Published: Sun, 12/19/21
Image of the Nativity to be installed before Ilford High Road Baptist Church
We cannot thank our donors enough for their efforts in helping us get a nativity into Ilford in time for Christmas. This will be the first time in 3 years that the nativity will be displayed in our town centre and we also owe our grateful thanks to Pastor Andrew Willis and everyone at Ilford High Road, Baptist Church.
Across the globe even in countries where Christians are a minority celebrations for Christmas can be seen through discount sales, Christmas trees and festive lights. The celebrations have become more global in recent decades with even Pakistan having a Santa in trains and planes.
But this as Christians all know, is not the true message of Christmas and British Asian Christian Association, wanted the original message of hope and salvation to be given to the most vulnerable in our local community.
Up until this week when we shared a desperate appeal with all of you, we honestly thought our celebrations would be more mute then in previous years. However, many of you responded and we have been able to take off hold some of our Christmas projects.
Hannah Chowdhry provides a tour of our preparations – we assure you we put in hours of effort:
Video PlayerOne that we find particularly special is our work with the homeless and economically deprived people of Ilford. When we work with these often forgotten and isolated individuals, we are humbly reminded of God’s call to help the most vulnerable.
Image of Pakistan’s first, youngest and longest serving teenage blasphemy prisoner with BACA staff and advocate on 18th December outside Pattoki Court.
Nabeel Masih was only 16 when he was arrested in 2016 and imprisoned for an alleged blasphemy.
Image: Nabeel at 16 years of age months before his arrest and 4 year imprisonment for a falsely alleged blasphemy.
After three years in prison and many failed appeals while under the care of other Christian charities, Nabeel chose to seek help from British Asian Christian Association (click here).
BACA were able secure bail for Nabeel within a year allowing him freedom from his 4 year incarceration (click here)
Since then BACA have been fighting for his acquittal and were shocked when the courts refused his absence from proceedings despite the risk to his life (click here) In tandem we are seeking help from western nations with the hope of providing asylum for Nabeel in a country that is safe.
Image: Flanked by Advocate Naseeb Anjum Left and a BACA officer right, Nawab Bibi (72 yrs) attends court hoping and praying for her husbands freedom.
We wrote about the impending death sentence for Zafar Bhatti. This was being sought in Rawalpindi Sessions Court, by extremists intent on making the elderly Christian convict the first ever man lynched under the notorious blasphemy laws of Pakistan. Read more (here).
We have been working with our solicitor in a last gasp attempt to save him from a hanging. Zafar in October gave up with his former legal counsel and sought our assistance . Today BACA may have found a solution to the ongoing saga regarding the false blasphemy allegation that has stolen almost ten years of his life.
The father of a Christian man killed by Muslims for defiling the purity of water from a tube well they owned, has now been accused of kidnapping the son of one of the murderers named Haji Muhammad Razaq.
It is believed that the alleged kidnap is an attempt to thwart the current murder proceedings which MR Razaq is currently involved in.
Mr Masih now faces the ignominy of a trial for kidnap which he is completely innocent of, despite absolutely no evidence that he has been involved in a crime.
The defence council for the rapist of a 6 year old Christian child in Lahore, Pakistan failed to attend a court hearing on 2nd December 2021, for the sixth time.
During the hearing Judge Iftikhar Ahmed expressed great disappointment in the repeated failure for a defence council representative to attend court or to have a defence. He also confirmed that failure to attend and introduce a defence before the winter holidays will result in the appointment of a public prosecutor.
The next hearing has been scheduled for 16th December 2021 and should the defence council fail to attend a public prosecutor will be appointed to cross examine the defendant in the case.
Read full account (here)
A mob of infuriated Muslims lynched a Sri Lankan man named Priyantha Kumara, who was working at a factory in Sialkot.
Priyantha Kumara was working as a General Manager in Rajko Industries where sportswear and goods are manufactured and had been working there for over 7 years.
From the sound of his name Mr Kumara would seem to be a Hindu and like the existing Christian and Hindu Minority in Pakistan, he would have been suffering a lot of discrimination and constant suspicion.
On Friday 3rd December, a large number of co-workers at Rajko dragged Priyantha out of his office incensed by allegations that he had desecrated a wall poster that had the holy name of Muhammed written on it. They say he had then thrown the poster in a waste bin.
Read full account (here)
In The Times on 20th November it read that police investigators are now aware that in the preceding months to his attack, Islamist terrorist, Emad Al Swealmeen had reverted to practising Islam. This news is based on evidence shared with police from associates of Mr Swealmeen Read more on this (click here).
Several theories are being postulated about why Mr Al Swealmeen undertook the attack, one being that he may have been atoning for an initial falling away from Islam to Christianity, whereas other experts believe that his conversion to Christianity may have simply been a façade.
The refugee and asylum seekers in Thailand were just beginning to recover from the latest COVID-19 lockdown in Bangkok, when the threat of the new Omicron variant emerged.
A 35 year old Christian labourer known to be a hard worker was killed by two Muslim neighbours who burst his intestines by inserting high pressure air into his anus (click here). Two other men were initially implicated in the murder but cases against them were dismissed, following police and court review of CCTV recordings.
It is believed that before he died Shehzad Masih was sodomized by the two Muslim men.
The brutal use of high pressure air in such sickening fashion is believed to be have been an attempt to hide a sexual offence the men committed.
British Asian Christian Association, has funded a legal prosecution of the murderers since the incident in July 2021. On 15th November 2021 following the rejection of a post-arrest bail for one of the murderers our solicitor believes we are nearing a successful conviction.
The mother of a murdered 10 year old who we supported for two years died of grief from being coerced into a compromise agreement for her murdered son.
Badil Masih was sodomised and murdered by his employer Mr Mohammed Ikram and a cohort, in July 2019, for daring to seek full payment for work he had carried out at a scrapyard (click here).
British Asian Christian Association stepped in to pay for legal costs, and support the family financially as they challenged for justice. Despite clear evidence of a crime courts offered pre-arrest bail to the murderers who began to threaten the Christian family and key witnesses (click here).
Though Badil’s mother Shareefa remained stoic throughout the court process. The witnesses were nobbled by the murderers and their cohorts. The witnesses refused to testify and threatened to alter their statement if Shareefa continued to pursue justice. It is not known whether they succumbed to bribes, threats or both (click here).
In tandem with the ignominy of losing witnesses Shareefa suffered intensified threats of the murder of her remaining son. Unbeknown to British Asian Christian Association or our solicitor, Shareefa met in private with the opponent solicitor and agreed compensation terms for the murder of her son (click here).
Shareefa Bibi (32 yrs at the time) was earning 3500 Pak-rupees every month working as a housemaid and was finding it difficult to meet the needs of her family.