MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

Because that is, after all, the Islamic thing to do. But “I won’t convert back.” Stay firm in the faith, Brother Josef. Even if they destroy the body, your eternal soul they cannot touch …

John 11:25, “Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live'”

Qur’an Sura 2:256a, “Let there be no compulsion in religion …”

Hadith, Bukhari 9.84.57, “Muhammad said, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”

By Azam Ahmed, New York Times – “In a dank basement on the outskirts of Kabul, Josef read his worn blue Bible by the light of a propane lantern, as he had done for weeks since he fled from his family in Pakistan.

His few worldly possessions sat nearby in the 10-by-10-foot room of stone and crumbling brown earth. He keeps a wooden cross with a passage from the Sermon on the Mount written on it, a carton of Esse cigarettes, and a thin plastic folder containing records of his conversion to Christianity.

The documents are the reason he is hiding for his life. On paper, Afghan law protects freedom of religion, but the reality here and in some other Muslim countries is that renouncing Islam is a capital offense.

Josef’s brother-in-law Ibrahim arrived in Kabul recently, leaving behind his family and business in Pakistan, to hunt down the apostate and kill him. Reached by telephone, Ibrahim, who uses only one name, offered a reporter for The New York Times $20,000 to tell him where Josef was hiding.

‘If I find him, once we are done with him, I will kill his son as well, because his son is a bastard,’ Ibrahim said, referring to Josef’s 3-year-old child. ‘He is not from a Muslim father.’

For Josef, 32, who asked to be identified only by his Christian name to protect his wife and young child, the path to Christianity was only one segment on a much longer journey, a year of wandering that took him through Turkey, Greece, Italy and Germany, seeking refuge from Afghanistan’s violence.

But at each stop he found misfortune. He was detained in Greece and deported from Germany, and he lived on the streets in Italy before he truly understood that there would be no happy ending in Europe, where his application for asylum has gone nowhere. He voluntarily left Italy for Pakistan to be with his wife and son, but that is no longer an option.

Neither is reverting to Islam. ‘I inherited my faith, but I saw so many things that made me discard my religious beliefs,’ Josef said. ‘Even if I get killed, I won’t convert back.’

In official eyes here, there are no Afghan Christians. The few Afghans who practice the faith do so in private for fear of persecution, attending one of a handful of underground churches that are believed to be operating in the country.” Read more.

Luke 21:16, “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”

Flashback: Mosque To Church Ratio In Afghanistan: 48,000 To 0 – “Afghanistan ranks third among nations most severely opposed to the Cross. There are 48,000 mosques in the country—but not a single church building. Afghanistan’s population is 31 million, but estimates show there are less than 5,000 indigenous believers in this nation that has radical Islamic sharia law written into its constitution. Because of strong family traditions, any Muslim who comes to Christ is often in danger of an ‘honor killing’ by the family even before the government decides to pursue them, and Muslims who convert to Christ are subject to harsh imprisonment and possible execution by the authorities.” Read more.

Flashback: The Crushing Of Middle Eastern Christianity, ‘The Full Magnitude Of The Horrific Christian Plight Is Largely Ignored’ – “The Pew Research Center has charted extensive government restrictions on non-Muslim religions in numerous countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. Pew also has gauged very high social hostilities in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.These government restrictions and social hostilities directed against Christians are causing many to flee the region. In the early twentieth century, Christians accounted for about 20 percent of the Middle East population, but now that figure is down to only 5 percent. In the aftermath of 9/11 and the ‘Arab Spring,’ Christian communities throughout the greater Middle East find themselves increasingly besieged. While the United States seems to notice bits and pieces of this picture, the full magnitude of the horrific Christian plight is largely ignored.” Read more.