Post 52--Free Christian Christian Brick Kiln Workers in Pakistan

The topic today is about bonded brick kiln workers in Pakistan who are the virtual slaves of their compatriots.  Read the whole story below; it is heart breaking.  It is also very surprising, for what I hear from Canadian and American Muslim writers is that Islam is all about justice, freedom, equality, democracy, etc. etc. So, I am surprised that Pakistani Muslims get away with oppressing non-Muslims not only but that the world Muslim Ummah is not climbing all over their fellow Muslims for such oppression not only but, perhaps worse from the Muslim point of view, shaming Islam. Muslims are quick to accuse Christians of oppression etc., but what of themselves?  What of this particular case, not even to speak of innumerable cases throughout the Muslim world?  Muslims: show your stuff!  Stand up for your religion!  Demonstrate its hunger for justice and freedom! I want to believe Muslims when they claim justice as central to their religion, but this and similar situaons make it hard for me.

Bring Liberty to Bonded Laborers: Set free Christian brick kiln workers in Pakistan Donate now Sobia and her father make a thousand bricks a day between them. They start work at 5:00 a.m. and after they have finished the day’s quota they prepare the clay for the next day’s bricks. Sobia has worked like this since she was a small child. She never went to school because her mother died and Sobia then had to join her father making bricks to support the family. Sobia and her father together earn $8.65 a day. But their employer only gives them $6.75. He keeps the rest of their wages to pay back a debt of $1,410 which the family owes him. How did they get in debt? Every July and August the monsoon rains mean the brick-making has to stop. No bricks means no money for the families. But they still have to eat. So they take a loan from their employer, who charges them interest and thus ensures they never manage to finish paying him back. Being illiterate, they find it impossible to challenge his figures. When the next monsoon comes round, the family have to borrow from him again.     Sobia's brother, Shamaun, in his classroom, singing a Christian song with two friends Trapped like paid slaves Thousands of Pakistani Christian families are trapped like this. They cannot leave their job because of the debt to their Muslim employer. Some of their debts were originally incurred two or three generations ago. Often called “bonded laborers,” they live in a situation that is like a kind of paid slavery. Hope of freedom But Sobia’s family have hope that one day this will change. Sobia’s younger brother goes to school. It is a small and very simple Christian school, supported by Barnabas Fund. Most of the pupils are from Christian brick-kiln families. When one member of a family can read, write, and do simple sums, the whole family is transformed. Shamaun can now count the bricks his father and sister make, check the right figure is entered in the employer’s records, and make sure they are not cheated. He can check the calculations for their debt repayment, and make sure they finally pay it off. Then they will be free. Set them free! Please help Barnabas Aid to free these bonded laborers through the priceless gift of education. We support five brick-kiln schools near Lahore, bringing literacy, hope and ultimately freedom to 230 children and their families. The total cost for all five schools is $11,400 per year. Eight more schools are needed in this locality alone. Just $4.10 per month covers all costs for one child to attend school $11.55 provides each child with their books, pencil, eraser, and a bag to put them in Daily travel and other costs for the ten teachers are $24.35 a month One teacher’s monthly salary is $52.50 Donate now Other ways to give If you would like to make a gift, please direct your donation to 41-1236 Support for schools in the Kot Radha Kishen Area Telephone If you prefer to telephone, call: (703) 288-1681 Mail If you prefer to send a check by mail: Click this link for the address of our regional office. Please quote project reference above. Section 501(c)3 not for profit organization Barnabas Aid is ECFA accredited

Post 51--Pakistan and Global Blasphemy Law

This article is originally published by BarnabasAid, an international organization with its headquarters in the UK.  Though I do not always agree with them, I have good reason to be confident about their reporting. They're not a fly-by-night type of organization but have a good reputation with the EU and the UN. The article is clear enough and does not need any further introduction or explanation. Here goes:

In an alarming development, the Pakistan government is seeking to introduce what is in effect a global Islamic blasphemy law that prohibits any internet material critical of Islam.

The government is pursuing a twin track approach to this: it has met with ambassadors of 27 Muslim-majority countries to get international agreement to prosecute anyone who posts online any material deemed to be blasphemous; and it is pressurising internet companies such as Facebook and Twitter to remove immediately such content.

Already, the Pakistan government is claiming that Facebook has agreed to remove such content and over the past few months had blocked 17 such sites and has blocked a further 45 since being pressed further in March.

Disturbingly, the Pakistan government is seeking to prosecute people who post material not only in Pakistan but also across the world. According to Reuters, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan claimed that Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington had already spoken to both the US Justice Department and the FBI, and both agencies “had been receptive”.

The aim is not simply to remove anything posted on the internet deemed offensive to Islam, but to find out who posted it and prosecute them. The Interior Minister has already said that he wants to extradite anyone overseas accused of Islamic blasphemy. In fact, the Pakistan government is asking internet providers to tell them the names of people posting such material, saying:

"Facebook and other service providers should share all information about the people behind this blasphemous content with us."

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper implied that one of those currently being investigated for Islamic blasphemy on social media was actually based in the USA, quoting the Interior Minister as saying “our embassy in Washington has also taken up the matter [with the US government]”.

The implications of this for Christians are far reaching. Christians accused under Pakistan’s so-called “blasphemy laws” face a mandatory death penalty if found guilty of offensive comments about Muhammad. Even if acquitted, they have to flee the country as Muslim vigilantes seek to kill them. Now, even if they flee to a free and democratic country such as the US , they could still face the Pakistani government trying to extradite them back to Pakistan.

Comments deemed blasphemous could potentially include any denial of the tenets of Islam. Followers of Christianity or and other non-Islamic religions are therefore in a very precarious position as merely affirming certain aspects of their own faith might be construed as blasphemy. It is all too likely that any criticism of Islamic theology, history or practice could also be taken by certain Muslims as not just offensive but also blasphemous.  

This also of course potentially impacts anyone who writes online about the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world. At the very least it is likely that internet companies such as Facebook and Twitter will set their IT systems to remove anything that constitutes Islamic blasphemy. This means material about persecution of Christians in the Islamic world could also be removed, despite having been published in the West. Even something on a church Facebook page could be removed.

The Pakistan government is also seeking to extradite and prosecute people overseas who post material online that they deem offensive to Islam. Of course, countries such as the UK or USA are very unlikely to allow one of their citizens to be extradited for something that is not a criminal offence in their own country. But if someone were to visit one of the other 26 Muslim-majority countries involved with this initiative, they could be arrested and accused of Islamic blasphemy for something they wrote in Australia, New Zealand, the UK or USA. It is even conceivable that it could happen to someone who wrote about persecution of Christians on their church website and then visited one of those countries on holiday.

This is not the first such attempt to create a global Islamic blasphemy law. Since 2005, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) has been sponsoring UN resolutions which attempt to make it a criminal offence to criticise Islam. However, what is particularly disturbing about the Pakistan government’s latest move is that internet companies are already taking action to enforce it.

Make no mistake, this is a serious attempt to introduce a global Islamic blasphemy law, and one that will not only increase the persecution of Christians but also make even reporting the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world much more difficult. It will inevitably lead to self-censorship. Internet companies such as Facebook need to realise that there is a huge problem of anti-Christian hatred and persecution in the world and that their actions in suppressing reporting of this are, for want of a better word, ”Christianophobia”.