Persecution of Ex-Muslims (Pakistan)

Attacked by her own family and raped for converting to Christianity, ex-Muslim leaves her home city of Karachi with her Christian husband and two young daughters

Attacked by her own family, one Muslim’s decision to convert to Christianity highlights the precarious situation of Muslims in Pakistan who leave their faith.

Sehar Muhammad Shafi, 24, has fled her home city of Karachi with her husband and two young daughters after being attacked and raped for changing her faith.

With help from the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, the Christian couple has relocated to another city. But as long as Shafi and her family remain in Pakistan, they must hide the truth of Shafi’s conversion.
. . .
In 1999, Shafi began work for a medical company, Glaxo Wellcome plc, where she focused her energy on proselytizing a co-worker, a Christian named Naveed Paul. Paul had an interest in apologetics and engaged Shafi in religious discussions, inviting her to church with him.

Four years later, Shafi decided to become a Christian, and a local pastor secretly baptized her. “I had shared Islam with [Paul] and wanted to convert him, but instead I realized that my life was empty without Jesus,” Shafi said.

Shafi’s family was not aware of her conversion, but sometimes they would beat her when they found her singing Psalms to herself. Once they ripped up a Bible they discovered her reading.

Pakistan: Woman Raped for Leaving Islam
Compass Direct, June 23, 2006

New apostasy bill to impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam

A draft bill adopted in first reading by Pakistan’s National Assembly is now before a standing committee. Tabled by a six-party politico-religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or MMA, the Apostasy Act 2006 which the government sent to the committee would impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam. It would also force them to forfeit their property and lose legal custody of children.

During the same session, lawmakers rejected another draft bill moved by minority MNA Bhandara which sought to amend the existing blasphemy law.
. . .
Should the bill become law anyone who leaves Islam for another religion can be sentenced to death (if male) or life in prison ‘until repentance occurs’ (if female).

Section 4 of the bill says that the offender’s own confession in court or the testimony by at least two adults is sufficient grounds for conviction in apostasy cases. Testimony by non Muslims is not however admissible in certain Pakistani courts.

Section 5 stipulates that the ‘offender’ must be granted 3 to 30 days to recant the conversion and return to Islam. But even in cases where the person returns to Islam judges can impose two-year sentences as punishment for the original ‘crime’. The accused can convert and reconvert up to three times before the death sentence becomes automatic.

Under Section 8 apostates forfeit all their properties which are awarded only to their Muslim relatives. Section 9 says that they also lose custody to any minor in their care and guardianship, including their biological children.

New apostasy bill to impose death on anyone who leaves Islam
Qaiser Felix, AsiaNews, May 9, 2007

Teenager who converted to Christianity goes into hiding after escaping death at the hands of her family, who beat her and unsuccessfully demanded she return to Islam

A Pakistani teen who embraced Christianity has escaped death at the hands of her family, who unsuccessfully demanded she recant her faith, an international ministry group says. Voice of the Martyrs said the girl, identified only as Diana, now is in hiding for her life.

She grew up in a strict Islamic family in Pakistan, the group said, and her life was "typical" until she met a girl named Mary who was a Christian, and Diana decided to embrace the faith.
. . .
"When Diana's family learned that she had become a Christian, they repeatedly beat her and insisted she return to Islam," the organization, which ministers to the persecuted Christian church worldwide, said.

"But Diana refused. She was then forced to a local canal where her uncle put a pistol to her head and gave her one last chance to return to Islam. Diana replied, 'You can kill me if you want. I will not leave Christ,'" VOM confirmed.

Christian Pakistani teen escapes death
WorldNetDaily, August 30, 2006

New poll finds 78% of Muslims support the death penalty for leaving Islam ('extremist' Muslims are not the minority)

– 83 percent support stoning adulterers

– Consistent with previous polls where 75 percent have called for implementation of strict Sharia law by Pakistan government

— Pew Global Press Release

— Complete report
— Report page 3 — “The new poll finds broad support for harsh punishments: 78% favor death for those who leave Islam; 80% favor whippings and cutting off hands for crimes like theft and robbery; and 83% favor stoning adulterers.”
— Questions 62b, 62c, and 62d, page 17

— Page 18 – “only 16% of Pakistanis express a favorable view of the U.S.”

Pakistan: New Poll Shows 78 Percent of Pakistanis Support Death Penalty for Leaving Islam
R.E.A.L., August 13, 2009

Schoolteacher and Ahmadi Convert from Islam who faced opposition from relatives and whom local clerics declared “liable to be killed”, is shot dead in front of students

As his students watched, a recent convert to the Ahmadi faith, Dilawar Hussain, 42, was shot dead at a government primary school in a village in Sheikhupura on Saturday.

According to the FIR registered, the deceased was shot twice while he was taking a class at the primary school in Dere Golianwala.

Hussain, along with his wife, Ishrat Bibi, and four children, had recently converted to the Ahmadi faith. His family was the only one in the village belonging to the Ahmadiyya community, Sheikhupura’s Ameer Jamaat Ahmadiyya Chaudhry Abdul Hameed Bhatti told The Express Tribune.

He said the deceased’s siblings boycotted him after his conversion and other relatives went against him when local clerics declared him “liable to be killed”.

Bhatti said even his brothers, one of whom is a police officer, did not want to register an FIR and become a complainant. Instead, they made Ishrat Bibi the complainant and prepared the application themselves.

Hussain’s relatives refused to own his body. At the same time, they created obstacles for his widow to take the body away from the village to Rabwah, the headquarters of the Ahmaddiya community. However, under police security, she finally managed to take the body away.

Sheikhupura SHO Shahid Zafar Gujjar said that as the FIR was registered against two unidentified people, they had no information about the murderers.

The SHO said authorities will be able to trace out the assailants once the witness identifies them. He added that the police had completed the legal requirements by getting autopsy of the body and registering the FIR. He revealed FIR # 1146/11 under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code had been registered against the assailants.

Saleemuddin, a spokesperson for Jamat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan, condemned the murder and demanded the immediate arrest of the accused. He said fatwas declaring members of the Ahmadi sect “liable to be killed” were being issued in different parts of the country and these religious edicts were being published in vast numbers. This, according to Saleemuddin, has resulted in target killings of many Ahmadis.

Ahmadi schoolteacher shot dead in Sheikhupura
Rana Tanveer, The Express Tribune, October 3, 2011

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