Posted on 12/20/2008 10:45:51 PM PST by Cindy
WASHINGTON D.C. (ANS) -- A human rights group is reporting that a powerful Muslim village elder and his nephews evicted about 30 impoverished Christian families from their homes in order to make way for a stable for their livestock.
In a news release, the Washington-DC based International Christian Concern (ICC) said that while the stable will keep the Muslims' animals warm and dry, these 30 Christian families are now homeless in their village of Kotla Punjubaig in Sheikhupura district near Lahore, Pakistan.
In an interview with ICC, a local Christian elder of Kotla Punjubaig, Boota Masih, said, This land was given to our forefathers by the British Rulers before the Indo-Pak partition in 1947, and we had been living here since then.
Masih described in the news release what happened. He said, A few days back the hard-line Muslim head of our village, Muhammad Mansha, and his nephews, Akbar Ali, Arif, Asgher Abbas and Muhammad Yousaf, armed with deadly firearms, invaded our homes and forcibly threw us and our household things out of our houses.
Masih said, And (they) left us homeless and shelter-less by demolishing our sweet homes.
According to ICC, Masih and other victims added that Mansha and his nephews had occupied their homes to build a stable for their livestock with permission from officials of the local Land Requisition Department.
Masih said that when they pleaded with Mansha over why he was doing this to them, Mansha responded that the land was given to him by the Land Requisition Department.
ICC said as these families have no other place to live, their belongings are currently strewn along the streets and alleys of the neighborhood.
ICC said that Mansha and his nephews refused to comment, despite ICC's repeated efforts to contact them.
Masih claimed that police officials had not taken any action to prosecute Mansha or his nephews and had not yet attempted to find the Christians alternate housing, despite the fact that he had appealed to Punjab's Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to intervene and provide them homes.
ICC is asking that readers contact the Pakistani embassy in their country and ask them to protect the rights of Christians and all religious minorities.
Pakistan Embassies:
USA: (202) 243-6500, info@embassyofpakistanusa.org
Canada: (613) 238-7881, parepottawa@rogers.com
UK: 0870-005-6967, hoc@phclondon.org
ICC exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. It delivers humanitarian aid, trains and supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US regarding the problem of persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State Department.
For additional information, go to www.persecution.org
that is what the muslims really think of all non muslims. The ACLU has paved the road in this country for the same treatment.
a local Christian elder of Kotla Punjubaig, Boota Masih...
That’s it - I stop reading when I see too many funny names in close proximity.
that is funny, I do the same thing.
Islamic eminent domain.
Yeah, I am not too caring about these folks with the same strange names anymore. They have taken too much time already.
They must be using the Kelo decision over there too...
obviously a Democrat administration ...
So...your fellow Christians get hung out to dry because they have “STRANGE NAMES”??? Are you serious? Guess what...from their POV, doubtless YOU have a “strange name,” too.
These people have suffered more for the Faith than you or I EVER will in 100 lifetimes. They are being killed, displaced from their homes, or otherwise driven out of several predominantly Muslim countries, including Pakistan. And all you can say is that you can’t care about these people at all because their names are tiresome to read! There’s not much any of us can do for them in a material sense, but we CAN at least pray for them. They need our prayers. We supposedly believe that prayer for each other is a good thing and efficacious, no? Wouldn’t it help if our attitudes reflected a genuine concern for them, as we pray for them? Dismissing them as somehow less important than we are because they have “strange names” certainly makes God want to act on our prayers, I’m very sure.
The Christian minorities of the Middle East are a living witness to Christ and the Truth of His Faith, in a land that has long since perverted what little understanding they had of it long, long ago. Soon, there won’t be any of them left, at the rate we’re going. You write them off, and you write off whatever witness they can make to their benighted Muslim overlords.
Shame on you, and anyone else of the same opinion, for disparaging these people, and making fun of their desperate situation. You better hope that the day doesn’t come when you or your children are in similar straits at the hands of secularist atheists, or even Muslims. Because, if that day ever comes, there will be NO ONE to help you in lands where your name isn’t “strange,” since they’ll be in the same boat, and the Christians left in other lands just might be disinclined to help those of us with the “strange” names, who brought their fate on themselves by derisively dismissing the plight of others a generation earlier.
What a crew!!
Sorry, I was talking about those burning the homes, etc. Maybe the Christian ones have strange names, too. Probably do. No, you have to admire those Christian ones; they risk it all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.