{"id":447,"date":"2012-01-13T21:03:51","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T03:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/?p=447"},"modified":"2012-01-25T19:05:41","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T01:05:41","slug":"5-minute-challenge-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/2012\/01\/13\/5-minute-challenge-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Minute Challenge – Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christians are a beleaguered minority caught between Islamic militant organizations that routinely target them for violence and an Islamic culture that discriminates against them. Death threats are routine for church leaders, beatings are common, and damage to church property occurs on a monthly basis. Christians cannot rely on government or the military to protect them. The killing in March 2011 of Christian Cabinet Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcone of the most demoralizing acts for us of recent years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, according to a church leader in Karachi.<\/p>\n

Learn more about\u00c2\u00a0Pakistan<\/a><\/p>\n

Can you spare 3 minutes to encourage Asia Bibi?<\/a><\/p>\n

A mother of five sentenced to death on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blasphemy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d charges lives in constant fear. After leaving the Sheikhupura District Jail last week, her husband, Salman Taseer, said that Asia Noreen (alternatively spelled Aaysa, and also called Asia Bibi), is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very afraid.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Her conviction for insulting Islam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prophet Muhammad, which she denies, triggered a violent chain of events in Pakistan, including the murder of Gov. Salman Taseer by his bodyguard after the governor voiced support for her. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She knows the Muslims have announced a prize on her head and would go to any lengths to kill her,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a visibly nervous Masih said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s murder in broad daylight has put her in a state of paranoia.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He added that threats by Islamist extremists have dampened Noreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope of getting justice from the Lahore High\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Court, where her appeal against the conviction has been filed but yet to be taken up.<\/p>\n

\n

Wearing a dark cloak to hide his identity, Masih was visibly nervous after meeting with her. Masih said prison authorities had improved Noreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s security considerably after Gov. Salman Taseer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s killing, but prison officials have reportedly said she will be transferred to another prison soon because of security concerns. The female warden tasked with Noreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s security the day Gov. Salman Taseer was killed shared the Christian woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to the news. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were passing by a barrack when the news broke out on TV that the governor was dead,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the warden, who requested anonymity.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She stood there in shock for some time, and then she started screami\u00c2\u00a0ng and crying.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christians are a beleaguered minority caught between Islamic militant organizations that routinely target them for violence and an Islamic culture that discriminates against them. Death threats are routine for church leaders, beatings are common, and damage to church property occurs on a monthly basis. Christians cannot rely on government or the military to protect them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[34,19],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-minutes","tag-discipleship","tag-ttw2015","item-wrap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/WWL2012.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1xumr-7d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pambhm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}