An Open Letter To Congress On An Urgent Plea For Help

By C. J. Refsland on September 29, 2016 • ( 2 )

There are many urgent problems plaguing America today. But the most urgent is the plight of Christians across the Middle East and Africa.

Christian genocide has been declared and yet America refuses to admit Christians who are petsecuted. If we could save one life why aren’t we?

I want to zero in on Pakistan for a moment. Pakistan receives top aide from our government. Our government recognizes Christians are singled out, targeted and persecuted. In Pakistan Christians are unclean, and even those non-christians trying to come against laws like the blasphemy laws are assassinated or exiled. Pakistan is not following its own constitution, and yet the UNHCR refuses to investigate.

This is from the US report on International Religious freedom (2015):

According to news reports, on February 20, a judge dismissed the fourth bail petition of Liaquat Ali, who was accused of blasphemy in 2013. Ali and Ali’s religious instructor were accused of blasphemy for allegedly incorrectly reciting the Islamic testimony of faith. Ali said the accusation was a personal grudge related to a property dispute.

On March 28, a court sentenced Sawan Masih to death for blasphemy in an incident that had triggered a riot in Lahore. The court convicted Masih, a Christian, of committing blasphemy in a conversation with a Muslim friend in 2013. A mob of more than 3,000 persons burned some 100 Christian homes in Lahore’s Joseph Colony after the allegations against Masih emerged. Masih filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court, stating the charges were false and aimed at evicting Christians from the area.

On April 3, a trial court in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, handed a death sentence to Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, a Christian couple accused of texting blasphemous messages to local Muslims in Gojra, Punjab. Police first registered the case in June 2013.

On July 11, Islamabad’s Anti-terrorism Court ordered the continued detention of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants Hammad Adil and Muhammad Tanveer. The men allegedly confessed, after their arrests in August 2013, to the 2011 assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the former federal minister of minority affairs and an outspoken critic of the blasphemy laws. Adil and Tanveer were the main suspects accused in the murder. Their trial was ongoing at year’s end.

On October 16, the Lahore High Court upheld the death sentence of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman on death rowsince 2010, when a district court found her guilty of making derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed during an argument. On November 24, her lawyers submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court.

And that’s only a few instances. A Christian couple burned alive because mob mentality knows no fear of prosececution. The brick kiln owners are government sanctioned slave owners. The Ahmadi Muslims are given priority because the government does not recognize their Muslim beliefs.

The UNHCR refuses to acknowledge that Christians in Pakistan are persecuted.

Case in point: A Pakistan who fled to Thailand to avoid death waited 3 years for his interview for asylum with the UNHCR. Postponement after Postponement dashed his hope of ever living a normal life or providing for his wife. Finally last month he received his interview only to be denied. He was told Christians in Pakistan are safe and he could return. Even with clear cut evidence of the opposite. This man was a Christian photographer in Pakistan working with multiple medias, he led a profitable life until he came under attack and attempted assasination. He is not the exception, but part of a growing problem plaguing Christians in Pakistan. Christian women have to hide under the Hijab to go in public for fear of being recognized. Many are beaten and raped.

The UN Humans Rights Council must be held accountable for clear discrimination against Christians.

Again this is URGENT as many face deportation in foreign lands such as Thailand and Malaysia. It’s true Thailand is not a signatory of the Human rights 1951 convention. But the UNHCR is there, why won’t they help them?? It’s time to bring Human Rights recognition into the 21st century. Hold them accountable!

Contact me at speakingout4you@gmail.com and I will provide details and documentation from persecuted Christians discriminated against by the UNHCR. Please this is urgent. Anything you can do would be a great help. The man who was denied asylum needs immediate intervention. Then international laws need revised and at the least committees formed to investigate the practices of the UNHCR in regards to Christian refugees. Please you are their only voice. Won’t you join in the efforts of the UK to highlight this abuse? These people need you.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Refsland

Edotors note: Won’t you replace or add your name to this letter with me and send it to representatives across the US? You can copy and paste with your contact information and name or add your name to mine and send. Please message your Representatives. Use this link to find yours, I did. Click here. Or click here to add your name to this letter of petition.