News
Christian family fears for safety after radical Muslims cry blasphemy
Three members of a Christian family have gone into hiding after radical Muslims accused them of committing blasphemy.
Yousaf Masih, his wife Bashrian Bibi, and their son-in-law Zahid Masih have fled from Model Town, Lahore, after becoming embroiled in a dispute over a piece of perspex that local Muslims claimed displayed some words from the Koran on it.
Lal Masih, Yousaf’s cousin who lives nearby, bought the perspex to use as a toilet covering, sparking outrage from local Muslims who requested that he remove it.
Yousaf’s neighbour, Mohammad Imran, says he asked Lal several times to remove the perspex but that his requests were ignored. When Mohammad and some others decided to confront Lal at his home about the matter, he was not there and so they went instead to Zahid Masih and asked him to remove the perspex from the toilet. He refused because no one was at Lal’s home.
Mohammad told the CLAAS team that a quarrel broke out with Zahid, drawing the attention of locals, including Muslim extremists who started to make a scene. They alleged that Zahid Masih had disgraced holy verses from the Koran.
When the crowd started to become bigger, local Muslim Amant Ali said he removed the perspex from the toilet and hid it.
He said: “A mob of two thousand people gathered on the place of occurrence and blocked the road for several hours; they were demanding immediate arrest of alleged blasphemers namely Zahid Masih, Yousaf Masih and Bashiran Bibi on the same day.”
A complaint was filed against the three at the local police station on July 5 but police were unable to arrest them because they had already fled. Lal Masih and another family member, James Masih, were, however, arrested.
When CLAAS asked the police why they had arrested them, they admitted that they were under pressure from extremists to arrest the accused and that they did it in an attempt to restore calm – relatives cannot be released until an accused has been arrested.
The CLAAS team attempted to interview local Christians but they were too afraid to speak up. A local Muslim showed the team the piece of perspex in dispute. After careful inspection, they could not find a single word from the Koran on it.
It is clear that the charges are trumped up and rooted in a personal grudge or animosity towards the three accused. The police said they are encouraging the accusing party to reconcile with the accused but the outcome remains unclear, as the officer also said he wanted Zahid and Yousaf to be arrested.
The charges have left local Christians fearing that they will become the next victims of Muslim aggression, as is often the case after a blasphemy charge is levelled against a Christian.
One local told CLAAS: “Thanks Jesus Christ that in this case Muslim extremists did not show their anger towards the local Christians.”
CLAAS has promised free legal assistance to the family.
Your Name:
Email to a friend.
(Enter email address and click 'Send' button
to send.)
|