Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

11 Year Old Christian Girl Raped for Three Days -- Two Muslims Arrested

(Islamabad)  An 11 year old Christian girl, Maria Sarfraz was kidnapped and raped for three days by several men.  In the meantime, two Muslims were arrested as alleged perpetrators Since then, the family of the victim and the other Christian families have been  menaced with arson attacks and death threats.
As the Pakistan Christian Post reported, Maria Sarfraz was abducted from Sheikhupura in Punjab on the way to school. In another city, the abducted girl was held captive and repeatedly raped by several men. After the girl's father, Andrew Sarfaz, had reported her as a  missing person to the police, the girl was  located on April 28 and   liberated.

Raped for Three Days

According to medical opinion, Mary was raped for three days by different men. The police arrested two Muslims, Muhammad Safdar and Muhammad Mehoob on suspicion of kidnapping and rape. Friends of the men have been putting pressure on the victim’s familyand other Christian families of Sheikhupura in the meantime. That if they do not withdraw the accusation, the homes of Christians would be burned down.
According to the latest report of the Pakistan Movement for Solidarity and Peace, every year more than 700 Christian and 300 Hindu girls and women abducted, forcibly Islamized and forced to marry a Muslim in Pakistan. Since the police and judiciary are unable or unwilling to take action against the perpetrators, most will not be held accountable. For this reason there is always a new kidnapping because the perpetrators feel safe.

Due to Inaction of the Police and Justice There Are Always New Cases

Initially  in April, a group of Muslim men in Mally ki  in Sialkot district (Punjab) raped a   Christian girl  who was only 7 years old.  The girl survived, but is seriously injured. The police did not arrest the perpetrators but supported them in the abduction of Iqbal Masih, the father of the rape victim, "to force the family to withdraw the accusation," said the Pakistan Christian Post .
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Tempi
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Asia Bibi's Letter to the Pope: "Only God can Free Me" -- The Silence of Amnesty International

(Lahore) Asia Bibi, Pakistan's most famous prisoner has sent   a letter to Pope Francis. The now 43 year old Pakistani Catholic has been in prison since n June 2009 for allegedly insulting Islam. Accused by two Islamic religious leaders of having engaging a  Muslim women in a dispute where she maintained that it was not Mohammed who was the "true prophet" of God, but Jesus Christ, she is the first woman to be sentenced to death in the country on  8 November 2010. Since then, she is held under particularly tight security in prison during her  appeal process. The mother of five children was sentenced under Article 295 (C) of 1986 anti-blasphemy law introduced in the Pakistan Penal Code.

Diplomatic Efforts by the Vatican For Release

In November 2011,  Pope Benedict XVI. appealed publicly to  the Pakistani government to bring an end of discrimination and violence against Christians. For a Christian, the Head of the Church explained: "Today I bring to expression my spiritual closeness especially to Mrs. Asia Bibi and her family members, while I note that she has her full freedom restored  as soon as possible ."  At the same time, the Pope sent Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to Pakistan, with a diplomatic mission to Islamabad to secure the release and departure of Asia Bibi. The mission failed because   the Pakistani government feared to release Asia Bibi because of  an Islamist insurgency. The diplomatic efforts of the Catholic side have  not been cancelled since.  Chilly silence prevails, however, from the "Heralds" in the defense of human rights. The abortion lobbyist Amnesty International has barely spent a word for Asia Bibi, while the release of  the extreme left, anti-Church,  action group Pussy Riot, or the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky will be celebrated as "successes".

Christmas with the family in prison

In her letter to Pope Francis, Asia Bibi offers a personal testimony of faith. She thanked him for the divine grace that she could hold out so long. She also thanked the Holy See for the efforts toward her release. "I hope that every Christian could celebrate Christmas with joy. Like many other prisoners, I have celebrated the birth of our Lord in prison in Multan here in Pakistan. In a special way, she thanked the Catholic school and charity Renaissance Education Foundation, through which it was possible that her husband and her children were allowed to come to Multan for Christmas in the prison, to  celebrate the Solemnity together. "It would have been for me a great pleasure to have celebrated Christmas in the Vatican Basilica to pray together with you. I have confidence in the plans that God has  for me and maybe it will be possible next year."

"Only God Can Free Me"

Asia Bibi thanked all Christians who pray for her and work for her release. She wrote to the Pope about their already four and a half years in prison and  her concerns: "I do not know how long I can hold out. If I'm still alive, it is thanks to the power which was given to me through your prayers. I have met many people who support me and fight for me. So far, unfortunately without success. In this moment I want to entrust myself solely to the mercy of God who can do anything. He alone can free me."

"I Know that You Pray for Me"

In the letter to the Pope, the Pakistani mother speaks  of some of her  daily worries to prison: "This winter is especially hard: my cell is unheated, the door does not protect against the biting cold." "The security measures are inappropriate," since Asia Bibi was moved for security to the prison of Multan, her family has to travel from Lahore, which is a long way. The authorities speak of "necessities", because otherwise they could not protect the lives of prisoners.  Several calls for her death  and a bounty have been offered by Islamist organizations  for the Moslem who murders Asia Bibi.
The thanks and pleading letter to the Pope ends with the best Christmas and New Year wishes. "I know that you pray with all your heart for me. This gives me confidence that my freedom will one day be possible.  I greet you with affection in this hopeful prayer. Asia Bibi, your daughter in the faith. "
Text: Paix Liturgique / Giuseppe Nardi
image: Una Fides
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches....

AMGD

Saturday, July 27, 2013

For 1500 Days on Death Row -- Asia Bibi Refuses to Convert to Islam

(Islamabad) The now 42-year old Catholic mother has been unjustly accused, since 2009, of insulting Islam. It is a triviality to charge someone and put them in jail for this offense. It may lead to harsh prison sentences. Asia Bibi was sentenced, however, in the first instance by a court, to death. Since then, she is waiting on death row for her appeal.

For 1,500 days Asia Bibi is innocent and in prison. A "wrong" word, refusing to convert to Islam and the trap has snapped shut. Asia Bibi was reported by Muslim women, work colleagues, who were supposed to be friends. But Asia Bibi faces a stigma: she is Christian. The police arrested, allegedly to protect her, because Muslims want to practice their hangman's justice. A more accurate legal review of the indictment did not take place.

The scandal ensures worldwide attention. The Catholic minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti of Pakistan campaigned for her release and was assassinated by Islamists. The Muslim governor of the home province of Asia Bibi, Salmaan Taseer, who fought for the mother and her family, was brutally murdered by Islamists. The murderer was enthusiastically celebrated as a hero of Islam.

A fatwa was issued against Asia Bibi, that requires every Muslim to murder the Catholic. Therefore, the necessary safety precautions make life in prison for the "condemned" even more unbearable. Pope Benedict XVI. appealed to the government and the Pakistani people. Vatican diplomacy tried to reach for extradition for Asia Bibi. This is so that she would be removed as a "bone of contention" from the country, but bringing her to safety. But the Islamists have created a death zone of scorched earth for the Christian. No Pakistani politician dares after the murders to unleash the Islamist "people's anger" on earth. Western governments have kept up with symbolic "pressure" on the government of Pakistan. Pakistan is an important and historic U.S. ally in the region. The neighboring country of Afghanistan could fall into the hands of the Islamists by way of the Asia Bibi case. Thus is the fear in the Western state offices. The strategy is: peace before justice. Asia Bibi has thus become a symbol for hostages, for a country where power is not exercised by the Islamists.

In the first half of June, Asia Bibi was shifted from the high-security prison in Sheikhupura in the women's prison in Multan. For the family members, the trip also means twelve hours for each visit. Rides that always are always made by the family with special precautions to avoid detection, or falling into the hands of Islamists. "It sounds absurd, but the family members are currently living almost a more dangerous life than Asia Bibi behind the terrible prison walls," says a Christian family lawyer. Whoever was able to visit Asia Bibi in the past few months, got to hear the same words: "Please, do everything possible for my freedom. I am strong, but I'm going weaker day by day."

Asia Bibi is far from the only recent case of the tragic Islamist hounding of Christians. The list of persecuted Christians is long and the number of Christians killed grows from year to year. The young Christian Rimsha Masih was eventually acquitted because it could not be proven that the Imam falsified incriminating evidence. A rare stroke of luck, where justice came before Islam. A return to her life was still no longer available for the young girl in Pakistan yet. Islamists do not think much of the state courts. Your judgment is sure, with or without a judge. Rimsha Masih received political asylum in Canada and lives with her family recently in the North American country. However, they are there under false names and with new documents, because Islamists are present almost everywhere.

The fate of Asia Bibi might also threaten two other Christian women and their families. In one place, the southern province of Sindh, a rich Muslim landlord has tried to abduct the Catholic Nazia Masih, to marry her after the forced conversion to Islam. Her family was able to prevent the worst appealing to the local bishop. But Nazia and her aunt, the Catholic nun, Sister Marie Khurshid's lives are in danger. The Islamists have vowed revenge.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Tempi
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Catholic Girl Raped by Muslim Man in Pakistan

Criminals threaten family, who had made the complaint -- the rape of a Christian girl doesn't always count as a crime.

Faisalabad (kath.net/Fidesdienst)Gulfam, a 9 year old Catholic girl, was raped in the District of Tehsil Samundari  (Diocese of Faisalabad).  In connection with this occurrence the local church issued a report on the episode, which Fidesdienst published, that above all their concern in the view of the situation of  poor Christian families, who are often the victims of discrimination, violence and abuse.  "This episode is horrible.  I have spoken with the girl and the family and have tried to console them", said Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad in communication with Fidesdienst.  "We must develop a just and pastoral strategy, so that the phenomenon of abuse to Christian girls can be prevented".

The 9 year old Gulfam goes to the third grade.  She lives in village number 226 in the Administrative District Tehsil Samundari.  On the 10th of December she left with her 7 year old cousin, in order to go to a nearby sugar field to gather wood. Shortly after the younger girl returned home alone  and said that Gulfam had been taken by a man from the field.  Subsequently, the family present hurried to the field and found there the man who was in the process of assaulting the girl.  The perpetrator took flight and the mother of the girl brought the half-naked child back home.  A little later the parents reported the rape to the police.  The man was apprehended in the meantime, but the family is now in deep shock and fears violence from the majority Muslims in the village, because subsequently, they were threatened by the relatives of the perpetrator and were persuaded to withdraw the charge.  AS the girl reported the man had offered her money and when she refused his offer, was violently assaulted.


Link to kath.net... original.