Christian Girl Attacked For Saying She’s Pakistani
Sunday, October 11, 2009 (9:10 am)
By Jawad Mazhar, Worthy News Special Correspondent reporting from Pakistan
DHAREMA, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)-- A Christian schoolgirl in Pakistan's Punjab province was recovering Sunday, October 11, after she was allegedly "ruthlessly beaten" with a bamboo stick by a Muslim headteacher for saying she is "a Pakistani" citizen.
The bedridden Nadia Iftikhar, 11, told Worthy News and its partner agency BosNewsLife that she was seriously injured when the teacher of the local evening coaching school 'Bright Future Academy' in the town of Dharema got angry because she challenged her views on Islam.
“Our teacher was teaching us about the culture of Pakistan and Pakistani people and quoted a sentence from the text book saying 'We are Pakistani and all of us are Muslims'," the girl recalled. "At this point I interrupted and said: "Madam, I am also a Pakistani, but not a Muslim instead I am a Christian."
The teacher, identified as Humaira Hassa, "got furious and grabbed a bamboo stick and started thrashing in a barbarian way and kept saying all Pakistanis are Muslim, you are not a Pakistani but a Christian," the girl said. "Your home land is some where in Europe or America," the teacher allegedly said.
Nadia added showed scars of the wounds at her back. Classmates said the girl briefly became unconscious, but was eventually brought home. The teacher could not be reached for comment.
NO POLICE
The girl's father, Iftikhar Masih, 45 said he did not went to local police. "I am an impoverished Christian man and am busy working for a daily wage to feed my family."
Local Christians in Punjab province have also complained of police complicity in attacks against Christian believers. “However I have taken her to the doctor and and we believe that her injuries will be healed and she will be able to return to her school.”
It was not immediately clear whether the 6th grade girl would be welcomed again by the Bright Future Academy where she said she has been studying for three years.
The attack is no isolated incident in the tense province, Christians said. There have been protests in Punjab province against attacks on churches and individuals and alleged persecution by authorities.
LEADER ATTACKED
Recently Muslim militants reportedly invaded the home of regional church leader Joseph Pervaiz. "They came and were stealing a jewelry and millions of rupees from me," he told Worthy News.
Christian workers in Punjab province have also complained about discrimination. In of the most recent incidents last month a radical Muslim transporter allegedly expelled his Christian bus conductor from his job for asking short leave of about two hours to offer Sunday Prayers in a local church."
Mushtaq Gill's said he had been working as a bus conductor in the transport company, Dadial Travels, owned by "a radical Muslim man" for the last five years.
Muslim drivers, conductors, bus attendants and cleaners are usually granted leave on Friday to offer "their Islamic Friday Prayers," Gill said. "At certain times due to the lack of staff Dadial Transport Service comes to stand still and travellers also get annoyed."
Gill said his family are very devoted to Christianity. "We can not imagine missing even a single Sunday service." He was apparently dismissed, without due payment, after attending the church service anyway. The transport company has denied wrongdoing, saying his absence undermined its operations.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Yet, receiving compensation through a court appears difficult, with rights groups saying the justice system often colludes with Muslim militants. "There are for instance many Christians held behind bars for bootlegging," said Ghulam Masih whose son was detained October 4.
Police said Noman Masih was carrying 20 bottles of alcoholic drinks to his slum. He father has denied the charges sating police tried to extort money from his son. "Christians are allowed to carry alcohol anyway, Muslims are not," he added.
Christians comprise a minority in mainly Islamic Pakistan where Muslim militants have increased attempts to impose Muslim laws in several areas and to influence authorities, rights groups say.
Pakistan's government says it is cracking down on extremism. On Sunday, October 11, officials said the siege near the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is over. Commando forces raided a building where militants were holding more than 30 hostages just before dawn Sunday. Four militants, two soldiers and three hostages were killed during the operation. Another wounded militant was captured.
- There is a tiny Christian minority in Pakistan.
DHAREMA, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)-- A Christian schoolgirl in Pakistan's Punjab province was recovering Sunday, October 11, after she was allegedly "ruthlessly beaten" with a bamboo stick by a Muslim headteacher for saying she is "a Pakistani" citizen.
The bedridden Nadia Iftikhar, 11, told Worthy News and its partner agency BosNewsLife that she was seriously injured when the teacher of the local evening coaching school 'Bright Future Academy' in the town of Dharema got angry because she challenged her views on Islam.
“Our teacher was teaching us about the culture of Pakistan and Pakistani people and quoted a sentence from the text book saying 'We are Pakistani and all of us are Muslims'," the girl recalled. "At this point I interrupted and said: "Madam, I am also a Pakistani, but not a Muslim instead I am a Christian."
The teacher, identified as Humaira Hassa, "got furious and grabbed a bamboo stick and started thrashing in a barbarian way and kept saying all Pakistanis are Muslim, you are not a Pakistani but a Christian," the girl said. "Your home land is some where in Europe or America," the teacher allegedly said.
Nadia added showed scars of the wounds at her back. Classmates said the girl briefly became unconscious, but was eventually brought home. The teacher could not be reached for comment.
NO POLICE
The girl's father, Iftikhar Masih, 45 said he did not went to local police. "I am an impoverished Christian man and am busy working for a daily wage to feed my family."
Local Christians in Punjab province have also complained of police complicity in attacks against Christian believers. “However I have taken her to the doctor and and we believe that her injuries will be healed and she will be able to return to her school.”
It was not immediately clear whether the 6th grade girl would be welcomed again by the Bright Future Academy where she said she has been studying for three years.
The attack is no isolated incident in the tense province, Christians said. There have been protests in Punjab province against attacks on churches and individuals and alleged persecution by authorities.
LEADER ATTACKED
Recently Muslim militants reportedly invaded the home of regional church leader Joseph Pervaiz. "They came and were stealing a jewelry and millions of rupees from me," he told Worthy News.
Christian workers in Punjab province have also complained about discrimination. In of the most recent incidents last month a radical Muslim transporter allegedly expelled his Christian bus conductor from his job for asking short leave of about two hours to offer Sunday Prayers in a local church."
Mushtaq Gill's said he had been working as a bus conductor in the transport company, Dadial Travels, owned by "a radical Muslim man" for the last five years.
Muslim drivers, conductors, bus attendants and cleaners are usually granted leave on Friday to offer "their Islamic Friday Prayers," Gill said. "At certain times due to the lack of staff Dadial Transport Service comes to stand still and travellers also get annoyed."
Gill said his family are very devoted to Christianity. "We can not imagine missing even a single Sunday service." He was apparently dismissed, without due payment, after attending the church service anyway. The transport company has denied wrongdoing, saying his absence undermined its operations.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Yet, receiving compensation through a court appears difficult, with rights groups saying the justice system often colludes with Muslim militants. "There are for instance many Christians held behind bars for bootlegging," said Ghulam Masih whose son was detained October 4.
Police said Noman Masih was carrying 20 bottles of alcoholic drinks to his slum. He father has denied the charges sating police tried to extort money from his son. "Christians are allowed to carry alcohol anyway, Muslims are not," he added.
Christians comprise a minority in mainly Islamic Pakistan where Muslim militants have increased attempts to impose Muslim laws in several areas and to influence authorities, rights groups say.
Pakistan's government says it is cracking down on extremism. On Sunday, October 11, officials said the siege near the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is over. Commando forces raided a building where militants were holding more than 30 hostages just before dawn Sunday. Four militants, two soldiers and three hostages were killed during the operation. Another wounded militant was captured.
Copyright 2009 Worthy News. All rights reserved.
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Increase
Decrease
The time is short, brethren! The Lord is near to return, even more sor than when we first believed! Though the time is tough, and the road difficult, let us pray for our persecuters. This will be very hard, but everlasting hellfire is harder. All our good works will not go unnoticed. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” The Lord be gracious unto you and give you strength. Fight the good fight, endure to the end, suffer persecution for Christ’s sake with joy, for great is our reward in heaven! Let us pray the elders of the church will come and lay hands on the girl that she may be healed. Believe, doubt nothing; for the Lord our God is with us. The brethren in America salute you. Pray for us, even as we pray for you. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,” he will take care of us. The Lord suffered persecution for our sakes. Let us do so for him. Amen.
Praying!
“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
Save Now!
“And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” Jonah 4:11
Mercy!
Mercy And Grace!
Oh Mighty LORD Jesus Christ!
“Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,”
“At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.”
“And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”
“And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” Acts 26:12-15
Tell it, Brother!
These are those news which reach to you. How about many which do not reach to you. Kindly watch out the basic human rights in the Islamic countries especially in Pakistan. In daily life, how many Christians are suffering because they are just Christians, this is common view among Muslims even Muslims are educated or not, they think, we Christians are from USA or Europea. But not Pakistanis, actually from the real history of Pakistani land. Muslims are not from this land. They came from another lands, occupied this land. Christians are the real landowners of this region.
So pray for us to be saved from radical Islam, even we pray for our beloved country Pakistan, it should be saved from radical Islam.
God bless Pakistan.
Pakistan
Reverend, many of us in the west are ignorant to the history of the middle east. It isn’t until we see such atrocities that our sensativities are pricked and we begin to take notice. Fotunately there is a “Worthy” New Service as this, to educate, and give us ear to the plight of our brothers and sisters, on the front lines of the War on Christianity. Many of us wonder what we would do in situations like Nadia and her family. We cannot judge or even sympathize because we’ve not been in their shoes. I will continue to pray; it is the least and the most I can do, from here.
While Muslims continue to enjoy freedom and unreciprocated concession in the West/Christendom, they continue to persecute Christians in Arabo-Islamic World. While Muslims are allowed to push Islam in the West, Christians in Arabo-Islamic World are not allowed to even identify themselves! I think Christian political leaders should have a rethink.
i will be praying for you,Nadia Iftikhar. you are a sister of mine in the LORD may GOD bless you and your family.
Wow! only 11 and surrounded by persecution–what a bright little girl!!! It might sound strange, but her story shows the Glory of Jesus.
Elijah
Brothers and sisters I am not Pakistani, however, you Pakistani Christians have a large community in the West. In the West you have freedom, you need to get organised and begin to expose this evil. Hand out leaflets, organised mass rallies, force yourself upon the media and the politicians, ask and urge Christians to join you. Also you need to make an effort to inform the Western Christian community about what is happening, the sad thing is, nobody has a clue about this.
Sorry to know about the plight of this poor little girl. But it’s also a paradox to know that the main killers of innocent muslims in Pakistan are muslim extremists. This is happening not only in Pakistan but in the entire world including Iran.m Today, more muslims lose their lives in the hands of muslim extremists than any other community in the world! So, it’s high time our muslim brothers and sisters identify the real evil in this world instead of being cruel to a 11 year old girl who believes in Christ. After all they should know that Christ himself is a revered prophet in the holy Koran.