{"id":644,"date":"2011-08-26T13:33:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T17:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/?p=644"},"modified":"2011-08-26T05:28:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T09:28:12","slug":"pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan’s Christian parents carefully teach their kids not to violate blasphemy laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Pakistani Christian kids at a candlelight vigil for earthquake victims<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pakistan\u2019s notorious \u201cblasphemy\u201d laws\u00a0are putting\u00a0Christian children at risk.<\/p>\n

Christians say they\u00a0are having to carefully teach their\u00a0kids\u00a0diplomatic answers to protect them from accusations of blaspheming Islam, the Koran or Mohammed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they write anything or misspell anything to do with the prophet Muhammad, they can be in serious danger,\u201d\u00a0one parent told International Christian Concern. \u201cIn fact, the other side of this is that they are made to answer questions saying what a wonderful man he was.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another sad side effect is that Christian kids in predominantly Muslim areas don\u2019t have many friends to play with. Even a cricket game can be risky, she said — particularly since the blasphemy laws are being used to settle grudges.<\/p>\n

Adults are equally fearful. Increasingly in property disputes, the matter of deeds and bills of sale are not brought before the court. Instead, landowners — particularly Christians — are accused of burning pages of the Koran or remarking flippantly about Mohammed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in offices are silenced into submission,\u201d said the parent, who asked not to be named because of the possibility of retribution. \u201cThe fear is creating aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pakistani Christian girls wear scarves to avoid offending Muslims<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 30-year-old Pakistani woman who grew up in Lahore said her Christian parents taught her\u00a0“safe” answers to keep from falling prey to accusations under the blasphemy statutes. As a child, when challenged to debate whether Mohammed is a prophet, she was taught to answer quietly \u201cI am a Christian, I can only tell you about Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even back then, she said, before radical Islamists began influencing Pakistani society as they have in recent years, Christian schoolchildren were taught not to discuss religion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Exuberant Christian kids at a Sunday school in Pakistan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe knew never to get into religious discussions with others,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had them at home \u2013 our parents would put us through the drill of asking us tough questions to see how we answered. Only now I realize that was practice for school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this way, she was imbued with the fundamentals of the Christian faith and at the same time learned that she should discuss it only with her parents.<\/p>\n

\n

CLICK HERE to read how Brother Andrew’s Open Doors says 1 million Christian children are\u00a0living under persecution<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although Christians must obey the Great Commission and proclaim their faith, Pakistani Christians are having to do by example — taking the Apostle Paul literally to witness “in word and in deed” — with an emphasis on deeds instead of words.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristians constantly face questions like, \u2018What do you think of the Koran? Do you like it?\u2019”\u00a0she said. Another question used to bait Christians is\u00a0“What do you think of Muhammad?\u201d<\/p>\n

One answer Christian children are taught is “As a Christian I have only read the Bible, I can\u2019t read Arabic.”<\/p>\n

“These questions used to be easier to answer,” she said. “We had formulas. But those are not working any more. We just tell children \u2018Don\u2019t talk about religion in school.\u2019 This is shaky ground now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Pakistani mob reacts to proposals that blasphemy laws be repealed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conviction under Pakistan’s Section 295-C of the blasphemy law for derogatory comments about Muhammad is punishable by death, though life imprisonment is also possible. Curiously, accusers in blasphemy cases cannot repeat the alleged derogatory comments without risk of being accused of blasphemy themselves. Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or use of an extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment. Section 295-A prohibits injuring or defiling places of worship and \u201cacts intended to outrage religious feelings.\u201d It is punishable by life imprisonment, which in Pakistan is interpreted as 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistan\u2019s notorious \u201cblasphemy\u201d laws\u00a0are putting\u00a0Christian children at risk. Christians say they\u00a0are having to carefully teach their\u00a0kids\u00a0diplomatic answers to protect them from accusations of blaspheming Islam, the Koran or Mohammed. \u201cIf they write anything or misspell anything to do with the prophet Muhammad, they can be in serious danger,\u201d\u00a0one parent told International Christian Concern. \u201cIn fact,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,68,130,16,30,59,10,5,4],"tags":[53,69,122,115,112],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blasphemy-law","category-children","category-inspiration","category-islam","category-muslim","category-news","category-pakistan","category-persecuted-christians","category-persecution","tag-blasphemy-law","tag-christian-children","tag-news","tag-pakistan","tag-persecution"],"yoast_head":"\nPakistan's Christian parents carefully teach their kids not to violate blasphemy laws - Pray for the Persecuted Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pakistan's Christian parents carefully teach their kids not to violate blasphemy laws - Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pakistan\u2019s notorious \u201cblasphemy\u201d laws\u00a0are putting\u00a0Christian children at risk. Christians say they\u00a0are having to carefully teach their\u00a0kids\u00a0diplomatic answers to protect them from accusations of blaspheming Islam, the Koran or Mohammed. \u201cIf they write anything or misspell anything to do with the prophet Muhammad, they can be in serious danger,\u201d\u00a0one parent told International Christian Concern. \u201cIn fact,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-26T17:33:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-26T09:28:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/files\/2011\/05\/Pakistan-Christian-children-hold-lighted-candles-as-they-pray-for-08-October-2005-earthquake-victims-during-a-ceremony-in-Muzaffarabad.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pakistan's Christian parents carefully teach their kids not to violate blasphemy laws - Pray for the Persecuted Church","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pakistan's Christian parents carefully teach their kids not to violate blasphemy laws - Pray for the Persecuted Church","og_description":"Pakistan\u2019s notorious \u201cblasphemy\u201d laws\u00a0are putting\u00a0Christian children at risk. Christians say they\u00a0are having to carefully teach their\u00a0kids\u00a0diplomatic answers to protect them from accusations of blaspheming Islam, the Koran or Mohammed. \u201cIf they write anything or misspell anything to do with the prophet Muhammad, they can be in serious danger,\u201d\u00a0one parent told International Christian Concern. \u201cIn fact,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html","og_site_name":"Pray for the Persecuted Church","article_published_time":"2011-08-26T17:33:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-26T09:28:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/files\/2011\/05\/Pakistan-Christian-children-hold-lighted-candles-as-they-pray-for-08-October-2005-earthquake-victims-during-a-ceremony-in-Muzaffarabad.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/08\/pakistans-christian-parents-carefully-teach-their-kids-not-to-violate-blasphemy-laws.html","name":"Pakistan's Christian parents carefully teach their kids not to violate blasphemy laws - 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