Nurse Sakina Mehtab said she was stunned to see videos of her Muslim colleagues marching on hospital premises in Lahore, Pakistan last week, shouting Islamist slogans and accusing her of blasphemy.
She has since gone into hiding after receiving anonymous calls threatening to “maim and kill” her over the false allegation.
Mehtab had shared a video on WhatsApp of a Pakistani Muslim in Paris criticizing the response of Pakistani people and officials to a European Union Parliament resolution. Her Muslim colleagues mislabelled it as critical of Islam.
Source: Morning Star News
“There was no religious element in it, but a group of nurses spread lies that the video was anti-Islamic and accused me of blasphemy,” said Mehtab, due to retire from the Punjab Institute of Mental Health (PIMH) in Lahore in two years.
“My life has been put at serious risk with this false allegation, and I don’t know how I’ll be able to resume work at the hospital with the fear that someone might attack me from nowhere.”
Hours after she shared the video, a large group of Muslim nurses and paramedical staff, some armed with clubs and sticks, staged a protest rally. Witnesses said the protestors intimidated Christian workers in hospital wards and repeatedly tried to provoke them into fights. There are about 345 Christians in the 600-strong workforce.
The protestors then stormed into a hospital auditorium that Christian staff members and patients use for worship and prayer, desecrated Bibles and other property and asserted that there would be no more Christian prayer gatherings there, she said.
“The Christian workers showed great wisdom by controlling their emotions, otherwise the situation could have turned very violent,” another Christian nurse said.
She said the timely intervention of security agencies forced PIMH Executive Director Muhammad Ashraf to designate a one-person ‘committee’ to inquire into the conflict – but that the person chosen, Nursing Superintendent Khalida Sulehri, was biased.
“The committee was a farce because Sulehri herself was involved in the dangerous propaganda against Sakina and had encouraged the Muslim workers to take out the protest rally,” she said.
Ashraf told a delegation of Muslim and Christian representatives on Monday 3 May, that the issue had resulted from a “misunderstanding”. “Sakina and the other Christian nurses have apologised for sharing the controversial video, and that issue is sorted,” he claimed, declining to say what action might be taken against those who made the false allegations.
The European Parliament on 30 April adopted a resolution calling for a review of Pakistan’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences status, which provides preferential access to EU markets through reduced tariffs, in view of an “alarming” increase in blasphemy accusations in the country, as well as rising a number of attacks on journalists and civil society organisations.
The resolution also calls on the government to “unequivocally condemn” incitement to violence and discrimination against religious minorities in Pakistan.
Repealing or amending Pakistan’s blasphemy laws is unlikely due to fierce Islamist sentiments in the Muslim-majority country, rights advocates say.
Let us pray.
- Ask for the Lord’s leading and protection for Sakina as she comes to terms with the situation and considers her future.
- Pray the conduct and witness of Sakina and other local Christians may be powerfully used by the Lord as a witness for the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ.
- Pray the Pakistani authorities may seriously consider the flaws in the blasphemy laws and make reasonable changes.
O Lord God Almighty, we beg your mercy upon the nation of Pakistan so beleaguered by the forces of the evil one and his oppressive regime. Give freedom Lord through the faithful preaching and reception of your momentous news of Christ who came to destroy the works of the evil one. I ask for the your leading and protection for Sakina and other believers as they come to terms with the situation and considers their future and I pray the conduct and witness of Sakina and other local Christians may be powerfully used by you as a testimony to the eternal deliverance available in Jesus Christ. I pray that the Pakistani authorities may seriously consider the flaws in the blasphemy laws and make reasonable changes so that they govern justly and according to truth. Lord have mercy.
Lord you say we as christians will face suffering and persecution for our faith, and that is so true in countries where faith in you is hated, because of the religious beliefs or political ideology of a country. Lord every day your name and your Word is denigrated in a variety of disgusting ways, yet you do not call us to harm others, beat on others, torture others, and murder others for doing so. You call upon us to love our enemies. Cant say the same for the muslim faith. Because there are just too many stories of them seeking vengeance for when they believe someone has spoken against their religion or god. Have mercy on their souls Lord, though they so no mercy to christian believers. Please protect Sakina and other believers from any further attacks. May they be a witness of your gospel, so other muslims can see you are indeed the one and only True God Yeshua.
In your loving name we pray
Heavenly Father,
May our suffering church family remember, greater is the one who is in them than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Strengthen and protect your people as they endure suffering, Lord. Open the eyes of those in authority to the need for change in their laws, and change the hearts of those who are intent on evil, we pray.