Pakistani Christians Terrorized
Nasir Rasa reports on the abduction of 13-year-old Elishbah Javed (screenshot provided by Carol Noreen).
KARACHI, Pakistan - Christians in Pakistan continue to face persecution in the Muslim-majority country. On October 7, Muhammad Bilal abducted Elishbah Javed, a 13-year-old Christian girl.
Nasir Raza reports the local police have yet to take action to recover the teenage girl and, if standard practice plays out, they won’t act unless pressure is placed on them.
In Pakistan, Muslim men regularly target Christian teenage girls for abduction. They threaten the girl and her family with death if they don’t comply. Once the girl is in hand, they are forcibly converted to Islam and marry their abductor. False documents are created to claim the underage girls are the legal age to marry. Once conversion takes place, government officials are slow to act.
National law officially says underage girls can’t be forced to marry, however, according to Carol Noreen, a Pakistani-American activist, Sharia Law, under Article 2a in the Pakistani constitution, usurps any secular law passed.
Islamic doctrine uses their prophet Muhammad as the example of "moral living” which includes adult men marrying girls as young as six.
Photo of Muskan Munawar (courtesy of Carol Noreen).
In another recent case, 16-year-old Muskan Munawar was working at a mall September 10 when Altaf Ali Muhamad Sherif, a 40-year-old Muslim man, who works at another store in the mall, threatened to kill the girl and her family if she didn’t leave with him. She was taken 300 kilometers from her hometown.
Like most cases, Munawar was threatened to tell the courts she converted to Islam and accepted marriage to Sherif. False documents were presented to say Munawar is 19-years-old.
Shabbir Shafqat, a Christian activist in Pakistan, put pressure on local authorities and Munwar returned to her family on September 19. Over the nine days in captivity, Munawar was mentally traumatized by Sherif, who waved a gun in her face to show how he would murder her family if she didn’t comply to his demands.
Shafqat did not report if Munawar suffered any physical trauma. The local Muslim community is threatening Munwar and her family to have her returned to Sherif. Shafqat is also threated for his work in recovering abducted Christian girls.
Shabbir Shafqat is an activist in Pakistan, fighting for the dignified protection of abducted Christian girls (photo courtesy of Shafqat).
Because Munawar is alleged to have converted to Islam, her life is forfeit under Islamic law and she could be executed by the government for apostasy, or the local Muslim community could form a lynch mob if provoked.
Not all girls are able to return home as quickly as Munwar was.
Huma Younus was abducted in October 2019. She was repeatedly raped, beaten, and kept isolated over four years from the age of 14 to 18. Her education and emotional trauma has stunted her mental development.
Huma Younus (L) returned home with her mother, Nagina Younus(R) after four years in captivity (photo courtesy of Nagina Younus).
Younus’ mother Nagina Younus went into debt paying lawyer fees to fight for Huma’s return. Huma was finally released to her family in July.
Javed’s case can end quickly or be dragged out for years depending on how much pressure is placed on the government to have her returned to her family.
