The 2020s have been a torrid decade for much of the world.
There was the pandemic and lockdown, there have been wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land, meanwhile across every part of the world, Christians are being brutally persecuted for their faith.
Persecution is nothing new, the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel itself detail such things, but the persecutions of the 20th Century feel particularly demonic and at the same time, met with a particularly insidious apathy.
In Nicaragua, Bishop Alvarez languishes in a prison under orders from dictator Daniel Ortega. In China and North Korea, the true church exists underground, in a manner comparable in suffering to those in the catacombs of Rome.
There is also the white martyrdom that Christians in the West now face, of ostracisation, censorship and mockery.
Above all else though, the worst persecutions are happening to those Christians living in Islamic countries.
In Nigeria there is the violence that leads to thousands of deaths per year, in countries like Iraq the situation has been made unbearable by decades of war and in other countries, like Pakistan, the state facilitates harassment by allowing the implementation of absurd blasphemy laws.
We spoke to Faraz Pervaiz, the Christian who had to flee Pakistan for fear of his life after false charges against him. His story has yet to elicit sufficient sympathy to afford him a place of safety that will be secure enough for a lengthy period.
Catholic Arena: Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you end up in this situation? Were you always a Christian?
Faraz Pervaiz: I was born and raised in a Christian family in Pakistan.
It was in 2011 that I was framed, false charges were made against me and I was put behind bars.
Why did these problems start?
In 2011, Muslim men who were Jihadi sympathisers wanted an award to be presented to a man who was on the run from the UN. I faced two bad consequences for whichever I chose, I refused to present the award and the option then was to end up in prison for 6 months.
CA: That is a scary situation, one very alien to many in the West. What happened then?
FP: They orchestrated false charges against me. I legally fought and got bail after 6 months from higher courts in Pakistan. It was not easy to survive because of their beliefs and the pressure that I was under, but with faith, I continued to work and serve the Lord in Pakistan.
Despite clearing my name already, in 2013 I was again framed in a false case.
Once again, I spent 6 months in jail, this time the police officers threatened to kill me. They told me that I was working against Pakistan, that I was an enemy of the state.
These threats came from the government of Pakistan, which had adopted a very radical Islamic ideology. They threatened with charges of blasphemy, if we stayed anymore here in Pakistan we’d be killed in an extra judicial killing.
For anyone who follows Catholic Arena, the situation in Pakistan will not be unfamiliar.
According to Al Jazeera, a recent pogrom highlighted the fact that:
Although most convictions are thrown out on appeal by higher courts, vigilante mobs have lynched dozens of people even before a case is put on trial.
Those killed include members of religious minorities, prominent politicians, students, clerics and people with mental illnesses.
They have been burned to death, hanged by mobs, shot dead in courtrooms and hacked to death on the side of the road, among other forms of extrajudicial executions.
According to local media and researchers, at least 85 people have been murdered in relation to blasphemy allegations since 1990.
Judges hearing blasphemy cases have reported facing pressure to hand down convictions, regardless of the evidence, fearing physical violence if they don’t.
When anti-blasphemy violence breaks out, local police have been seen standing aside and allowing mobs to carry out their attacks – often out of fear that they might be branded as “blasphemers” themselves for not allowing lynchings.
Since 2011, when Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was shot dead by his bodyguard over a call for the blasphemy laws to be reformed, mainstream debate over the issue has been all but impossible.
Today, spurious blasphemy allegations are often levelled as a way to pressure opponents in disputes – including by top political leaders.
Taseer’s killer was lauded by many, and the murder was followed by the rise of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a far-right party with widespread support that calls for blasphemers to be beheaded.
The rise of the TLP has seen an increase in blasphemy cases filed on ideological grounds. The group has been outlawed, but government sources and residents said some of its members were involved in the violence this week. The TLP has denied the allegation.
As of 2023, there are at least 53 people in custody across Pakistan on blasphemy charges, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Christians – who form about 1.3 percent of Pakistan’s 250 million population – have been at particular risk, with neighbourhoods in the cities of Lahore, Gojra, Jaranwala and the capital Islamabad burned down or attacked following blasphemy allegations in recent years.
Convictions hinge on witness testimony and these are often linked to personal vendettas, activists say
In the videos above, you can see the violent reaction to false charges of blasphemy against Christians in August. These false blasphemy charges were created by Muslims who wrote down the address of Christians and then placed them in a Koran which had been desecrated and left in a public street for people to find.
The reaction of authorities?
Mumbai’s Chief of Police concocted a long winded conspiracy theory which alleged that India was behind it.
CA: You were faced with an impossible choice and the likelihood of persecution, what did you decide to do then?
FP: We had to leave Pakistan because it was unsafe, so we decided to flee to Thailand.
In order to get help, we presented evidence to the United Nations about what was happening to us, but they did not listen. On the 30th November 2016, the UN closed the file.
The following year, on November 14 2017, Pakistan issued the proclamation of blasphemy. They did this under criminal codes 295 A, B and C.
These codes read:
295A. Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
295B.Whoever wilfully defiles, damages or descrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.
295C. Use of derogatory remarks, spoken, written, directly or indirectly, etc. defiles the name of Muhammad or other Prophet(s). 1986
CA: Even from afar, we assume that these charges carry a heavy weight.
FP: Yes, they include the death penalty and life imprisonment, they fall under the category of anti terrorism. Anything where one is accused of speaking against Muhammad falls under terrorism. Even to be accused of a violation comes with such consequences, everything blasphemy related is a serious crime in Pakistan. Following the proclamation against me, the United Nations reopened the case in December 2017.
In 2018, I was attacked by a Muslim group because I spoke critically of Islam, I criticised the problem of terrorism and of their treatment of minorities, which we know has included false accusations of blasphemy, mob lynching even burning people alive.
When I supported Geert Wilders on social media, in Pakistan they led a protest against me and my family which led to pressure for the new Prime minister to have us executed. There was also a speech at this time by the Foreign Minister wherein he said that he had written to the UN about the case. Radical Islamic groups led these protests calling for my death, calling for me to be ‘terminated’. Our request for help from the United Nations was falling to deafening ears. In December, my first head bounty was placed, 10 million rupees. A Fatwah issued against me, to encourage Muslims to find me.
In 2019, my Twitter and Facebook accounts were terminated on request of the Pakistan government.
I lost my identity.
Pakistan had death sentence posters, not just on the streets, but even outside of the Government of Pakistan Office for interfaith harmony. The poster said that the punishment of blasphemy is to be beheaded, they claimed that I was agaisnt the prophet Muhammad. t
They told people that everyday I appeared with a new Youtube channel against the Muslims of the world. If any true Muslims kill for this, the Fatwah says they’ll get 10 million rupees that are to be paid in Islamabad. Another cleric then announced that he would give 20million. In Karachi, posters were put up announcing my bounty.
For Faraz, the nightmare was only beginning. Violence soon followed.
FP: In 2019, I was attacked by radical Muslim refugees in Thailand.
In 2019, a Muslim refugee woman disclosed my location so that others would come and kill me and my father.
400,000 US dollars is now the value of my head bounty.
CA: What about support, who has been able to help you?
No one.
Not one Christian organisation has stood with us. Most do not reply back.
Why do the United Nations not want to help us? I think that it is because we criticise Islam.
Even when I was attacked, they never extend any help for me and my family.
My location has been disclosed, I am in a bad situation. I am facing so many hurdles.
We recommend following Faraz on X, not just because of his own story, but also because of his high quality work to draw attention to persecuted Christians in Pakistan, India and elsewhere.
