith. He slapped and verbally abused
me, saying Christians are 'churda,' dirty people. He said Christians
would make me dirty and I should stop reading 'churda's books, the
Bible,'" Karim said.

VOM reported that Karim has lost jobs because of his faith, and
constantly moves from one location to another to avoid harassment from
members of his extended family. But he said his Christianity, to which
he was introduced by a co-worker who gave him a Bible, is worth it.

"One day I read where the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to
pray, and after this I also asked Jesus to teach me how to pray. I said,
'Jesus, I have no teacher who can guide me and teach me about the Bible
and faith, give me the Holy Spirit so I can learn about this faith.'
 From that day the Holy Spirit has been my teacher," Karim told VOM.

He said he spent years investigating before he made that decision.

"For two and a half years I was reading it every day. I started a
comparative study of the Bible and the Quran. I saw there was a
sequence, continuity and discipline in the Bible. I could not find these
things in the Quran," he said.

According to Elizabeth Kendal, who reports on the persecution for the
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission, the root of the
developing problem in Pakistan is the nation's pro-Sharia, Islamist
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance of Muslim devotees, which holds the
balance of power in the nation's National Assembly.

As a result, President Pervez Musharraf frequently makes political
agreements that advance his agenda of staying on power while granting
the alliance some of its wishes – which could be summarized as the
conversion of Pakistan into a Islam-controlled state.

One of the pending proposals is the Apostasy Act, under which any man
who leaves Islam for another religion would be killed. Women would be
imprisoned for life.

The report also said owners of stores trading in the "un-Islamic" have
been ordered to close or "suffer dire consequences," female students
have been threatened if they continue their schooling, and in the
Charsadda district, churches have been issued hand-written letters with
an ultimatum to close down.

Faith McDonnell, the religious liberty director of the Institute on
Religion and Democracy, said the nation's consideration of the death
penalty for leaving Islam is two steps backwards for religious freedom.

"The apostasy bill is the work of political parties aligned with
Taliban-style repression," she wrote. She said such laws would open the
door to massive abuse, and in fact, such cases already have been launched.

In one case, she said, a Christian boy was sentenced to death for
writing blasphemy on the wall of a mosque. The penalty was based on
Muslim "witnesses." However, the child was illiterate and could not
write, she said.

There also have been reports from ASSIST News Service which cited a
Pakistani Christian who is a lawyer, Khalil Tahir Sandhu, about random
attacks on Christian women who are abducted, assaulted, and then forced
to "convert" to Islam.

The Barnabas Fund reported that Shahbaz Bhatti, chief of the All
Pakistan Minorities Alliance, confirmed the Christians are being ordered
to convert. "We will not do it, even if we have to die," he said.

Officials also cited similar concerns developing in Egypt, where
unsubstantiated claims that Christians were planning to build a church
in violation of national law sparked rioting that left Christians
injured and their homes and businesses destroyed.

Three Christians also were martyred recently in Turkey by Islamists who
feigned interest in a Bible study, then attacked the leaders.

Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry
working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith,
and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in
Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started
smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before
Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for
his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about
the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security
Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound
scars on his body.