Heroic Christians Pay Terrible Price for Refusing to Convert to the Religion of Peace

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN — A Christian man was fighting for his life in Pakistan’s Punjab province Saturday, March 20, after Muslim leaders backed by police burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam, while his wife was raped by police officers, Christian and hospital sources familiar with the case told BosNewsLife.

Arshed Masih was burned Friday, March 19, in front of a police station in the city of Rawalpindi near Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, following apparent death threats from his Muslim employer Sheikh Mohammad Sultan, an influential businessman, and religious leaders, said the Rawalpindi Holy Family Hospital.

His wife, Martha Arshed, was allegedly raped by police officers. Their three children — ranging in age from 7 to 12– were reportedly forced to witness the attacks against their parents.

“Both [Masih] and wife were rushed to the Holy Family Hospital and are under treatment,” the hospital said.

He was listed in serious condition with about 80 percent of his body burned.

POLICE INVESTIGATION

Local police officials said they were “aware” of the attacks carried out by Muslim leaders and apparently at least some officers and added that an investigation was underway. No arrests were rep
orted yet late Saturday, March 19.

Sheikh Mohammad Sultan could not immediately be reached for comment and it was not clear whether he had been in contact with police Saturday, March 20.

Before tensions emerged about their Christian faith, Masih worked as a driver and his wife as a maid for the Muslim businessman since 2005, Christians said.

The couple apparently lived with their children in the servant quarters of Sultan’s estate in Rawalpindi, a key trade and tourist destination. In January, religious leaders and Sultan allegedly asked Arshed to convert to Islam with his whole family. After he refused, the group reportedly threatened him with “dire consequences”.

Arshed offered to quit his job, but the businessman allegedly said he would “kill” him if he were to leave.

He apparently also told Christian mediators that he would never allow the Christian family to live somewhere else.

This week tensions rose after Sultan reported a theft of 500,000 Pakistani Rupees (5,952$), according to a document seen by BosNewsLife.

The Christian family members were not named as suspects in the so-called ‘First Information Report’ from police.

Sources familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told BosNewsLife that the businessman had offered the couple to drop the case if they convert to Islam or “else that both would not see their children again.”

However, “Arshed refused to convert and stood firm in his faith. Arshed`s wife was raped by the police and he was burned alive,” Friday, March 19, local Christians said, speaking on condition of anonymity. . . . (continue reading)

St. Killian Patrick Hangin' on St. Patrick's Day

Life is good!

The look of love

Let’s take a quick trip back to 1967, shall we? I’ve loved this song ever since I first heard it on the radio, way back then.

A Self-Explanatory Public Service Announcement

I'll bet you've never thought of this use for a magazine before

Hawaii? Earthquake? Was Dear Leader "Futuring"?

I will, I will rock you

Yes, I know, this is frivolity at its most frivolous, but a dear friend of mine with a twisted sense of humor created this little video, and I just can’t resist showing it to you. I’ll get serious again soon. Promise.

Happy Friday. No cheeseburger for you today.

A Prayer to Be Freed From the Seven Deadly Sins

Listen to Father Z and stop pranking the faithful with sand

To all the priests out there still… unbelievably still putting sand in holy water fonts during Lent…

KNOCK IT OFF!

And if you go into a church where you see this sort of idiocy… for the love of God, DON’T bless yourself with SAND.

You know you are a soldier and pilgrim in a dangerous world, right? What is Lent for? Spiritual discipline and war, right?

So why… why… why would these dopey liturgists and priests REMOVE a tool of spiritual warfare precisely duing the season ofLENT when we need it the most??

Holy water is a sacramental.

It is not a toy, or something to be abstained from, like chocolate …. which is the stuff of a childish Lent. . . . (continue reading)

"I think my mother is trapped beneath the house"

Those are the words of Marioli Gatica, a Chilean woman who described the 18-foot tsunami waves that obliterated her town of Talcahuano an hour after the 8.8 quake which struck that country on Saturday.

Such horrors abound along the devastated beach communities of Chile’s south-central coast, which suffered the double tragedy Saturday of the earthquake and the tsunami it caused. Of the quake’s 723 victims, most were in the wine-growing Maule region that includes Talcahuano, now a mud-caked, ravaged town of 180,000 just north of Concepcion.

Close to 80 percent of Talcahuano’s residents are homeless, with 10,000 homes uninhabitable and hundreds more destroyed, said Mayor Gaston Saavedra.

“The port is destroyed. The streets, collapsed. City buildings, destroyed,” Saavedra said.

In Concepcion, the biggest city near the epicenter, rescuers heard the knocking of victims trapped inside a toppled 70-unit apartment building Monday and were drilling through thick concrete to reach them, said fire Commander Juan Carlos Subercaseux. By late Monday, firefighters had pulled 25 survivors and nine bodies from the structure.

Chile’s defense minister has said the navy made a mistake by not immediately activating a tsunami warning. He said port captains who did call warnings in several coastal towns saved hundreds of lives.

The waves came too quickly for a group of 40 retirees vacationing at a seaside campground in the village of Pelluhue. They had piled into a bus that was swept out to sea, along with trucks and houses, when the tsunami surged 200 yards into the summer resort town.

As of Monday, firefighters said, five of the retirees’ bodies had been recovered. At least 30 remained missing. . . .(continue reading)

This is what happens when a tsunami reaches land

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