Pakistani Christian Pastor Arrested for Blasphemy

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

SANGHLA HILL, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- A Pakistani pastor was arrested and accused of blasphemy after police took him into protective custody when a Muslim mob attacked his home.

PASTOR KARMA PATRAS

Two days after the Oct. 13 arrest, a First Information Report was filed against Pastor Karma Patras.

According to a story from International Christian Voice (ICV), Patras was praying in the house of a Christian family when some people asked questions about the meaning of the Muslim feast of sacrifice Eid -al- Adha, and its meaning and legitimacy for Christians.

According to a story in the International Business Times, Eid - al-Adha commemorates the Muslim God Ibrahim's sacrifice of his only son, Ishmael, to Allah as an act of obedience.

The International Business Times said the three-day festival also marks the end of Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Prophet Muhammad's birthplace. Muslims typically make the pilgrimage once in their lifetimes.

ICV said Patras answered their questions from a Biblical perspective, and said the feast was forbidden for Christians. However, Muslims were also listening to his explanation. They gathered other Muslims and told them what the pastor had said.

According to ICV, when Patras went home after the prayer meeting, he heard appeals on mosque loudspeakers by area Muslim clerics calling for Muslims to punish him for prohibiting the celebration of this feast for Christians.

ICV said area imams said the pastor was an infidel and should be killed, at which point hundreds of Muslims attacked Patras' house.
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ICV said area police rushed to the scene and saved Patras from the mob that was beating and kicking him and destroying his house. However, under pressure from the crowd, authorities arrested the pastor for blasphemy.

ICV said the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance is now involved in the case.