A slave for her faith

 

Farah Shaheen (©Aid to the Church in Need).

I have regularly looked at the photo of this poor girl gazing through the camera because, stunned into inaction, the email from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has remained in my in-tray. 

What are her thoughts? What if she were my daughter, or yours?

Farah's story is appalling, best explained by this extract from the ACN email:

"The father of a 12-year-old Christian girl – kidnapped, raped, shackled hand and foot, and forced to work from dusk till dawn – has at last spoken out about her ordeal.

"When police rescued Farah Shaheen from the Faisalabad house of 45-year-old Khizar Ahmed Ali (Hayat) in December 2020, she was too traumatised to speak but, bit by bit, has revealed her harrowing five-month ordeal to her father, Asif Masih.

"In a statement to Aid to the Church in Need, Mr Masih said his daughter was attached to a chain and forced to work all day “as a slave” damaging her shackled hands and feet in the process.

"Mr Masih said: 'Farah has told me she was treated like a slave. She was forced to work all day, cleaning filth in a cattle yard. 24-7 she was attached to a chain.'

"Condemning Mr Ahmed for forcing Farah to marry him and convert to Islam, he said: “She was sexually assaulted by her abductor and raped multiple times by [his] landlords”."

Sadly this is not an isolated case. The email continues:

"Describing the mistreatment of girls from minority faith backgrounds as 'a cancer in our society', he said: “I beg you to demand that the Government stops this evil in its tracks and brings the culprits to justice.”

"Pakistan’s Movement for Solidarity and Peace estimates that up to 1,000 young Christian and Hindu females between 12 and 25 are abducted each year."

Another tragic report describes how 14-year-old Maira Shahbaz was bundled into a car at gunpoint by three men on 28th April 2020, in Medina Town, Pakistan.  She was filmed and photographed being raped, and was then forced to convert to Islam and marry one of her abductors, Mohamad Nakash Tariq, 30 years her senior.

A petition has been presented to Fiona Bruce, MP, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Religious Freedom or Belief asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson to grant asylum for Maira Shahbaz and her family. In that regard Maira is luckier than most.

In 2019 the BBC reported Christian persecution 'at near genocide levels'. In 2021 little has changed.

Persecution of Christians Exacerbated by a Year of Covid-19 According to World Watch List 2021:

• Christians in numerous African and Asian nations have been refused coronavirus aid
  
  
• Islamic militants have exploited Covid-19 restrictions, increasing violence against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa by 30 per cent.
  
  
• Covid-19 has legitimised repression through increased surveillance by authoritarian governments such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
  
  
• Women have been especially vulnerable in Covid-imposed lockdowns, with psychological violence as well as kidnapping and forced conversions.

In another email ACN gives details of slaughter in Africa. Another highlights  Religious bias faced by Christians in Pakistan. In Myanmar displaced Christians have formed a village called 'Bethel' outside Yangon.

There are regular reports of attacks on Christians but not on action to curb them. 

In my entry The naivety of Christian leaders I wrote: Christian leaders would do well to heed the warning of bishop Michael Nazir-Ali who explained back in 2011 how Christianity has become almost extinct in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, and Islam, the 'religion of peace', has became dominant in the Arab world.

Christianity is on the decline while Muslims are the world’s fastest-growing religious group.

It doesn't take much imagination to realise the fate of Christians when looking at counties in which they are already a minority. 

Fulani Militants Destroy Church, Kidnap Seven from Southern Kaduna

In Three Years Fulani Militias Killed 2,539 People in 654 Attacks in Nigeria. Source: News Express

From International Christian Concern

"08/31/2020 Nigeria  – On August 24, Fulani militants conducted another attack on a Christian village in Southern Kaduna State, Nigeria. According to a report by Morningstar News, more than 20 herdsmen rode motorcycles into Damba Kasaya village, Kaduna state at about 8 a.m. that morning. During the attack, they killed a 35-year-old man named Benjamin Auta. They also kidnapped four students and one teacher from the Prince Academy, a small school. The final two were local farmers who have been missing since the attack. The four students who were taken, were all under the age of 18 and three of them were girls.

"Southern Kaduna has seen a lot of increased violence this year. According to the Southern Kaduna People’s Union, more than 50,000 Christians have been displaced from over 100 Christian villages in Southern Kaduna. These villages are mainly located in the counties of Kachia, Kajuru, Kaura and Chikun. The ongoing attacks have greatly affected the population of Southern Kaduna, which is where the vast majority of Christians live in this Sharia state. This is also the only area of that state that is so greatly affected by Fulani militant attacks. Please continue praying for the safety and security of our brothers and sisters in Kaduna State, Nigeria. They are often attacked, and their state federal government have greatly failed to protect them."

Earlier in August Nigeria's News Express reported that within three years more than 2,539 people had been killed, 393 wounded, 253 kidnapped, 16 raped, more than 7, 582 houses burnt and 24 churches destroyed in 654 attacks carried out by Fulani Militias, Nigeria’s most lethal group.

Villagers stand at a mass grave in Dogon Na Hauwa, Nigeria, in 2010.        Source: Christian Today

In response to a report co-authored by The International Organisation for Peace Building and Social Justice (PSJ UK), the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and the International Freedom of Religion or Belief All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), UK's Express described the situation as ‘Intolerable’ after it was claimed that 100,000 Christians had been murdered for their faith in Nigeria in the first two decades of this century.

"According to the report  43,242 of the Christian deaths as a result of the terrorism inflicted by Boko Haram, Islamic State, ISWAP and Al-Queda; 18,834 as a result of the terrorism inflicted by Fulani Militant Extremists; and 34,233 as a result of the terrorism inflicted by all other actors."

Lord Alton of Liverpool a vice chair of the APPG said: “Some local observers have gone so far as to describe the rising attacks as a campaign of ethno-religious cleansing.

Compared with the outpouring of grief over the 51 lives lost in the Christchurch mosque shootings the media's response has been extremely muted.  

African lives matter too.