Source: Mission Network News, October 13, 2020<\/p>\n
Sawan Masih, a Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy in 2013, has been [acquitted and] released from captivity after seven years.<\/p>\n
MNN reported on his case in 2013<\/a> and the extreme violence that followed his accusation. A mob of Muslims descended on the primarily Christian neighborhood of Joseph Colony after Masih\u2019s accusation was broadcasted over the PA system.<\/p>\n Nehemiah of Forgotten Missionaries International<\/a> (FMI) says the motivations behind the violence weren\u2019t exactly religious. \u201cThe government and business community wanted to grab this colony, this land. They wanted to build a factory on this land. So first, they tried to convince Christians of this area to leave [the] colony. When they refused, they just made a story and accused [Sawan] with a false charge of blasphemy and burned the whole town. Many churches, shops, and more than 200 Christian houses were burned.\u201d<\/p>\n Masih also lost many family members in the devastating attack, Nehemiah says.<\/p>\n Despite the lack of evidence, Masih\u2019s case has languished in the courts ever since, prolonged by threats from extremists. Even now that he has finally been acquitted, Masih can\u2019t leave the prison for fear of attempts on his life.<\/p>\n \u00bb Full story<\/a> includes Masih\u2019s photo and compares his case to Asia Bibi\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Mission Network News, October 13, 2020 Sawan Masih, a Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy in 2013, has been [acquitted and] released from captivity after seven years. MNN reported on his case in 2013 and the extreme violence that followed his accusation. A mob of Muslims descended on the primarily Christian neighborhood of Joseph Colony … Continue reading PAKISTAN: Christian Acquitted of Blasphemy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9638,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions\/9638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}