A Christian mother of five was allegedly raped by two Muslim men last week, and area Islamists are threatening to harm her family if charges against the suspects are not dropped, the woman and her husband told Compass.

On Sept. 15, the 32-year-old woman said, she was returning home to Mustafabad, in Punjab Province’s Kasur district, from a garment factory where she works. Two Muslims, identified only as 23-year-old Bhallu and 27-year-old Shera, along with an unidentified accomplice, allegedly abducted her at gunpoint, took her to an abandoned house in the area and raped her, she said.

Working late, she had reached the Mustafabad bus stop at 11:45 p.m. and had begun walking to her home five minutes away; the street was deserted, said the alleged victim, whose name is withheld.

“As soon as I entered our street, Bhallu appeared from the shadows and put his hand on my mouth,” she told Compass by phone. “A second person, who I later recognized as Bhallu’s friend Shera, came from behind and put a pistol on my temple. A third person also appeared on the scene, and together they first gagged me and then forcibly took me to an abandoned house. I tried my best to get free from their hold and save myself, but they were too powerful for me.”

Once inside, she said, they took off her gag, and she pleaded with them to leave her alone.

“I tried screaming, but they hit me,” she said, sobbing. “Not for a minute did they acknowledge that I was a mother to five children. Then they raped me, one after the other. Their third accomplice stood guard as they tore in on me like animals.”

She said that her tormentors let her go after more than an hour.

“They had torn my clothes, and I could barely step outside the house,” she said. “I don’t know how I managed to reach my home … Words fail me even now.”

Muslim criminals in Pakistan, where the population is more than 95 percent Muslim according to Operation World, tend to assume they will not be prosecuted if their victims are Christians. The accuser said Muslim men in the area have been harassing Christian women for some time.

“There are around 500 Christian houses in this area, which is predominantly inhabited by Muslims,” she said. “There have been several instances when they have publicly harassed us but have gotten away with it, because we keep silent to avoid a clash.”

A month ago, as she was returning home from work, she was near her house when she suddenly felt someone pulling her head scarf, she said. She turned and found one of Bhallu’s friends holding the head scarf.

“I started screaming, and my husband and a neighbor rushed out, but the boy walked away as if nothing had happened,” she said. “We did not say a word about this to anyone out of shame and fear of the Muslims.”

She said that after that incident, her husband, who works as a sweeper, began accompanying her to and from the bus stop.

“But there were days when he could not accompany me to the bus stop, and I used to walk alone,” she said.

Her husband, Mushtaq Masih, said that he was speechless after she told him about the ordeal.

“We have five children – three boys and two girls – with the oldest daughter studying in sixth grade – I cannot express the thoughts that filled my mind at that time,” Masih said. “The Muslims had ruined us completely, and I did not know what would happen to us if we reported the crime, but seeing my wife devastated, I decided to face the rapists.”

He called police, who visited the crime scene and took the woman to the hospital for a medical examination that proved she had been gang-raped, he said. Police filed a First Information Report (FIR No. 491/11) against Bhallu and his accomplices.

The woman said that she knew Bhallu only because he lived in her neighborhood, and that although she recognized Shera, she did not know his name until the FIR was filed.

Masih said that Shera’s name came up during the initial police investigation, and he was in custody when the investigating officer asked Masih to bring his wife to the police station to identify the suspects. Bhallu had fled the area.

His wife said that as they reached the police station, Muslims warned the family against pointing out Shera.

“They told us that they will kill my children and husband if I identify Shera,” she said. “They said that we should not forget that we arechooras [sweepers, a derogatory word for Christians] and can bring no harm to them. They also warned that our daughters would face a similar fate if we did not listen to them.”

She refused to identify Shera and returned home, she said.

“What happened to me should not happen to any of them,” she said. “My children are my world, how could I put their lives in danger? … Please pray that no woman suffers what I have been through.”

Pressure to Drop Charges

Area Christians were shocked. The family continues to receive threats to withdraw the case against the primary suspect, Bhallu, who has been seen in the area several times though police have yet to arrest him, Masih said.

“Our Muslim neighbors are pressuring us to withdraw the case,” he said. “They want us to reach an agreement with Bhallu and his friends. They want us to ‘pardon’ the criminals who have dishonored us.”

Police are using delay tactics in the pursuit of Bhallu, Masih said.

“We told the Mustafabad police in-charge that the Muslims are forcing us to withdraw the case, but he is not bothered,” Masih said. He added that some policemen had also asked him to withdraw the case, saying there was little chance his wife would get justice.

“They asked me to take money in return for withdrawing the case,” Masih said. “They want that I should sell my wife’s honor for money.”

Investigating Officer Muhammad Sharif dismissed the Christians’ accusations that police had sought money in exchange for dropping the case, and he refused to acknowledge that Muslims were threatening the woman’s family and needed police protection.

Sharif told Compass that police were trying to arrest Bhallu.

“We took his father into custody but released him after interrogation,” he said. “I will soon catch hold of Bhallu.”

Sharif said the investigation would accelerate after the primary suspect is arrested.

As Masih and the few Christians daring to support him ponder their next step, the woman maintains a faint hope of getting justice in a country where Christians have little legal or societal standing. Mukhtar Masih, an elder of the area Presbyterian church, said the Christians were helpless as the Muslims held sway over local police.

“Several Christian women have complained that the Muslims have harassed them, but this is something that we have to live with every day,” he said, adding that even though the community was shocked, no one was coming forward to help the family because “they are afraid of the Muslims.”

Area resident Arif Masih told Compass that the Christians’ fears were understandable.

“We don’t have anyone who can face the police and the Muslims,” he said. “What happened to Masih’s wife is very tragic and can happen to any one of us, but is there really anything we can do about it?”

Some 6,500 Bible were seized recently by Iranian government officials in what has been perceived to be an intensified crackdown on Christians in the country.

The Bibles were seized in Abhar city, situated in Zanjan province, Northwest Iran. A government official said the Bibles were tools of propaganda that are used to deceive the country’s people.

Dr. Majid Abhari, an adviser for the social issues committee of Iran’s parliament, said, “These missionaries with reliance on huge money and propaganda are trying to deviate our youth,” Mohabat News reported.

Abhari claimed that the Bibles are used by Christian missionaries for purposes of deceit and propaganda, saying, “With regard to the activities of these Christian missionaries to deceive people, especially youngsters, they have begun a huge campaign by spending huge sums and false propaganda for deviating the public,” according to Mohabat News.

Abhari said, “These books were made with the best paper in the world. The important point in this issue that should be considered by intelligence, judicial and religious agencies is that all religions are strengthening their power to confront Islam, otherwise, what does this huge number of Bibles mean?”

Missionary work is not permitted in Iran. Despite this, there has been a rise, of late, in the number of Muslims converting to Christianity in recent years, an act which is illegal and can lead to arrest, detention and torture. New legislation aims to render apostasy (conversion from Islam to another religion) punishable with the death penalty.

Past incidents of confiscation

Last February, during a bus inspection, some 600 Bibles were seized by revolutionary guards and police officers, and burned in Darishk, a village bordering Turkey.

Last year on October 28, more than 300 New Testaments were seized by border inspectors and security from a bus that was crossing Salmas, in Azerbaijan province. The home of a Christian man living in the town was also raided.

There has also been a stepped up anti-Bible propaganda campaign. During confiscations of Bibles, phrases such as “apostate gospels and old testament” are used to describe the Christian scriptures.

Iran’s constitution recognizes that Christians, Jews and other religious minorities have the right to own and use their sacred scriptures to practice their faith.

Despite this, the government has shut down the Iranian Bible Society, and forbidden the publication and/or reprinting of the Bible and other Christian literature. Possessing a Bible in the Farsi language is a crime.

These restrictions have led to the publication of Farsi Bibles overseas at high costs, then smuggling them to Iran.

There has also been a heightened persecution campaign against Christians. Recently, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, 33, was threatened with death if he refused to renounce his faith. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/08/evangelical-iranian-pastor-facing-execution-stands-strong-amid-government-clampdown-16953/).

In Feb. 2010, Rev. Wilson Issavi, an evangelical pastor, was arrested and the church he led, the Assyrian Evangelical Church in Kermanshah, was shut down.

In March 2009, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church in Tehran had to shut down amid threats from government officials. Several other Christian churches in the country were also shut down to curb conversions.

The Iranian government is also concerned that conversions to Christianity continue even as there is clear risk of persecution and arrest.

My son has a frightful disease: Arachibutyrophobia.

Though he didn’t know the technical name of the ailment, he properly diagnosed his case.

Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

Seriously, ground peanuts terrify the boy.

I understand my son’s fear. I was a pitiful little thing growing up. The list of things I was afraid of would fill a three-ring binder: The dark; thunder; being abandoned at the baby sitters; roller coasters; animals.

An unfamiliar dog once wandered into our yard, and I became so unnerved I tore through the bottom of the screen door to our home to get inside. Psychologists call it panophobia – the fear of everything.

Most of my fears were ungrounded. There was really nothing to be scared of, except for my school bus driver, Mr. Otto Walraven.

He instilled fear into the bravest soul as he shook a switch the size of a tree limb at us in that large rear view bus mirror.

More than once I saw him remove high school juniors and seniors from the bus and throttle them along the side of the road. Old Otto would be in the penitentiary these days, God rest his soul.

But if you listen to radio news, catch more than ten minutes of television a day, or subscribe to internet news, you know this world is a terrifyingly dangerous place.

The short list of concerns include record gas prices, the ongoing war in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation, economic uncertainty, the threat of terrorist attack, radical religious movements of all stripes, pandemic, and bad spinach. It’s enough to keep you in the bed in the morning.

The Apostle Paul, living in fearful days himself, said, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Here, Paul summarizes the most often repeated command in the Scriptures, “Don’t be afraid.”

Over three hundred times in the Hebrew and Christian Testaments the Bible speaks to us with the simple words, “Fear not.”

See, the most repeated command is not “Love thy neighbor,” or “Repent of your sins,” or “Do not kill,” as important as these things are. The most repeated instruction is to give no place to your worries.

What an appropriate reminder for us today. The spirit God gives us – that is, what furnishes us with breath and life – is not the racing heartbeat of panic. No, we are not enslaved to dread. The spirit given to us, and within us, is one of power, love, and self-discipline.

We have been given the power to face each uncertain day; the love to overcome the hatred and bitterness that surround us; and self-discipline when everything else seems so out of control; for our security is not dependent upon the strength of our military or foreign policy.

Our future is not guaranteed by the performance of the leading economic indicators.

Rising oil prices, inflation, and the never-ending mortgage crisis may cramp our portfolios; and elevated terror threats may cause us to alter our travel plans, but these should not take away our peace of mind.

For this peace is a peace that comes from above, and it surpasses all human understanding.

Dr. E. Stanley Jones says it far better than I can: “Fear is not my native land. Faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life…In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath. These are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely. We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.”

I’ll choose to live during these perilous days within the reality of God; a place without fear. And I’ll try my best to convince my son that he can safely eat peanut butter. I may have more success with the former than the latter.

Ronnie McBrayer is the author of “Leaving Religion, Following Jesus.” He writes and speaks about life, faith, and Christ-centered spirituality. Visit his website at www.ronniemcbrayer.net.

The American Humanist Association launched recently a nationwide ad blitz, their largest so far, this time disparaging both Christianity and Islam.

AHA will spend at least $200,000 this time, to market its beliefs on television, newspapers, billboards and bus ads. The ads compare texts from the Bible and the Quran to humanist thought, and then urge readers to consider humanism, according to The Christian Post.

Roy Speckhardt, head of AHA, said that both the Quran and the Bible have “horrific material, and to say you get your morality from there” is a hindrance, according to CNN.

Speckhardt told CNN that the goal of the campaign is to “challenge the fundamentalists” for their “backward ideas.” He added, “We’re targeting for criticism those who read the Bible literally, not those who pick and choose what they like.”

He said it is better to pick and choose as humanists do, according to CNN. The campaign raises issues on slavery, women, homosexuality, war and punishment. They then pick and choose verses from the Bible and the Quran and compare these to quotes from AHA or humanists in history, The Christian Post reported.

In some ads quotes are taken from the Quran, and then compared to quotes that show the humanist beliefs on war and violence. In other ads, quotes are taken from the Bible on homosexuality and compared to humanist quotes, The Christian Post said.

There is also a video ad with atheist Richard Dawkins disputing Proverbs 3:5 which urges believers to trust in the Lord and not just depend on their own understanding. Dawkins advocates his belief on “evidence and logic,” The Christian Post reported.

Speckhardt told CNN another goal of the ad campaign is to reach out to those who do not belong to any religion. He said, “There are millions of people – approximately 34 million people – who are unaffiliated.”

The AHA has been running ads in the past advocating their beliefs. (See  http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/07/%e2%80%9cunder-god%e2%80%9d-billboard-war-in-north-carolina-continues-12842).

Among their previous campaigns were a number of bus ads that said, “No God? No Problem!”  On the National Day of Prayer, they ran billboards that said, “In Good We Trust,” according to The Christian Post.

The Christian Post said their latest campaign will include a spot on NBC Dateline and newspaper ads in the Seattle Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and USA Today.

Whatever the effect of this nationwide campaign may be, beliefnet considered its strategy noting, “The campaign takes some of the less savory parts of The Bible and the Quran and compares them with reasonable, compassionate quotes from prominent humanists. That’s a great advertising technique, of course, but doesn’t do much to prove anything one way or another (Christians could create a similar ad, of course, using a ‘love your neighbor’ quote from Jesus and contrasting it with something awful from Stalin).”

Bus ads offering advice and protection for Muslims who would like to convert to Christianity have recently sparked controversy in New York and led to a lawsuit in Detroit.

The ads say: ” Fatwa on your head? Is your family threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got Questions? Get Answers” and include the website RefugeFromIslam.com.

Credit:RefugeFromIslam.com

Some versions add a toll free phone number, according to The Detroit News.

In New York, the $10,000 ad campaign came shortly after a proposal had been made to build a mosque and Islamic center near ground zero in lower Manhattan, according to ABC News.

Muslim leaders in New York have called the ad inflammatory, and a former Muslim, Samir Selmanovich, who runs an interfaith group called Faith House Manhattan, said the ads could be a source of provocation and escalate other issues, ABC News said.

Meanwhile in Detroit the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), who sponsored the ad, filed a lawsuit against the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) buses for refusing to display the ad, according to Detroit News.

The lawsuit alleges that SMART violated the First and 14^th Amendment rights dealing with free speech and equal protection.  It also noted that SMART previously displayed an ad from the Detroit Area Coalition of Reason, an atheist group, which read “Don’t Believe in God?  You are not alone.”

Robert Muise, who is representing FDI said, “Such blatant discrimination is offensive, and it violates our Constitution,” according to Detroit News.

The FDI also filed a lawsuit in Florida when the paid ads were taken off the buses after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) protested, according to the Refuge From Islam website.

The website noted that Muslims are able to run ads in America inviting people to convert to Islam, yet they cannot make information available to Muslims who would like to leave Islam.

The website also noted that at least three bus companies that advertised the dawah (invitation to Islam) in Florida turned down the FDI ad.

Pamela Geller, who runs the website that is placing the ads said, “There are people that live in real fear and whose lives are threatened.  We want to provide an opportunity for them to have a resource to go to. It’s a religious freedom issue,” she told ABC News.

She said that in response to the ads, “We’ve gotten a number of people who have reached out.  It’s not a huge number, but then again it’s not a huge campaign. I can’t reveal anything about them except to say they were looking for help,” ABC News reported.

Geller said her campaign was partly inspired by the case of Fatimah Rifqa Bary, the formerly Muslim teenager who converted to Christianity, then fled her home in Ohio and hid in Florida because she was afraid that her family might kill her, ABC News said.