Two Murdered in Pakistan
by Peter Riddell
On July 19, 2010, two Christian brothers accused of distributing
blasphemous material were gunned down on the premises of the sessions court
in Faisalabad,
Pakistan. Rashid Emmanuel, a 36-year-old pastor, and Sajid Masih Emmanuel,
30, had been running United Ministries Pakistan for the last two years in
the Christian
community of Dawood Nagar. Their murder represents the latest episode in the
ongoing troubles of Pakistani
Christians.
A member of a shadowy Islamist group reportedly told police that the two had distributed blasphemous leaflets in a city bus stand. Rashid Emmanuel agreed to meet an anonymous caller, only to find himself surrounded by police carrying photocopied papers denigrating the prophet Mohammad and purportedly bearing the signatures and phone numbers of the two brothers. They were taken into police custody on July 2 and charged with blasphemy under Section 295-c of the Pakistan Penal Code.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Peter Riddell is Vice Principal-Academic at the Melbourne School of Theology in Australia, and a Senior Fellow of Kairos Journal.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
32.2—March/April 2019
Flight from the Absolute: Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West, Volume II by Paul Gosselin by Louis Markos
28.3—May/June 2015
Of Bicycles, Sex, & Natural Law
Describing Human Ends & Our Limitations Is Neither Futile Nor Unloving by R. V. Young
31.1—January/February 2018
on Ragnarök, an Extreme Weather Event & the Paths to Conversion by Timothy J. Burbery
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
