They Cry in Silence Jul/Aug 2012
Eleven Christians in India barely escaped death recently after Muslims barged into a home where they were praying and tried to kill them. The mob grew larger and larger until the scene turned to chaos. Now the Christians are being barred from buying and selling.
“The Christians were running in all directions for their lives, including the children who were crying in fear, but the [adult] Christians were stopped at every corner by the radicals who thrashed, bashed, and verbally abused them,” said Pastor Bashir Pal, founder and pastor of the village’s Believer’s Church.
Initially, seven Muslims in Nutangram, Murshidabad district forced their way into the home of Gaffar Shaike on March 30 as 11 church members gathered for lunch and worship. They demanded the meeting be stopped and called the Christians pagans as they assaulted them. A year earlier, they had burned Shaike’s crops for his faith in Christ.
“I asked the radicals why they barged into my house and why they were not allowing us to pray in my own home,” Shaike said. But the Islamists were so blinded by fury they only continued their violence, threatening to do so until the Christians returned to Islam.
“We want freedom to worship Jesus in our home,” Shaike said.
Soon the mob swelled to about 100 Islamists who charged into the house, shouting anti-Christian slogans and threatening murder as they pummeled the Christians. When the Christians tried to flee, Muslims blocked their way. One Muslim beat a 65-year-old Christian widow. The wife of another Muslim was called in from the front porch to beat a Christian woman while someone else attacked Shaike’s wife, kicking her in the head and stomach and deeply cutting her hand.
Somehow the Christians made their way out and scattered, chased by a man brandishing a sickle in an attempt to murder them all. By then about 500 Muslims had gathered and were watching in amusement for about 90 minutes. “The Christians were cornered at one place, where they all stood petrified in fear, but somehow the almighty God saved them,” the pastor said.
“We pleaded with the radicals to let us go, and eventually they freed us while they were still shouting at us to leave Jesus or face more sufferings,” said one of the believers.
Area Christian leaders told a police officer who immediately sent police to the site. They took the 65-year-old widow to her home, assuring her they would take action against the assailants. But when they arrived, a furious mob of Islamic extremists was already there. Officers warned the Islamists not to disturb the Christians again, but Muslims continued to taunt and mock them and later told the woman they would kill her.
“Even though the radicals have beaten me many times and want to kill me, I will not leave Jesus,” she said. “I will worship Him as long as I live on this earth.”
The Islamists have since ostracized the Christians, prohibiting them to buy or sell in the area and keeping them from using the public bathroom and water well, he said. They have warned all shopkeepers not to sell to the Christians, and all are complying with the order. No arrests have been made.
by Compass Direct News
