An angry mob of hundreds of Muslims destroyed a Christian town in response to a charge of blasphemy.
Hundreds of Christians in Lahore, Pakistan had their homes burnt down and later clashed with police who provided no protection after a dispute in which a Christian man was accused of blasphemy of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The rampant persecution against Christians in Muslim nations continues to be inflamed with little government help on the way.
Joseph Colony, an area of Lahore, where the attack took place has been ravaged by the destruction from the mob of angry Muslims who burnt down homes and businesses while the authorities told local police to let the angered Muslims “let them vent their grief and anger.”
According to reports:
Shahid Imran, a Muslim barber in Joseph Colony in the Badami Bagh area, on Friday (March 8) accused his Christian neighbor, 26-year-old Sawan Masih, of blaspheming Muhammad. Imran alleged that Masih, who runs a small billiards business, had “ridiculed” Islam’s prophet by saying that Jesus was the greatest prophet ever.
Soon after, crowds of armed Muslims began gathering in the area of about 200 Christian families, mostly sanitation workers, demanding that Masih be handed over to them. They besieged his house and started pelting it with stones, damaging the windows and door. Masih had fled the area as soon as news reached him about Imran’s accusation. (source).
Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code calls for death or life imprisonment for those accused of blaspheming Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. These laws have emboldened the Muslim communities to attack those with vigilante or mob violence against those who are suspected of speaking out against Islam. And such was the case in Joseph Colony, where the angry mob rushed to Masih’s home. Efforts to calm the crowd were futile. Soon police arrested Imran’s father in hopes that would ease tensions but soon they were accused of being “blasphemers.” While he was taken into custody the crowd went on the attack.
The police stood by idly while homes, stores and churches were destroyed.
Despite a heavy police presence in Joseph Colony, the crowd started to destroy property. prompting the order from the local government to “let them vent their anger.” Approximately 170 homes, 18 shops and several churches were burned down and destroyed. Many of the homes were looted before being destroyed by the rioters.
“I have been robbed of all of my life’s savings,” Yousuf Masih said, standing close to his burned house.
Area resident Haroon Masih wept as he described how the raiders broke the locks of his door and stole the dowries of his four daughters that he had been gathering for several years.
“They made off with everything valuable I had and then simply set the house on fire,” he said. “My new rickshaw was also burnt to ashes.” Residents also showed Morning Star News gas pipelines that had been sawed off to ensure maximum spread of fires.
Jesus Christ prophesied that all Christians should expect to be despised, rejected and hated in the world.
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. – John 15-18:21.
Double Standard Imposed
Families in Joseph Colony returned to destroyed homes. All because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
In response to the destruction of the Christian neighborhood, approximately Several hundred Christian protestors blocked a highway, demanding that the police take some action to stop the destruction. According to police officials, they uprooted a fence and burned an electric generator. Rather than letting them “vent their frustration” police responded by using tear gas on the crowd and arresting 150 protestors.
The government has offered 200,000 rupees ($2,000US) as compensation to each family, which was immediately rejected by the people of Joseph Colony:
“It is like poison to us,” they screamed as Christian Senator Kamran Michael and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah visited the area late Saturday night amid heavy security.
The crowd shouted slogans against Michael and the Punjab government, believing Islamic leaders would have heeded them and holding them responsible for doing nothing to stop the violence. The two officials were forced to leave the area after just a few minutes.
The Punjab government later raised the compensation amount to 500,000 rupees, and the checks were handed out to victims. (source).
Pray for the Christians in Pakistan who suffered this horrific attack and for others who may be in danger as well. It is difficult for some living in certain parts of the world to grasp a reality where just being known as a Christian literally puts your home, family and life in jeopardy. But this is the reality for millions of Christians worldwide today. Pray for the failure of their persecutors and for the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to lead them to repentance.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.- Romans 8:35-37.
yep my imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend ,makes a lot of sense really.
Cute. Tell me, when you troll, do you just pick places at random, or…?
^this
BaE, we actually know a family from that village. This event has really hit home with my family.
Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. If you’ve heard any news updates about how the families are doing or if the conflict over this blasphemy charge has been resolved, please feel free to share them here.
Will do.
i hate reading news like this especially when it has to do with Islam.
Because it is nothing new and it’s always the same type of news I hear.
How can one be so stupid and be deceived!????
they claim to be religion of peace and they are doing this! How can one be bloody blind!
even People who sin, people like Josef who raped his daughter for 21 years, knows that what he’s doing is wrong half the time but he would not stop because the demons instructing him and telling him what to do. Why can’t the Muslim THINK if what they are doing is right or not? if not going too far?
you insult their wife, mom, family, they do nothing but insult Quran/Allah/Muhammed and they go ballistic.
They claim to worship Allah but they hold high respect to Muhammed more than Allah.
How dense can one be!???
It’s like Roman Catholics who claim to worship God/Jesus yet they bow down and worship Mary statue.
Perhaps it was wise Muhammad forbade any image in his likeness be formed. Muslims surely would worship an effigy of Muhammad…
so Muslims don’t worship Mohammed?
why do they go ballistic when someone even makes a satire joke about him?
there have been many jokes, insults, blasphemy and heresy joke of Jesus but you don’t see us Christians going nuts!
also why do Muslims worship the Kaahab? the black box muslims surround.
nothing makes sense! They are just deceiving themselves!
Mr or Mrs. Xino,
This is my view on how to fight Islamic terror.
Ever since the hellacious Sept. 11th attack on the World Trade Center there have been well over 17,000 murderous Islamic attacks on men, women and children all over the world. There only crime….
…Not being a Muslim.
Islam has given us a war with no off switch. That’s because there is no person in charge of Islam. It has no pope, no president, or not even an ambassador with whom we could discuss a peace treaty. There is no way to call off the Islamic war against the West.
No matter what we do, no matter what we say, terrorism will continue, so we have to continue to fight.
But there is one particular entity that we can focus on if we are ever going to get a handle on Islamic violence. Here it is:
Islam has given us a war with no off switch. That’s because there is no person in charge of Islam. It has no pope, no president, or not even an ambassador with whom we could discuss a peace treaty. There is no way to call off the Islamic war against the West.
No matter what we do, no matter what we say, terrorism will continue, so we have to continue to fight.
But there is one particular entity that we can focus on if we are ever going to get a handle on Islamic violence. Here it is:
Every one of those 17,000 attacks can be traced back directly to an Islamic mosque. It’s the Muslim mosque that serves not only as a place of worship but also as a military command site for recruiting, training and sending out Jihad killers!
Islamic Imams themselves say that 80% of the mosques in the United States are under the control of radical Muslims and are funded by Saudi Arabia.
Now most of those imams preach violence and hatred against free nations and some of their worshipers then go out and commit acts of terrorism. The Islamic mosque must be the focus point as we defend ourselves against bloodshed.
So far mosques have been allowed to operate freely in America because our Constitution provides for freedom of religion. The government has no authority whatsoever to regulate religion or worship in this nation and that’s all good.
As a conservative Christian I don’t want the government telling me what to do! But the 1st amendment was never intended to put protect seditious activities of a foreign military outpost on our soil.
Islamic mosques are mandated to swear loyalty to Islam, NOT to their country of residence. That makes them a foreign outpost. It is also the duty of every mosque to undermine by any means the government of whatever country they’re in for the purpose of setting up an Islamic government ruled by a Sharia Law. That’s called SEDITION.
This is undisputed by Muslims. They tell us exactly what they’re going to do. Sedition and treason right in our own back yards and that tells us what we need to do in response.
Law enforcement needs to focus on Islamic mosques in America. They cannot be a place of worship one day and a Jihad center for the rest of the week. Mosques that contribute to terrorism have forfeited their right to 1st amendment protections.
They must be vigorously investigated! So Janet Napolitano…. take your political correctness and get the hell out the way!!
There’s no excuse for allowing sedition in our own backyard.
Just an aside – Catholics do NOT “worship” Mary – they honor her but do not worship her. Catholics worship Jesus and honor his mother. Sure there are statues of Mary just as there are statues of other saints. Catholics do not worship saints – they honor them. But the issue here is not Mary or Catholics; it is about a government which encourages the very worst instincts of its worst people and allows them free reign to terrorize, rob, kill and torture innocent Christians. It is de facto government abuse of a minority in that nation. The US should be helping Christians throughout the middle and near east and in all Muslim nations where they are persecuted. We should not admit another single Muslim into the US until we have provided safe haven for all Christians thus persecuted. I know a Christian family in Lahore. Every time I hear from them I fear it will be the last time. Our country is covering itself in disgrace and shame as we continue to allow this flood of Muslims into our nation while we ignore the desperate plight of Christians – people who have no desire to kill or harm us. Instead we give preference to those who express the desire to kill us and impose sharia.
Woow, this is shocking, painful and disheartening, what pains me the most is that all these prosperity preachers keep quite about such issues and keep on telling people tht its their season, harvest, etc, yet these events are clear signs of where we are heading-the end of the world. Anywhere may God strengthen the affected Christian families so that these persecutions wont result in any1 of them backtracking.