Forced Conversion

In America when a person calls another a Judas, that person is considered a once trusted person who has betrayed that trust. The term comes from the Apostle Judas Iscariot that betrayed Jesus the Son of God to the greedy for power running the Jewish Sanhedrin. (Just for clarification – this is NOT a blame-the-Jews moment but rather a blame those greedy for power moment.)

Christian Pakistanis are desperate to find a political leader that works to increase the civil rights of Christians and take a stand against the Muslim vicious persecution of Christians. You would think Christian Pakistanis would find trusted leadership among their better-off fellow Christians, right? Shamim Masih writes about the reality that way too many Christians in leadership positions and Ministry/Clergy positions are more concerned about protecting their privileged station in Pakistan rather than looking out for the interests of the poorer Christians experiencing the havoc of Islamic Supremacism that denigrates Christian Pakistanis.

[Please be supportive of Shamim Masih’s Christian and human rights work in Pakistan:

The best way to SUPPORT Shamim’s Christian advocacy in Pakistan is via Western Union sending money with this LINK to a Western Union agent in Islamabad. Include Shamim’s phone - +92-300-642-4560]

JRH 11/20/15

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Forced Conversion

Fighting with Words against Judas Iscariots of Today

By Shamim Masih

Sent 11/20/2015 2:10 AM

ISLAMABAD: A few days back, I saw a tent outside the National Press Club, Islamabad. There a Christian couple with children has converted to Islam and was looking for financial help. The newly converted Muslim family has posted a written request that asked help from the President of Pakistan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Chief Justice of Pakistan and Malik Riaz (a real estate tycoon [Express Tribune]). This is not the first time that such an incident happened, earlier many families have displaced the same banners and many of my colleagues are a witness to it.

Though the data is not available, but I guess around 95% Pakistani Christians are living under or below the poverty line and situations much worse in remote areas as Christians are living in bounded slavery. Long ago before Indo-Pak partition, when missionaries came here and preached Christianity, a majority from poor class converted to Christianity. Certainly it happened due to the love and economic support by the missionaries. Missionaries established educational institutions and health care centers in this region.

When Pakistan came into being in 1947, history is witness to it that there were some Christians sitting on the top most positions in different sectors. But as soon as the real ideology was grabbed by Liaqat Ali Khan [Wikipedia] after the death [Dawn and Hamari Web] of the founder of the nation - Mohammad Ali Jinnah - Pakistan became the Islamic Republic [Friday Times] of Pakistan in 1956 [Calgary Centre for Global Community]. On 12 March, 1949, the second constituent assembly of Pakistan passed the objective resolution [Speech of Liaquat Ali Khan on the Objectives Resolution March 9 1949 – Scribd.] which was proposed by the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, proclaiming that the future constitution of Pakistan would not be modeled entirely on a European pattern, but on the ideology and democratic faith of Islam. The promulgation of the constitution in 1956 led to Pakistan declaring itself an Islamic Republic (official name) with the adoption of parliamentary democratic system of government. The resignation letter [Wikipedia and Marvisirmed.com] of Jogendra Nath Mandal [The News on Sunday] in October 1950 clearly showed the hypocrisy of the Muslim leadership. 

Missionaries established educational institutions to educate children from the lower class and hospitals for public care but after the mass exodus of missionaries from Pakistan, the sitting Christian leadership didn’t follow the same rules. Later when Zulifqar Ali Bhutto became the prime minister of Pakistan, he nationalized Christian institutions thus this chapter was closed. Since then neither clergy nor political leadership ever planned for the economic development of the Christians. Instead clergy remain busy in selling church properties and political leadership remains disloyal with the community [Christian Times and Religion-Online.org]. In the first week of November 2015, in the village of Punjab province, Chack number 228, (around 50 km away from the Faisalabad) an eight year old Christian girl was beaten [Breitbart] and locked in her school washroom by her head teacher for daring to use toilet meant for Muslim girls only.

In the recent few weeks dozens of Christian girls were kidnapped/raped and forced to conversion [Pakistan Christian Post, CrossMap.com and News.va]. The head teacher in a village 30 kilometer away from the Punjab capital was brutally beaten up due to his faith by his subordinate. Still Pakistani leadership says that there is no discrimination and minorities are enjoying full rights in Pakistan. This is all due to the poor performance of the Christian leadership; and Pakistani Christians are still facing many problems. But the [Christian] clergy is busy in making money.

Secondly since the government of Pakistan has adopted joint electoral system for minorities of the country the local community is divided into different groups - a divide and rule policy being adopted. The PML-N present ruling party, in Punjab has not been able to provide protection to Christians, instead the rulers’ attitude towards Christian is discriminatory. Since the twin churches bomb blast in Youhanabad [HERE and HERE], many Christians are still in the prisons [Pakistan2days]. Dozens of the families are suffering due to the arrests of their family heads. [The is the case even] Though the government has not been able to prove its allegations against them and therefore inmates and their families are suffering. In this incident, one Christian parliamentarian has reportedly betrayed the community and had shown his loyalty with his party. The same has been happening for the last decade.

Christians of Pakistan need better leadership and unity at the local level. There are people with potential to do something but they don’t have resources. But there are people, with no vision but resources, they are wasting them and have set their priorities. Education, economic uplift programs need to adopted. And to discourage the hypocrites and self-centered personals.

There are also some so-called leaders among Pakistani Christians that mislead the world and present a cool and calm situation in Pakistan for Pakistani Christians. Most recently one religious leader and so-called political leader has attended and presented a report and denied any oppression or persecution of religious minorities by the government and local people [Pakistan Christian Post]. This type of people are betrayers and have sold out our nation, they do not want anyone to expose them. These are the Judas Iscariots of today and we need to stand against them. But I believe that youngsters of [our] nation have realized [that many Christian leaders are corrupt] and will reject them and will stand with truth and right.  

The European Union has taken in millions refugees from Syria, Egypt and other countries of the Middle East. Now extremists among those refugees are reportedly involved in creating disturbance in the EU [Express and WSJ] and UK. The EU and UNHCR are very open about [Muslim] refugees from the Middle East. Yet these EU countries always discourage Pakistani Christians. And [these EU leaders are] taking measures against Christian asylum seekers from Pakistan. As a Pakistani Christian, I urge Pakistani Christians to stand together and join hands together against the crooked and self-centered so-called [Christian] leadership. 

The best way to SUPPORT Shamim’s Christian advocacy in Pakistan is via Western Union sending money with this LINK to a Western Union agent in Islamabad. Include Shamim’s phone - +92-300-642-4560

Be Blessed,

Shamim Masih

Correspondent, Pakistan Today - (About Pakistan Today), Blogger and Human Rights Activist
http://oiwerk.blogspot.com/

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Edited by John R. Houk

Text or links enclosed with brackets are by the Editor.

© Shamim Masih