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Pakistani Christian couple’s death row appeal delayed after 6 years in prison for blasphemy

A Pakistani Christian couple who’ve been imprisoned for six years and sentenced to death on false blasphemy charges of sending a text message insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad continue to have their conviction appeal delayed.
Shagufta Kausar and her husband, Shafqat Emmanuel, who is partially paralyzed, were accused by a local imam of committing blasphemy by sending him an offensive text message in 2013.
Maulvi Mohammed Hussain, a leader at a mosque in the town of Gojra in Punjab province, claimed that Emmanuel used his wife’s cellphone to send an anti-Islamic text message. He later claimed other messages followed.
Hussain said he was praying when he received the offensive text message from an unknown number.
The Muslim cleric reportedly showed the text message to two other imams before approaching his counsel for legal proceedings. He and his lawyer later claimed they both received subsequent blasphemous messages.
Police registered the blasphemy case following the imam’s complaint, and the couple were arrested on July 21, 2013. They were charged with “insulting the Quran” and “insulting the prophet.”
They were sentenced to separate prisons in 2014.
“Kauser is being held in the same prison cell Asia Bibi was held in before her release,” Will Stark, regional manager for South Asia at International Christian Concern, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.
“In regards to Shafqat, his medical condition has deteriorated significantly during his imprisonment,” Stark added. “This is because the jail does not provide facilities for him, as someone partially paralyzed. Bedsores and lack of nutrition are definitely issues I have seen reported specifically in regards to Shafqat’s case.”
A final hearing before the Lahore High Court was scheduled for Wednesday. However, the hearing was delayed and a new hearing date will be announced.
Kausar’s brother, Joseph, told the BBC that his sister and her husband are not only innocent, but he believes they aren’t even literate enough to have written the text messages.
Joseph also said his brother-in-law had been tortured and forced to make a false confession.
“He told me the policeman hit [him] so hard that his leg was broken,” Joseph was quoted as saying.
The text messages were also alleged to have been written in English. Aside from being illiterate, Shafqat and Shagufta are not familiar with the English language — written or spoken.
The couple’s lawyer, Saif ul Malook, who also assisted in the appeal of Asia Bibi’s blasphemy case, said the charges against Kausar and Emmanuel are “deeply flawed” and “weaker” than those levied against Bibi.
Although the phone was registered in Kausar’s name, Malook told the BBC that “in their trial, they suggested a Christian neighbor they had argued with might have purchased a SIM card in Kausar’s name and sent the messages in order to frame them.”
In 2014, Nadeem Hassan, who’s also representing the couple at the high court, said the offending messages were sent from a phone that had been lost. He further explained that a “bogus SIM card” had been presented as evidence against the couple, The Telegraph reported.
Hassan told ICC last year that the allegation is “based on religious hatred and is being used to settle personal grudges.”
Before her arrest, Kausar worked as a cleaner at a Christian school. Emmanuel has been paralyzed from the waist down since 2004, following an accident that fractured his spine. At the time of the accident, they were living with their four young children in a church compound.
The children continue to remain in hiding as their parents’ case continues, Stark said.
“Like many relatives of Christians accused of blasphemy, they live in fear that their parents’ blasphemy accusation may cause extremists to attack them,” he added.
Malook said the couple needs the same international support that Bibi received during the years she waited for her appeal to be heard. And if they’re acquitted, he said they will also need to be granted asylum.
While no one has yet been executed on blasphemy charges, people who’ve been accused of the crime have been killed by retaliatory mob violence. Allegations of blasphemy are frequently lodged to settle personal disputes and to discriminate against religious minorities.
Christians make up just 1.6% of the country’s population.
Last year, Asia Bible was acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court of blasphemy charges after she languished on death row for more than eight years. Bibi has since written a book about her ordeal.
Pakistan, a 96% Muslim-majority country, ranks as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List. In 2018, Pakistan was also named by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations.
The couple’s appeal hearing has been rescheduled for June 22.
Sources: Christian Post
us news
British Preacher Who Publicly Criticized Quran Found Not Guilty of Hate Crime

United Kingdom — On March 12, a British court found preacher Karandeep Mamman not guilty of a hate crime following his public criticism of the Quran.
According to the British organization Christian Concern, Mamman was acquitted of criminal charges after prosecutors, “refused to offer any evidence to the charges of section 4A of the Public Order Act …”
The trial concerned the aggressive response Mamman received while street preaching in January 2023. A small crowd of protestors surrounded Mamman as he critiqued the Quran, saying the Islamic holy text is inaccurate because it represents a wrong view of Jesus Christ.
“Jesus in the Quran is not the true Jesus,” he told the protestors. “According to the Quran Mohammad promoted hatred, terrorism, and killing of Jews and Christians who do not convert.”
As the crowd became more aggressive, Mamman attempted to leave, but a witness testified that “the mob would not let him go.” The crowd only let Mamman leave after local police arrived.
Another man violently grabbed a sign Mamman was holding that listed, “a series of Christian commands from the Bible … [including] a symbol suggesting the prohibition of homosexual practice.”
Following the incident, police called Mamman to the police station and charged him with “causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm, and distress.”
After his acquittal, Mamman said, “My aim always when preaching is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and that all of us can only be saved if we follow His teaching.
“It was intimidating to be attacked and surrounded by such an angry mob, but I was determined to stand my ground and not back down over my beliefs.”
Sources:persecution
us news
Pastor Andrew Brunson’s Prison Dream: Dark Anti-Israel Alliance Emerging

America’s spiritual decline may have stabilized, but the country’s failure to defend Judeo-Christian values is leading to the emergence of a dark, anti-Israel regional alliance.
But Pastor Andrew Brunson says God gave him a vision while he was imprisoned in Turkey, and he says it reveals what must be done to endure spiritual darkness and hardship in our own lives.
More than six years have passed since Brunson’s unexpected release from a Turkish prison, and now the world focuses on a different hostage crisis.
Given his unique perspective, CBN News recently asked Brunson to share his thoughts and describe the emotions he feels at the sight of innocent hostages held unjustly in Gaza and the agony experienced by their families.
“When I see the reunions, it really moved me because I remember just the desperation, the desperate longing I had, for freedom and to be with my family,” Brunson recalled. “And so, then I see these people coming together after not knowing if they’ll ever see each other again. And I know what they’re feeling now.”
Brunson spent 23 years as a missionary in Turkey, sharing the gospel and planting churches. In 2016, Turkish authorities arrested him on terrorism charges for allegedly assisting the Kurdish minority and sentenced him to life in prison.
Today, Brunson remains grateful to President Trump for what he described as unprecedented efforts to negotiate his release during Trump’s first term. Upon his return to the United States, Trump invited Brunson and his wife, Noreen, to the Oval Office.
“I remember when we prayed for him in the Oval Office I said, ‘Can I pray for you’ and he said, ‘Well, I probably need prayer, more prayer than anyone else in this room.’ And I think it is true.”
Like many Americans, Brunson believes God intervened to spare Trump’s life last year in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Although the Trump administration has made strides toward family- and faith-friendly policies, Brunson contends the country’s anti-Christian bias has a strong foothold and is deeply ingrained.
“It will bring a delay, but the culture as a whole has already become post-Christian…When we came back from Turkey, we came back to a different country. And I think in the last years especially, there was an acceleration toward a very aggressively anti-Christian position, especially by the ruling elite. You could say every institution in our country is led by people who are post-Christian and increasingly anti-Christian.”
Brunson believes the extreme pressures will rise again after Trump.
“I think they will because the culture hasn’t changed. Our culture is very quickly turning away from God.”
He predicts the United States and other Western nations will eventually become less inclined to defend religious freedom. As a result, regional powers will rise to fill the void.
“I think Turkey, Russia, and Iran will move together in some alliance…I had a dream about this in prison that was from God. I have very few dreams from God, but this was one and I saw them in a dark alliance. This was in 2016, before they started to move together, and then it started to happen. So, I think there are spiritual ties there. But I do think there is an alliance that will continue in a darker direction and that will, it will eventually in the end try to undermine Israel, yes.”
Brunson always felt strong as a missionary, then when isolated in prison, despair overtook him, and he felt abandoned by God. He explained that his wounded heart led him into a spiritual crisis.
“I began to question God’s existence. And the first time I did that, I began to cry, said, how could this happen? I started churches, I baptized Muslims, and here I’ve taught and preached for years, and now I’m even questioning whether God exists,” he recalls. “So I had many questions for God, and I became aware at some point that God had questions for me. ‘Andrew, are you going to love me when you don’t see my love? Are you going to be faithful to me when you don’t see my faithfulness?'”
Brunson predicts American Christians will also face difficult times ahead. At a recent Regent University chapel, he encouraged students to stay strong despite adversity, even when God’s presence is not felt.
“You have to survive those times of crisis. You have to remain faithful. Your devotion to God is being tested and you have to hold on to him even when you don’t understand, even when you don’t have answers. Will you love him when you don’t see his love? Will you be faithful when you don’t see his faithfulness?”
Brunson believes that people can endure when they learn to recite what God says about himself.
“I had to make a conscious decision to repeat again and again, ‘No God, you are faithful. You do love me even if I don’t feel it, even if I don’t see it. You are good, you are true,’ and to say these things even when my emotions are in turmoil and darkness. But I, with my will, I can choose to speak what is true.”
Sources:CBN News
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ഗ്രീൻകാർഡ് ഉള്ളവരെയും നാടുകടത്തും, വിലാസ മാറ്റങ്ങൾ അറിയിച്ചില്ലെങ്കിൽ നടപടി ഉറപ്പ്! യുഎസ് ഇമിഗ്രേഷൻ ഡിപ്പാർട്ട്മെന്റിന്റെ മുന്നറിയിപ്പ്

ന്യൂയോർക്ക്: വിലാസ മാറ്റം റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്നതിൽ പരാജയപ്പെട്ടാൽ അമേരിക്കൻ പൗരന്മാരല്ലാത്തവരെയെല്ലാം നാടുകടത്തുമെന്ന് യുഎസിൽ താമസിക്കുന്ന വിദേശികൾക്ക് വീണ്ടും യുണൈറ്റഡ് സ്റ്റേറ്റ്സ് സിറ്റിസൺഷിപ്പ് ആൻഡ് ഇമിഗ്രേഷൻ സർവീസസിൻ്റെ (യു എസ് സി ഐ എസ്) മുന്നറിയിപ്പ്. ഗ്രീൻ കാർഡ് ഉടമകൾ ഉൾപ്പെടെയുള്ള അമേരിക്കൻ പൗരന്മാരല്ലാത്തവർക്കെല്ലാം ഇത് ബാധകമായിരിക്കുമെന്നും യു എസ് സി ഐ എസ് അധികൃതർ വ്യക്തമാക്കി.
അമേരിക്കയിൽ താമസമാക്കിയിട്ടുള്ള വിദേശ പൗരന്മാരെല്ലാം അവരുടെ വിലാസ മാറ്റം സർക്കാരിനെ കൃത്യമായി അറിയിച്ചിരിക്കണം. അല്ലാത്തപക്ഷം ഗ്രീൻ കാർഡ് ഉടമകൾ ഉൾപ്പെടെയുള്ള എല്ലാവരെയും നാടുകടത്തലിന് വിധേയമാക്കുമെന്ന് യു എസ് സി ഐ എസ് വെബ്സൈറ്റിൽ അപ്ഡേറ്റും ചെയ്തിട്ടുണ്ട്. യുണൈറ്റഡ് സ്റ്റേറ്റ്സിലെ എല്ലാ വിദേശികളും താമസം മാറി 10 ദിവസത്തിനുള്ളിൽ യു എസ് സി ഐ എസിൽ വിലാസ മാറ്റം റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്യണം. താമസം മാറിക്കഴിഞ്ഞാൽ ഉടൻ തന്നെ നിങ്ങളുടെ യു എസ് സി ഐ എസ് ഓൺലൈൻ അക്കൗണ്ട് വഴി വിലാസ മാറ്റം സമർപ്പിച്ചിരിക്കണമെന്നാണ് നിയമം.
വിലാസമാറ്റ അറിയിപ്പ് പാലിക്കുന്നതിൽ പരാജയപ്പെട്ട ഏതൊരു വിദേശിയെയും നാടുകടത്താൻ കഴിയുമെന്നും യു എസ് സി ഐ എസ് ഓർമ്മിപ്പിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഫെബ്രുവരി മാസം അവസാനം വരെ വിലാസ മാറ്റങ്ങൾ റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്യാത്തവരെ ശിക്ഷിക്കുന്ന നിയമങ്ങൾ സജീവമായി നടപ്പിലാക്കുമെന്ന് ഹോംലാൻഡ് സെക്യൂരിറ്റി വകുപ്പ് സെക്രട്ടറി ക്രിസ്റ്റി നോം വ്യക്തമാക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു. ഇമിഗ്രേഷൻ ആൻഡ് നാഷണാലിറ്റി ആക്റ്റ് പൂർണ്ണമായും നടപ്പിലാക്കുമെന്നും അവർ മുന്നറിയിപ്പ് നൽകി. വിലാസ മാറ്റങ്ങൾ റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്യണമെന്ന് ആവശ്യപ്പെടുന്ന നിയമങ്ങൾ യുഎസിൽ വളരെക്കാലമായി നിലവിലുണ്ടെങ്കിലും ഇ പലപ്പോഴും കൃത്യമായി നടപ്പാക്കിയിരുന്നില്ല.
എന്നാൽ രണ്ടാം ട്രംപ് ഭരണകൂടം ഇക്കാര്യത്തിൽ ശക്തമായ നിലപാടാണ് സ്വീകരിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നത്. ഇതുകൊണ്ടുതന്നെ ഗ്രീൻ കാർഡ് ഉടമകൾ ഉൾപ്പെടെയുള്ള എല്ലാവരും കൃത്യമായി വിലാസമാറ്റം അറിയിച്ചിരിക്കണം. അല്ലാത്തപക്ഷം ആരായാലും അവരെ നാടുകടത്തലിന് വിധേയമാക്കുമെന്നും ക്രിസ്റ്റി നോം വ്യക്തമാക്കി. ട്രംപ് ഭരണകൂടം എല്ലാ കുടിയേറ്റ നിയമങ്ങളും കൃത്യമായി നടപ്പിലാക്കും.
യുഎസിൽ വിലാസ മാറ്റം റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്നതിൽ പരാജയപ്പെടുന്നത് 200 ഡോളർ വരെ പിഴയോ, 30 ദിവസത്തെ തടവോ, അല്ലെങ്കിൽ രണ്ടും കൂടിയോ ലഭിക്കാൻ കാരണമാകും. വിലാസ മാറ്റം റിപ്പോർട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്നതിൽ പരാജയപ്പെട്ടതിന് ന്യായമായ വിശദീകരണം നൽകാൻ കഴിയാത്ത ഗ്രീൻ കാർഡ് ഉടമകൾക്കും മറ്റ് പൗരന്മാരല്ലാത്തവർക്കും സാധിക്കണം. അല്ലെങ്കിൽ നിലവിലുള്ള നിയമ വ്യവസ്ഥകൾ പ്രകാരം നാടുകടത്തൽ നേരിടേണ്ടി വരുമെന്നാണ് ക്രിസ്റ്റി നോം മുന്നറിയിപ്പ് നൽകിയത്.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
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