Pakistani Christian Beaten for Refusing to Convert to Islam

By Dan Wooding, ASSIST Ministries

KALLUR KOT, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that the four older Muslim brothers of a 26-year-old Christian beat him unconscious in Kallur Kot town, Pakistan, earlier this month because he refused their enticements to convert to Islam.

The CDN story says that Riaz Masih, whose Christian parents died when he was a boy, said his continual refusal to convert infuriated his siblings and the Muslim cleric who raised them, Moulvi Peer Akram-Ullah.

On Feb. 8, he said, his brothers ransacked his house in this Punjab Province town 233 kilometers (145 miles) southwest of Islamabad. “They threatened that it was the breaking point now, and that I must convert right now or face death,” Masih said.

“They said killing an infidel is not a sin, instead it’s righteousness in the sight of Allah almighty.”

Compass Direct News said that he stated that Akram-Ullah and his brothers offered him 1 million rupees (US$11,790), a spacious residence and a woman of his choice to marry in order to lure him to Islam, but he declined.

“The Muslim cleric had converted Masih’s brothers and sisters in like manner, according to human rights organization Rays of Development (ROD), which has provided financial, medical and moral support to Masih,” said the CDN story.

Adnan Saeed, an executive member of ROD, told Compass that when Masih’s parents passed away, Masih and his siblings were tenants of Akram-Ullah, who cared for them and inculcated them with Islamic ideology. ROD began assisting Masih after a chapter of the Christian Welfare Organization (CWO) brought the injured Christian to ROD.

A spokesman for CWO who requested anonymity told Compass that Akram-Ullah had offered Masih’s brothers and sister a large plot of residential land, as well as 500,000 rupees (US$5,895) each, if they would recite the kalimah, the profession of faith for converting to Islam.

For more information, go to www.compassdirect.org