MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Jibran Khan – “The students of a madrassa try to force a child to convert. A relative is attacked for defending him, and accused of blasphemy. A priest: ‘This is a common practice in the region. Many cases of forced conversions are not made known’. The authorities turn a blind eye to the problem.

Ten Christian families were forced to flee from Chak 68, Arifwala, in Khanewal district, for fear of the consequences of an accusation of blasphemy. A Christian boy of eight years, Ihtesham, nicknamed ‘Sunny’ went to buy ice in a market, and was surrounded and harassed by students of a madrassa, an Islamic religious school. They asked him to recite verses from the Koran, those every Muslim reads the so-called ‘Kalma’, in short the statement that ‘there is no God but Allah ….’ They asked him to renounce his religion and convert to Islam.

An uncle of Sunny, Dildar Masih, seeing that his nephew was in trouble, because of the students, intervened. Sunny explained to him that they were bullying him to renounce his religion. Dildar addressed the boys, he rebuked them and told Sunny to go home. The boys told of the incident to the religious leaders at the madrasas. The latter announced that Dildar Masih had committed blasphemy, making fun of Koranic verses, and the loudspeaker of the madrasa urged all to punish the blasphemer, to set an example.” Read more.