Three Pastors from Rimsha’s Hometown Perplexed About Religious Liberty
ICC Note:
Following the arrest of Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl who was accused for blasphemy in Islamabad on August 16, a Muslim mob set several Christian homes ablaze leading hundreds of Christians to flee their homes in fear for their lives.
In this article, Salam News interviews three pastors from Rimsha’s home district of Islamabad. The pastors share their insight on Rimsha’s case and ask the questions: “Where is our right? We are Pakistani and have sacrificed for the country, why are these fundamentalists imposing Islamic culture on us?”
By Shamim Masih
11/3/2012 Pakistan (Salem-News.com)- A few weeks back I wrote an article about the root cause of the Rimsha case. She is the little girl who was framed by a radical cleric for Blasphemy.
It was around the time Qari Muhammad Khalid Chashti was released on bail against a surety bond worth Rs. 200,000.
Let me remind you of his statement on this issue printed in all English Papers of Islamabad on August 25, 2012, “Christian community had previously caused antagonism by playing music in services at their makeshift church during Muslim prayer time,” and said burning the pages was deliberate.
“They committed this crime to insult us further. This happened because we did not stop their anti Islam activities before,” he said. “Last Christmas, they played musical instruments and there was vulgarity in the streets during our prayer time. I warned them but they did not stop.”
During his sermon at Friday prayers, Chishti told worshipers it was “time for Muslims to wake up” and protect the Holy Quran.
Based on his perspicacity the whole case was planted, on August 16, when Muslim extremists raised their voice against the Christians Meharabadi, Pastor Arif Shalokh – Calvary Charismatic Church, Islamabad, he escaped taking his family at 2:00 a.m. in the night wandering in the streets of Islamabad.
According to Pastor Arif, he has been serving the Lord for the last 15 years. Rimsha and her family were members of the same church. Pastor Arif was in a rented house and has been using a hall for church service. In that vicinity more than 35 families were his church members. He said he used to visit Rimsha & her family occasionally. We Christians are humble and peace loving people and can’t even imagine insulting others.
Answering to the question raised by Qari Muhammad Khalid Chishti; he said Church services normally start at 10:00 a.m. and finishes around 12 o clock, so during these hours there is no Azan or Muslim’s prayer time, so how come Christian’s disturb them during their prayer? Thus this is baseless and as for as vulgarity is concerned- we are part of this culture, so we are aware of our ritual and rights. Qari Khalid belongs to extremists group and he has been blaming on Christians since he is inducted in the mosque.
After resettling there when they started their worship session on Sunday, 7th October, they were not allowed to worship during Sunday services, so they went to the administration and filed an application to DCO. Assistant commissioner (AC) Islamabad had marked their application to SHO police station Ramna G-11 for the investigation and to report her promptly. A month later we are still hanging on dates.
Pastor Yousaf Masih – International Gospel Assemblies (IGA) has been working among Christians for years and having more than 100 families in his congregation.
Talking to BPCA representative in Pakistan, he said that since this incident happened most of the Christians families have left their houses on the same night. I have looking after them with the available resources, and once most of the families are back in the town, we arranged the Sunday Service in a house but our landlord didn’t allow us to worship even in our houses.
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