#pakistani media crying

[samueldays]

I intend for this to be my last britbong post for a while, so I don't become a one-note blog. I will get out my rant here and be done.

The posts, allegedly:

Prosecutor George Shelley said Dunn had posted three separate images. The first one showed a group of men, Asian in appearance, at Egremont crab fair 2025, with the caption: “Coming to a town near you.” The second also showed a group of men, Asian in appearance leaving a boat on to Whitehaven beach. This, said Mr Shelley, had the caption: “When it’s on your turf, then what?” A final image showed a group of men, again Asian in appearance, wielding knives in front of the Palace of Westminster. There was also a crying white child in a Union flag T-shirt. This was also captioned, said Mr Shelley, with the wording: “Coming to a town near you.”

I didn't find any source that provided the images themselves, so in light of the way British papers use "Asian" as a euphemism, I think it's likely this man was memeing about the PAKISTANI RAPE GANGS in Rotherham, Telford, and elsewhere who had RAPED THOUSANDS OF BRITISH GIRLS. The British prosecutors ought to spend more time on rape gangs, and an approximately negative amount of time on the men who are offended by the rape gangs and posting images about it. Give him a commendation for Raising Awareness.

Sentencing Thompson, Judge Temperley had said of the zero tolerance approach being taken by courts:  “This offence, I’m afraid, has to be viewed in the context of the current civil unrest up and down this country. And I’ve no doubt at all that your post is connected to that wider picture.

how about "context" and "wider picture" of rape gangs, shithead

“That has to be reflected in the sentence as does there need to be a deterrent element in the sentence that I impose, because this sort of behaviour has to stop. “It encourages others to behave in a similar way and ultimately it leads to the sorts of problems on the streets  that we’ve been seeing in so many places up and down this country. This offence is serious enough for custody.”

I think the rioters should impose a deterrent element on judges, because this sort of sentencing behavior has to stop.

Years ago I visited Britain and thought the poverty and dysfunction and low quality of things from restaurant tables and rental cars to internet connection and interior plumbing felt second-world compared to Norway. Britain had surprisingly rotted to become worse than Poland on several material counts. Now this is a nasty sociological mark against Britain, too.

Another bit of "context" I'll offer is that the British 2005, 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections were all won by parties (Conservative or Labour) who promised reduced immigration, and the Brits got increased immigration anyway. Massively increased.

If you take all the "democracy" and "representative government" and "will of The People" shit seriously, then The People of Britain are entitled to reduced immigration - it is their right for there to be fewer "Asians" in the country, as was promised to them, as they voted for. Having tried to get this at the ballot box five elections in a row, democratic governance has failed. The government has been denying the people their right. Judges should be issuing deportation orders for immigrants, not jailing nativists. I stress here that I am not a democrat myself, I do not believe in democracy, I am pointing out an implication of democratic legitimacy theory that rioters are the rightful democratic-revolutionary element of the people which is entitled to remove the government by force and install a more compliant one to restore the rights of the people and deport a million immigrants.

(They'll lose and not get that, I expect. Democratic legitimacy is gradually being superseded by Antihitlerian legitimacy, and peasant revolts need a powerful backer to have a chance, whether a defecting internal noble or external foreign supporter. Maybe Elon Musk would like a country. King Musk I of Britain...)

[septembersghost]

It was a last-minute impulse purchase. Two hours before showtime, I watched resale prices finally begin to fall for the extremely sold-out opening night of Taylor Swift's six-night "residency" at Los Angeles' SoFi stadium. Even as a non-Swiftie, it has been impossible not to follow the feverish local coverage of international pilgrimages, friendship bracelet-making, and traffic warnings. But that split-second pop culture purchase was, for me, pure irrationalism.

With no fringe or Eras-themed ensembles in my closet, I rushed to my single seat through a sea of sequined, screaming squads with trepidation and a dull white button-down. Would I, a fortysomething South Asian man with passing knowledge of Swfitism be identified as an unwelcome interloper? Instead, my very gracious neighbor schooled me on how to wear my allotted LED bracelet, and soon I was alight in the same neon pink as the sea of humanity around us, Swift finally emerging out of parallel technicolor hues. The big tent revival swept away any fears, differences, doubts.

For three and a half hours, I too was part of the zeitgeist – a final chapter in a summer of spectacular pop culture revival led by three women at the peak of their powers.

Greta Gerwig, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and Taylor Swift have been the bona fide superstars of this American summer, transcending their own previous triumphs to reach unprecedented new heights.

#HotGirlSummer is now more specifically #BillionGirlSummer, with Barbie already the first woman-directed film to gross more than a billion dollars and Beyoncé and Swift's dual stadium tours estimated to gross similarly dizzying amounts, each pumping even more into fledgling local economies around the country.

In a city without a center and isolating car culture, for one week Taylor Swift transformed LA's stadium into a cathedral – an in-person congregation for hundreds of thousands. Soon Beyoncé will bring her roving "Renaissance" to the same stadium for three nights. Across Los Angeles, cinemas are still packed with squads of women and let's not deny it, many men – dressed in 50 shades of pink laughing and crying alongside Barbie's quest to become whole again.

[...]

It's been impossible to avoid the incessant social media coverage of this trinity of pink extravaganzas. Even my Pakistani immigrant father is texting me about how to join the Verified fans waitlist for Taylor's next dates. Despite the exorbitant prices for concert tickets, travel and even local movie theater outings – not to mention endless product tie-ins for all manner of merchandise — is this feverish demand simply consumer madness? Is it the cumulative decline of seriousness and taste that pretentious critics lament?

The answer is a resounding no. The hype surrounding Barbie, Beyoncé's Renaissance, and Taylor's Eras tour is commensurate with the sheer amount of resources, time and attention so many Americans of all races, genders and ages are devoting to being part of this moment. Critical acclaim has followed each of these works, layers of meaning are being made. They are an undeniable triumph of women's creativity and ownership. Nobody I know of is asking for refunds.

At a deeper level, the roaring return of big tent monoculture follows the ennui of lockdowns. It is pop at its collective and connective best – the very opposite of the culture that has defined the recent past – a splintered, atomized state of streaming individualism that seemed to be a permanent new state of affairs. The promise of streaming allowed for a kind of hyper-specificity that ensured incessant algorithm based devotion to the platform of delivery. Insularity, it turns out, has its limits. With at-home viewing no longer the only medium for entertainment, I'm certainly not alone in craving the very opposite.

[...] In the communal ecstasy of sold-out Barbie screenings and stadium séance of Beyhives and Swifties – the mood is strategic and intentional inclusion.

What Gerwig, Swift and Carter-Knowles have created in each of their new masterworks are gated dreamworlds. Swift in her moss-covered cottage of Americana folklore turns stadiums into fireside chats for any romantic, Beyoncé's House of Chrome is a black queer club as a spaceship of alien superstars soaring above the fray – and Barbieland is a pastry inversion of the real-world's patriarchy.

There are serious political undercurrents to all this, but the mood at the experiential level is buoyant, escapist and even comedic. Hovering on the distant horizon are Presidential elections and reminders of climate catastrophe but here is a ticketed invitation to get dressed, join the festivities and for the duration, release the wiggle, to quote the "Renaissance."

The closing note of each of these spectacles is a kind of transfer of energy, exuberance and American optimism that has been absent from public and cultural life for years.

Winter is of course coming. But in the interim, there has been a remarkable sense of sunshine this summer. Even those not in attendance have felt the afterglow of the women at its center. Not a cruel, but a communal, collective, and yes, glorious summer.

[madarinj]

Pakistani media is crying over Bhikari Qawali | ye qawali nahe reality h...

[ladlesnsoup]

I agree with both of these simultaneously. It is extremely unfortunate that achilleans are less represented than sapphics in children's media. But you can be like oh I kinda wish this show had more achillean rep in it without brining down saphics. That's just unnecessary infighting. It's also very possible that the team wanted to add more achillean representation to TOH but didn't get the chance to bc the show got cancelled.

Since the previous person mentioned how many shows don't have main characters that are achillean i thought i would provide some kid/teen shows with prominent achillean representation. They are few but I did enjoy all of these. I'll also be mentioning some other types of representation in these shows but they'll be primarily achillean.

Heartstopper

This is a pretty popular one but in case you haven't heard the main characters Nick and Charlie go to school together and are boyfriends. They're also friends with a lesbain couple (Tara, who's black, and Darcy) along with a het couple (Elle, who's a black trans girl, and Tao, who's Chinese)

Dead End: Paranormal Park

Two teenagers (Barney and Norma) work together to fight demons with Barney's talking dog in a haunted theme park. It's a sort of horror comedy queer scooby doo type thing. Barney is a gay transmasc jew and Norma is an autistic bisexual Pakistani-American girl. Barney gets into a relationship with another character which is an important part of the show.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

A sheltered girl called Kipo is sent to the surface of a post-apocalyptic fantasy world alone. She meets a character named Benson and they become friends. Benson is a black gay boy who outright comes out in the first season. He gets a boyfriend later on in the show but it is not the biggest part of the show.

The Hollow

3 kids have to work together to find a way home after waking up in a mystical realm. One of the main characters is a latino teen called Adam. He is revealed to be gay in the 2nd season of the show.

Andi Mack

Andi finds out her mom is actually her grandma and her sister is actually her mom and has high school drama and whatnot. One of her best friends, Cyrus, is Jewish and comes our as gay in season two. He also gets a boyfriend who teaches him how to somersault. I think he might've been Disney Channel's first gay male character and the first Disney character to say gay?

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

Exactly what it sounds like lol. Characters Seb and Carlos are a gay couple that's imo the most important couple on the show. As well as being an interracial couple, they show how different people can express their sexuality and they are also just a sweet couple.

Honorable mention to Pinky Malinky, Pinky's best friend JJ Jameson has three dads and tho they aren't main characters it made me cry bc I've never seen mlm polyams represented like that <3

Luckily I haven’t seen this complaint in a WHILE, but all those random haters that claim that The Owl House has “too many sapphics” and “not enough achilleans” can shut up now, as if Gilbert and Harvey (Willow’s dads) don’t exist and didn’t kiss on screen, or as if Darius doesn’t canonically have a crush on Alador, or as if Hunter isn’t implied to be bisexual 🙄🙄

[knowledgepronto]

Pakistan Squad Announced For Australia Tour 2019 | ALL OUT | Metro1 News 26 Oct 19 Pakistan Squad Announced For Australia Tour 2019 | ALL OUT | Metro1 News 26 Oct 19

[gentil-minou]

Every week I sit here and cry because the story Ms Marvel is telling is a story i never thought would ever be told and to be honest i didnt think anyone would even care because form the start, always, every message i got growing up was that we were wrong and invalid and not important.

i had that told to me again and again and again like it meant nothing, like my story, my family's story, my culture's story, like it meant nothing. and i believed it.

i grew up watching people cast us aside and call us terroists and tell us we dont belong her and make us feel other, make us feel like we should leave

and god you know i didnt realize it until this moment but islamophobia in america is just one more page in the story of generations worth of trauma, and it hits again and again. that feeling that to be pakistani, to be an immigrant living in america, to be a brown girl in jersey city, to be all 3, it was about never feeling like we belonged.

because for the longest time it didnt feel like we did. because constantly we were told we didn't.

this is the first time i can ever feel like i truly do belong. like i dont have to hide one part of me. like i can be proud of who i am and where i came from. like i can be me, because finally i can see that people DO care about my story. because i can see people who want to listen.

i spent my entire life being excited for any sort of representation in media, but i spent those years think it would never be something i'd ever see for myself. i never even entertained the idea because it was so impossible to me, because im a pakistani immigrant from jersey city, and who tells stories about us?

but finally, finally, finally, it's my story. and it's being told, and it's being heard.

[ramayantika]

Pakistani extremists now attacking Hindus in UK??! Wtf do these guys want? Why even after so many centuries, they are so hell bent on torturing and converting Hindus. In a country like UK they were shouting to kill Hindus and impregnate women. How come is this happening in UK?

I have a friend who is going there for her medical college and I am terrified if she gets stuck in something like that in the near future. She is going to be all alone there. Is any country for Hindus safe anymore?

What have we done to you all?

So called media keeps quiet and says this is all islamophobic news. Be tolerant be secular. Secular?

Yes, when they kill my people, rape women and murder children, I will be called secular.

Aise hi Pakistan mein log pareshan hai due to the floods, countries are sending help and donations to Pakistan and this is what we get?

Kis chiz ka khaunf hai bhai inko ki they scream and cry about being minorities? Din dahade sirr kaat dete ho, ladki ne mana kar diya rishte se toh jala daal dete ho, zabardasti ka convert karna ya nahi mana toh sidha maar dena

Konsi jannat ke khwab dekh rahe ho?

[iamshehrazad]

Every single episode of Ms Marvel genuinely makes me cry because of how it honors my own and my community’s Pakistani culture and heritage. I have no words to describe this feeling, but I have never felt more seen in media before

[chajonas]

Now I see why representation matters. I may not be a brown pakistani living in america, but as a Muslim, southeast asian living her whole life in Southeast Asia whose hobby is FANGIRLING, Kamala Khan has my whole heart ❤️❤️❤️ and watching Ms Marvel in a mainstream media just made me sooooo happy and that mosque and Eid scenes made me wanna cry 🥺🥺🥺

[lovlettres-moved]

anyone who understands urdu/hindi should watch farrar (1997) -- i know i mostly liked it because of it being so close to home but i miss old pakistani dramas and this one was a short nice watch -- about three friends and their lives revolving before/after/during being in love (but it's also more which you need a lot of social context for -- especially in comparison with modern dramas and their too easily digestible characters and their hefty focus on religion and masculinity, and their need to categorize femininity into the good and bad girl ...typing this all out is making me shake and cry and weep, media is so awful here, we barely have indie stuff either </3)

[ouyangzizhensdad]

coz sometimes tropes in the west are alot different, im not chinese so cant talk abt them and i was the one talked abt the rain scene in word of honor butm ive seen ppl take very bollywood tropes and talk abt them as if the tropes are anti women when theyre abt women breaking shackles and finding themselves in the content. so yes i hate it when white ppl talk abt cultural significance of a few things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHnSr82qQ34&ab_channel=ShemarooFilmiGaane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFhTcCPQwQc&ab_channel=kuldeepkumar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwaiIGoyT4&ab_channel=T-Series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC1iJcYOyeY&ab_channel=T-Series

these are the typical trope of the man losing hope in love in all bollywood movies, its not only limited to bollywood its a cultural trope coz its thought in sub continent that women love deeper and are willing to risk life and limb for the said love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZIUT1n0abw&ab_channel=Stringsonline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2YKAcR1RbY&ab_channel=nooriworld

(an example from pakistani rock bands) the issue is that tht we get this bit in the movie it makes all the men and women emotional coz of the lyrics but for most westerners it goes over their head. they dont get the emotional significance or the history of the moment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsJcMX5_f0Y&ab_channel=moingude just like anyone who understands this song knows its about a woman commiting to a relationship against all odds and its a sad song and not a hyped song at all... the woman is talking abt talking poison if her lover asks her to die. or being like heer or sassi

so yes i understand fans being defensive of their fav from chubby racist fingers of west, who judge while consuming the media, coz theyre better than dirty chinese or pakis

Anon, I understand that we disagree on this, and clearly my answers to your past asks did not satisfy you, but do you really think that someone saying that the specific treatment of a scene in a specific tv show through a trope (crying in the rain) can be clichéed and miss the mark at bringing out the emotions in a viewer = wagging one's racist finger because "they are better than dirty chinese or pakis"? Is analysing the writing and film-making techniques being mobilised (or not mobilised) really so sweepingly judgemental? Should I just uncritically consume everything that is produced in China or in Asia as if every single one of them demonstrated the same mastery of film-making techniques or writing?

Again, I feel like we're talking in circles in this situation, but while I totally agree with you that not being from a particular cultural background may in certain situations make us miss the emotional 'trigger' of a scene or lack the full context to understand it, I don't think it must mean that this is the only explanation why a westerner watching a specific version of a trope in a specific c-drama may find themselves unmoved by it.

[crimesandcuriosities]

“I wanted 100 mothers to cry for their children.”

Javed Iqbal was a Pakistani serial rapist and murderer who was found guilty of killing 100 boys, aged between 6 and 16.

In 1999, Iqbal sent letters to the police and media located in Lahore, Pakistan, in which he confessed to the horrific crimes and provided details about his methodology. He claimed to have lured in orphans and runaways off the streets, before raping and strangling them to death. Afterwards, the bodies were dismembered and dissolved in hydrochloric acid, and their remains were then poured into a nearby river or down sewage drains.

Upon investigating Javed Iqbal’s home, police identified incriminating evidence which confirmed the details given in the confession letter. They found photographs of the victims, vats of acid containing human remains, piles of children’s clothes, and also the chain used to strangle the young boys. With these findings, authorities launched a widely publicised manhunt to track down the confessed perpetrator.

Despite avoiding arrest for a short time, Iqbal physically turned himself in at a newspaper office and was initially questioned by a journalist before police arrived. When speaking of his crimes, Iqbal stated: ''I could have killed 500, this was not a problem... But the pledge I had taken was of 100 children, and I never wanted to violate this.”

For his heinous crimes, Iqbal received an equally severe punishment in coherence with Sharia Law. The judge presiding over the case stated: “Javed Iqbal has been found guilty of 100 murders. The sentence is that he should be strangled 100 times… His body should be cut into 100 pieces and put in acid, as he did with his victims.”

Pakistan's interior minister at the time, Moinuddin Haider, criticised the sentencing and emphasised that such punishments were not permissible according to Pakistani law. However, any debate became pointless, as Javed Iqbal was ultimately able to elude the death penalty by taking his own life. He was found hanged in his prison cell in October 2001, aged 45.

[pinkstarbelle]

People are being murdered

And you expect us to be indifferent to all that’s happened?

In 2001, 2 hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Centre,

One into the Pentagon

And another into a field in Pennsylvania

Killing nearly 3000 Americans,

Consequently, having the most significant impact

On Modern American history.

In retaliation, launched a global war on terror

That led to the one of the biggest sanctioned massacres of over 500,000 innocent Iraqi, Afghani, Pakistani civilians.

You expect

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and after a shockingly delayed response

Prompted nearly 1,500 deaths

A huge portion of which were Black people

Who, in the aftermath, were inhumanely labelled as looters and instigators of violence

Rather than desperate survivors looking for supplies.

You expect

From 2011, the Syrian War, said to be the second deadliest of the 21st Century

Has displaced and torn apart the country’s mostly Muslim population

Leaving in its wake around 6 million refugees.

People who have escaped bloodshed and violence,

Left their homes,

Are in need of medicine, food, water

And yet,

Some still refuse to help them.

You expect

In mid 2019, the American government

Detained and incarcerated migrants,

Fleeing from abuse, gang violence and poverty.

Minors were taken from their parents

And crammed into overcrowded detention centres,

Forced to sleep on concrete floors, with no access to sanitation.

Children have died due to outbreaks of disease

And people are barely treated with an ounce of humanity.

You actually expect

Under the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act

Young Muslim girls put themselves between a fellow student and baton wielding police in order to protect him

From violence because he protested religious discrimination.

You expect

A network of internment camps in China

Currently holds at least a million Uighur Muslims

And a genocidal authority

Is forcing them to stop practising their beliefs

And are ‘re-educating’ them.

You expect

The state of Kashmir is on its 10th month of Lockdown,

A communications and media blackout

Holds Kashmiri’s captive.

You expect

In Hong Kong protesters shout out their names and yell that they are not suicidal

When taken by the police

Because they are afraid that if their families do not hear from them again

At least their murder does not get covered up.

You expect

A global pandemic

Has killed 300,000 people

And you see on the TV that some countries don’t have any choice

But to put bodies in mass graves

Or dump them in the street.

You expect

A black man begs for breath

A knee on his neck,

He begs.

And in cold blood,

Gets brutally and viciously, murdered.

There are innocent black people, black elders, and even black children,

And for no other reason except hate

They are being killed

Right in front of us

And you fucking expect

Children on streets.

Women being assaulted.

LGBT folk being wronged.

People of colour being murdered.

And you fucking expect me to behave as if nothing's happened?

That nothing's wrong?

To be indifferent to hate and violence?

When in reality,

Each thing I hear

Every day, is tearing my soul apart!

How would history judge us

If we don’t demand accountability?

And how dare you expect me to be unaffected when it makes me scream

with frustration,

with terror,

and rage.

How dare you expect me to have no fucking compassion for those who suffer

When I suffer with them everyday.

We feel your pain,

We hear your screams,

We see your rage.

There is too much injustice that you face

But you are not alone.

We cry with you,

We mourn with you,

We stand with you

And we will fight for you.

And we will protect you.

And we will not stay silent.

[jezzacorbyn]

Hey dude, sorry to bother you about this but there has been one thing my dad has been sorta driving me crazy with and it’s the fact that he seems pleased with Starmer being labour leader. Like me he would have preferred Corbyn but I’m having a hard time explaining to him why I’m distrustful of Keir. You wouldn’t know and sources I can use to find some of the shady shit he’s been doing?

uhh i don’t know if i’d call him shady, i just don’t think he would be a very effective prime minister in terms of forwarding socialism and actually making people’s lives better. there are a few worrying things though. 

a big problem i have is that jess phillips is in the shadow cabinet. she’s made derogatory comments about the british pakistani-bangladeshi community, she lied about telling diane abbott to fuck off for no apparent reason, and is known for being a massive TERF. she’s currently shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, and i have no doubt policy created under her would be directed at protecting white cis women only. starmer had no reason to offer her a cabinet position, the leadership election made it clear she wasn’t liked in the party. 

another problem i have is that, while we were going through the peak of the coronavirus first wave, all labour was pressing the government on was the exit strategy. at this point we had massive problems with PPE and lockdown advice was unclear. talking about exiting the lockdown while 1k people are dying A DAY is just stupid and pushes the wrong agenda. it seemed to me starmer’s labour party cared more about business than working-class lives, and there’s already a party for that. throughout this crisis, despite the media crying that he’s been FoReNsIc, he’s been lax in actually holding the government to account, going so far as to say he’s not “opposing for opposition’s sake”.... that’s literally the point of the opposition. you are there for scrutiny and to hold the government to account, not to be best mates. 

there’s also a problem concerning the leaked party report. that report showed that the internal bureaucracy intentionally buried antisemitism investigations in order to make corbyn look bad, and in all probability made us lose the 2017 election. starmer buried the report, and, as far as i’m aware (correct me if i’m wrong), went after the people that leaked. his emphasis on “unity” is ridiculous when more and more left-wing people are being pushed out of party positions. 

from the looks of it, he’s also cosy-ing up to the press. he wrote an article in the daily mail, and most newspapers/media outlets have been positive towards him. my opinion is if billionaires are praising you then you’re doing something wrong. he’s just far too centrist and is ideologically compatible with the lib dems, in my opinion. i did not join the labour party to support lib dem-style policies. 

[creepingsharia]

“Clean Our Toilets and Take Our Germs to Your Church!” Muslim Persecution of Christians, March 2020

by Raymond Ibrahim

The following are some of the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of March, 2020, thematically arranged:

The Kidnap, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christians

Pakistan: A group of motorcycle-riding Muslim men kidnapped and gang raped two 12-year-old Christian boys.  The children were playing video games at a local arcade when a gang of Muslims approached and lured them to check out and eventually sit on their motorcycles.  Once the boys were atop the vehicles, the men rode off to a remote field where “the young boys were beaten till they submitted to the demands of the Muslim men, at which point the 12 year olds were raped,” notes the March 23 report:

After the ordeal Suneel and Harry [the two boys] were threatened not to say anything by the gang as they rode off … leaving the boys behind naked.  Suneel and Harry then tearfully and in pain got dressed and walked for 3 hours till home.  Suneel managed to stagger home at 3:30 am early the following morning and was received by his father Naeem (40 yrs) who had not slept all night. Naeem and other family members were praying for Suneel and were shocked when they found him crying and trembling with fear.

Last reported and according to his mother:

Suneel is not eating properly.  He cries all the time and has said he does not want to go to a local school.  Other boys have been teasing him and it has created a dark sorrow within him.  We cannot take him to church as they are all closed [due to COVID-19] and he is slowly entering a deep depression.

Separately, on March 1, two Muslim men abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forcibly converted her to embrace Islam, and married her off to a Muslim.  Saima Javid was kidnapped while fetching water from a pump near her home.  “I was deeply depressed and thought of committing suicide when I lost my daughter,” her mother said while discussing this incident.  “Young Christian girls are not safe in this country. Muslims consider them as their property or slaves and therefore humiliate them as they wish.”  After confirming that “our daughters are often sexually harassed by influential Muslims,” the girl’s father added that “The police did not listen to us for five days.  However, when news of the abduction went viral on social media, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR # 137/20) against the abductors on March 5.”  As a result, on March 26, the 13-year-old Christian girl appeared in court where she “testified that she had been abducted and was forced to convert to Islam and forced to marry [a Muslim man].” The judge ordered her returned to her family.  “This order marks a rare victory for Pakistani Christians affected by the issue of abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage,” the report correctly observes.

Nigeria: On March 12, the Hausa Christian Foundation of Nigeria announced that a young girl named Sadiya Amos had managed to escape from her Muslim kidnappers.  The girl was originally abducted in early January; she was subsequently forcibly converted to Islam and married off to one of her kidnappers.  Sadiya was thereafter kept in a small room under guard.   One day, the guards fell asleep without locking her room.  She managed to sneak out and flee back to her family’s home—only to find her father experiencing his own problems for trying to rescue her: a Sharia court was accusing him of trying to prevent his daughter from embracing Islam—and had even produced a forged certificate to that effect—in an effort to assist her abductors.  The statement adds that,

The case of abducting Christian Girls and their forceful conversion to Islam as well as forcing them into marriage has become a water shed issue in Northern Nigeria….  The moment these girls are abducted, they are subjected to all manners of evil just to take control of their minds. Once they took hold of their minds, these girls will only do everything they are asked to do. While the parents fight for the release of their daughters, these abductors continue to sexually abuse these girls, hypnotized [subliminally influencing?] their food, drinks, clothes, where they sleep, perpetually evoke evil spirit upon them to the point that these girls completely lost their minds and never think of going back to their home. Usually, the moment a Christian girl is abducted they ensure that they get married to her within one or two weeks. She will be sexually abused even before the marriage to make the parents give up on her when she becomes pregnant.

Egypt:  An unknown woman posing as a Coptic nun, along with an unknown man posing as her monk assistant, were exposed as frauds who were using their religious garb to target and lure young and trusting Christian girls.  The issue was apparently serious enough for the Coptic pope himself to make a statement disavowing the two charlatans.  On social media, the “nun,” known only as Theodora, had a photo shopped picture of herself with the pope.  It is unclear what the exact scam was—whether it was for later extortion or identifying potential kidnapping victims.  Elaborate schemes to target Christian girls in Egypt are not uncommon.

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: According to a March 8 report titled, “Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians,”

Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central [Muhammadu Buhari-led] government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the “Highway Bandits” 150-200.

According to numerous Christian leaders in Nigeria, the reason formerly simple Fulani herdsmen have managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the “professional” terrorists of Boku Haram is because one of their fellow tribesmen, the president of the nation, Muhammadu Buhari, is enabling their jihad.

Kenya:  On March 11, Muslims connected with the Islamic terror group, Al Shabaab (“the Youth”) killed two more Christians and abducted a third in yet another roadside ambush.  In the first instance, a passenger bus was stopped and stormed by the terrorists, who proceeded to order all the passengers out. “They abducted the only Christian on the bus, the mechanic, and allowed the others to continue with their journey,” a police officer reported. The second attack occurred an hour later in the same region.  Two medical transporters—both Christians—delivering much needed medicine to Mandera, which has suffered much from ongoing Al Shabaab violence, were stopped in their truck; they were “killed by shooting and their bodies dumped on the roadside,” an official confirmed.  In the previous three months, at least 13 other Christians were killed under nearly identical circumstances in Kenya—yanked out of ambushed vehicles and slaughtered on being identified as Christian.

Pakistan: More details concerning the February 28 torture and murder of Saleem Masih, a Christian farm laborer who dared use water from the same well used by Muslims emerged in a March 3 report: When his tormentors first gathered around and starting beating and kicking him, “they called him chura (filthy Christian cleaner), while making him lick their boots telling him kaffir (non-Muslim) dogs deserve such treatment.”  They then dragged him by the hair and chained him in a barn where the torture began in earnest: they “rolled a thick iron rod across the whole of Saleem’s body which by now had many fractures and internal injuries.  Saleem was tortured and spat at for at least 4 hours until he went unconscious.” The report concludes by quoting Juliet Chowdhry, a Pakistani human rights activist in the UK:

A senseless violent attack has ended the life of a young Christian man, left a mother and father heart-broken and community beleaguered. The men who undertook the attack are so blinded by hate they are showing no evidence of remorse. Overcoming such hate will take a miracle as it is ingrained into every aspect of culture and society in Pakistan and is reinforced via a biased national curriculum.  It will take decades to remove such entrenched intolerance and I fear I will not see it in my lifetime…. Nations such as the UK naively continue to send foreign aid to Pakistan despite the existing social malaise – this naive attitude contributes to Pak-Government apathy and perpetuates the status quo.

The Jihad on Churches

Norway: A Muslim migrant set fire to two churches.  According to the March 21 report, the man, aged 28, from a Middle Eastern or African nation, torched the churches in “revenge” for some unclear but supposedly “blasphemous” treatment of the Koran at the hands of a Norwegian.  He was imprisoned for four weeks, which the court said was “not disproportionate,” as “it is a serious crime.”

United Kingdom: A 23-year-old man who was initially only described as a “Norwegian”—but who was later revealed as a Muslim born to Somali refugees—was arrested for plotting to bomb St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. “Based on the material we seized and reviewed, we believe that he may be suspected of having participated in the terror organization Islamic State,” police added. He is also accused of managing to destroy evidence in a still-in-progress terrorism case in Denmark.  According to the March 23 report, his co-conspirator and fellow arrestee, Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a British woman born as Michelle Ramsden who converted to Islam in 2007, admitted to the planned terror attack: “the goal was to kill as many people as possible in a suicide bomb attack on St. Paul.” Earlier, in an encrypted chat with an undercover police officer, Safiyya had said that she would “rather die young and get to Jannah (paradise) the quickest way possible…  I always know I wanted to do something big… killing one kafir (infidel) is not enough for me.”  She had further expressed a desire to target a church on a Christmas or Easter day, when they would be packed, to kill more people.

Sudan: Unknown militants burned down two churches in the Muslim majority nation.  According to a March 18 report from Dabanga, an independent Sudanese news outlet,

[V]iolence against Christian communities has continued, despite the changes that have occurred in Sudan over the last year…  [T]he first attack took place … in Omdurman on Saturday February 29. A church building of the Sudanese Church of Christ was torched. It is not known who the perpetrators are.  The second incident occurred on March 9, when militants set fire to the Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Bout, El Tadamon local in Blue Nile state. The church was destroyed completely, including the furniture and books within it.

Counting these latest, five churches have been torched in Sudan since the start of 2020.

Indonesia: Around mid-March, authorities closed down another church in response to ongoing protests by the Islamic Defenders Alliance, a Muslim advocacy group—even though the building had been used as a church between 2017 and 2020.  Initially, local Muslims had complained that it had a visible cross, which the congregation quickly removed.  However, that was not enough, and the Islamic Defenders Alliance issued a statement saying, “We, from the alliance, demand that the church be demolished as soon as possible.”  Since Muslims first began protesting the existence of the church, its pastor has tried to find a new place to build a new church, but has been unsuccessful, as local residents reject having a church near them.  “Many Christians across Indonesia face religious persecution that is embedded in the culture and legal system,” said another March report:  “Christianity, both Protestants and Catholics, make up 10% of the population. That’s close to 26 million people that are being affected by this discrimination.”

Pakistan:  A Muslim man beat “to near death” his Christian servant for threatening to quit unless permitted to attend church. Shaan Masih, 21, had never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and be a household servant to the wealthy and influential Muslim but was pressured into it after his father died.  Shaan “was working from 7am to 7pm every day and suffered a lot of bullying at work, was pushed and beaten,” the report explains.  “He was constantly called a Chura (dirty Christian cleaner) and soon cleaning toilets became a regular part of his work despite his protestations” that his original contract stipulated that he would not clean toilets. Only he, the report adds, “was required to clean the toilets and none of the Muslim servants,” who “were also treated with more respect.”  On March 13, after Shaan asked his employer’s wife if he could leave a little early so he could attend evening mass at church, she exclaimed, “You Chura are always going to those dirty churches and bringing your germs into our home! Before you go, clean our toilets and take our germs to your church so that they can suffer instead.”  Shaan refused: “Being before God is a sacred thing and I want to be comfortable with God and would not feel good, if I clean your toilets before I go.”  When she threatened to fire him, he said he quit and went straight to church; when he returned home, his Muslim boss called and asked him to come and collect his things and get paid.   Shaan “was really pleased about this as he had waited so long for the payment and was beginning to feel pressure from a large number of growing debts.”  According to the report, when he arrived,

Kashif [the boss] and other servants were waiting for Shaan with a hot iron rod and leather belt.  Shaan was resoundly [sic] beaten, spat at and tortured for at least 20 minutes by the family members of Kashif and his servants…  While he was beaten Kashif berated Shaan for leaving his place of work without express permission from him: ‘You are a Chura and should not leave a Muslim masters premises until told to. Your nerve to stand up to Muslims is a blasphemy and I will kill you for this!’ Kashif ran inside his home to grab a gun and shoot Shaan who was by now terrified and in fear for his life.

A servant helped Shaan to escape during the commotion; he “sped towards his home bleeding along the route.”  When a relative opened the door, “he collapsed on the floor” and his mother “began screaming in a panic….  Shaan fell unconscious for several hours from the pain of his injuries.” “The attitude of both the police and medical staff was really disappointing,” Shaan later said in an interview, regarding how both had ignored his pleas for justice and help.  “Despite severe burns on my body and immense pain, they treated me like an animal.”  According to his mother, “He used my son like a donkey, never paid him and then enacted such violence for no reason. I fear he can kill my son anytime he wants because of his influence and power.”

Turkey: The desecration of Christian cemeteries, many of which are attached to churches, is on the rise.  According to a March 14 report, 20 of 72 gravestones in the Ortaköy Christian Cemetery in Ankara were found destroyed.  “These attacks against cemeteries are making the Christian community across Turkey feel incredibly sad and desperate,” an Ankara-based pastor observed:  “Nobody can watch over the graves of their loved ones like a guard.”  In one instance, the desecraters broke a cross off a recently deceased women’s grave in a church cemetery; days earlier, her burial service was interrupted by cries of “Allahu Akbar!”  “My son lies here,” another Christian woman explained: “He died last year. He was 17-years-old. Children his age came here and destroyed his grave. What type of conscience can accept this?…  If my son were alive, he would not do such a thing. They have carried out similar attacks before, and no one was caught.”  An “environment of hate” for Christians is behind this upsurge, said one local journalist:

But this hateful environment did not emerge out of nowhere. The seeds of this hatred are spread, beginning at primary schools, through books printed by the Ministry of National Education portraying Christians as enemies and traitors. The indoctrination continues through newspapers and television channels in line with state policies. And of course, the sermons at mosques and talk at coffee houses further stir up this hatred.

Pakistan: A March 1 report offered more details on the February 2 shooting and axe attack on Christians for daring to build a church on their land.  According to the wife of Azeem Masih (32), who was shot in the head and has lost the ability to speak and other functions:

We were all asleep at 11 pm, as Azeem is a tailor and had to work from early in the morning.   Suddenly we heard an evil-sounding cacophony of shouts.   Some of the local community including Azeem went out of the house to see what was happening – other[s] were dragged out by a local Muslim gang that had gathered around the Christian properties.  The men seemed intent to harm all the Christians; they were threatening to rape all the Christian women and beat and kill all other Christians.   I was shuddering with fear. I got on my knees and prayed and then heard gunshots. After this people could be heard running and screaming.   Someone told me Azeem had been shot, I ran to him and at first I thought he was dead.   I sat their weeping until the police arrived and took us to hospital.  I am heartbroken.   Azeem and I have only recently had a child and he has hardly got to know Tabeel.  Now I do not know if he will ever be able to speak to Tabeel again.  I am not used to seeing Azeem like this; he has become so dependent on others, whereas he was always the first to help them.  Azeem was a healthy and committed husband and father—a man of God who wanted to strengthen the church with a new building.   I cannot understand why these men have acted so violently, as they were not provoked by us—we have tried to live peaceful lives.

COVID-19 Discrimination in Pakistan

Christians and other “infidels” were discriminated against and denied the same aid given to Muslims in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a March 30 report:

A Karachi NGO has denied food aid to poor Hindus and Christians, who like Muslims are suffering from coronavirus….  The Saylani Welfare International Trust has been operating in the Korangi area since 1999, handing out aid and meals to homeless people and seasonal workers.  Two days ago, the welfare organisation refused to give ration cards to non-Muslims, saying that only Muslims are entitled to them.  The reason for this is that Zakat, Islamic alms giving (one of Islam’s five pillars), is reserved for Muslims. The Christian man said he begged for food to no avail.  Farooq Masih, a 54-year-old Christian in Korangi, said that last Saturday, Abid Qadri, a member of Saylani Welfare, with other NGO members, handed out food cards in his area. But, when they got to Christian homes, they just moved on.

“A few days back there was an announcement made through a mosque’s loud speaker in the Sher-Shah neighborhood of Lahore inviting citizens to collect the government’s announced foodstuffs,” a pastor explained concerning another similar incident. “When Christians reached the distribution point and presented their national identity cards, they were asked by staffers to get out of the line claiming the foodstuff was only for Muslim citizens.”   This same pastor received numerous phone calls from his flock, all of whom experienced the same denial. “Christians often face religious hatred and discrimination,” a Christian woman, aged 50, said of her experience. “However, we never thought of this biased behavior by the majority people at this critical time of COVID-19.”

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Previous Reports at link below.

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HEY IF YOURE LGBTQ+ AND BROWN THIS IS A PSA

There is a book called “how to cure a ghost” by Fariha Roisin. She is a queer Muslim Pakistani femme and this book is amazing. It’s her first collection of poetry and it is beautiful.

When I heard that she was queer and Pakistani, i immediately started crying. I am Filipino and Pakistani, so I struggle to see representation of my identity in media.

Before I was given this book, I kinda had a feeling like I was the only queer Pakistani, even though that is absurd because there is so much people in the world and I can’t be the only one. But I really couldn’t shake that feeling. Seeing this changed my life and it’s a damn good read so far.

A little bit of a trigger warning: so far in the book there are mentions of abuse and abortions. I can’t check the TWs rn, because I don’t have the book on me. Stay safe and I love y’all .