ACLJ Demands Immediate International Action at the U.N. To Save Young Christians Sentenced To Hang for Their Faith in Pakistan

Pakistan has become a deadly ground for Christians as Islamic extremists target, abuse, and attack them, and Pakistan’s courts are sentencing innocent Christians to hang without evidence simply because of their faith. It is a human rights abomination. 

That is the urgent message that we just delivered directly before the United Nations through our European affiliate office, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ). Our Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan live in terror, knowing their lives could be violently taken at any moment simply for their faith in Jesus.

THEIR TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

It is time for the international community to take definitive action – right now – to save Pakistan’s dying Christians. The Muslim country has become untenable for innocent Christians – especially for young Christian women and girls.

As we said in our oral presentation before the full U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC):

Pakistan is ranked as the seventh worst country in the world for Christians due to persecution under blasphemy laws, mob attacks on Christian neighborhoods, assault and murder of innocent Christians, and kidnapping and forced religious conversions of young Christian girls by Muslims.

Angry mobs of Muslim extremists target and attack Christians in Pakistan. But what’s worse, under Pakistan’s cruel blasphemy laws, charges of blasphemy against Christians and other religious minorities often come with harsh consequences. Christians can be charged, tried, and convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan with little or even no evidence at all. Just the word of an angry extremist can often result in a death sentence for Christians. And while the world has demanded that Pakistan rewrite its barbaric rules, violent anti-Christian persecution has gotten worse. As we explained:

Instead of heeding the international community’s calls to repeal its blasphemy laws, Pakistan recently amended one section, increasing punishment from three years to life in prison for defaming the Prophet Muhammad’s friends or family. Of course, anyone who says anything that could be taken as defaming the Prophet Muhammad is punished by death.

We also appealed to the HRC to take action on behalf of three innocent Christians on death row in Pakistan RIGHT NOW, sentenced to hang for blasphemy:

To show the detrimental use of this law, we would like to remind the Council about Shahzad Masih, a 16-year-old Christian boy [at the time of the charge] who has been sentenced to death after spending five years in prison over a false blasphemy accusation. Absolutely no evidence was presented during trial that suggested Shahzad had blasphemed. Yet he remains in prison, facing death, awaiting his appeal at the High Court.

We also remind the Council of two Christian brothers, Qaiser and Amoon Ayub, who have also been sentenced to death over a false blasphemy accusation for simply having their names and address on a website that they did not create. Based on this information alone, the trial court sentenced them to death, and the High Court upheld their conviction. The Ayub brothers have spent nine years in prison and are now waiting for the Supreme Court to hear their appeal.

These INNOCENT CHRISTIANS WILL DIE if someone doesn’t take action to stop it now. We need maximum pressure put on Pakistan to free these Christians and change its deadly blasphemy laws. All people deserve to worship and pray as they choose without fear of violence or death.

We urged the international body to intervene, demanding that the government of Pakistan stop the abuse and killing of Christians, change its heavy-handed blasphemy laws, and comply with its international commitments under the human rights treaties.

Innocent Christians in Pakistan are running out of time. We must be their voice.