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City of Gojra
Gojra, Pakistan – August 15, 2009. Christians in Pakistan face unbelievable persecution in a country that is predominantly Muslim. In a court of law, a Christian man’s testimony is worth half that of a Muslim and a Christian woman’s testimony is only worth quarter. As a result, many Christian women are abused and cannot defend themselves. Also, it is part of the law to give a death sentence to anyone who defies the name of the prophet Mohammed. The law only requires four Muslim witnesses for a conviction. It is laws like this that Muslim extremists use to persecute Christians and in many areas where there is not a lot of police, Muslims will take matters into their own hands. This is what happened on August 2, 2009. At a nearby mosque, the imam began to falsely accuse Christians in the village of Gojra and Korian of burning the book of the Koran. Within a few minutes, a Muslim mob ran to these villages and demolished about 70 homes, 2 churches, and killed 8 Christians—including children. One of the churches was an Apostolic church. The local police watched the whole episode and did not even try to stop them. Our Bible College director for Apostolic School of Theology International, visited the Christian villages and brought food, water, and money. He was astounded at the atrocities that took place in that village. He lives only about 90 miles away from those villages.
Two weeks later, another attack was planned by a local mob of Muslims—this time in the same city where he lives. Somehow he overheard that the imam, the leader of the Mosque, was planning to throw a torn Koran in the streets of the city. He called me and we sent messages by Twitter to pray for him and our two churches in that city. This time the local police and military was ready for them and when the imam threw the Koran in the street, he was immediately arrested and the persecution was stopped completely. Thank God for the prayers of many people that day!
Paul Baumeister
