Hannah Chowdhry, a long-term British Asian Christian Association volunteer has received a Diana award for her social action and humanitarian work. On 15th July 2019 at a lavish ceremony at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, Hannah Chowdhry from Chigwell, Essex, received her certificate for her Diana Award from HM Lord-Lieutenant of South Glamorgan, Morfudd Meredith. Hannah had to postpone her original certification date on the 1st of July at Westminster, due to being in the middle of her Duke of Edinburgh Award Silver Expedition (click here). Hannah has always been a very community-spirited person, intent on improving the locality where she…
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Nissar Hussain and Wilson Chowdhry at the Foreign Office Launch of the Global Christian Persecution Review Read the final full report (here) British Asian Christian Association welcome the release today and findings of the final report of the Independent Review – established by the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, HM Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and chaired by the Bishop of Truro, Rt. Rev. Philip Mounstephen – which have sought to map the extent and nature of the global persecution of Christians; to assess the quality of the response of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and to make…
BISHOP OF TRURO’S INDEPENDENT REVIEW FOR THE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF FCO SUPPORT FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS FINAL REPORT and RECOMMENDATIONS Rt. Rev. Philip Mounstephen Bishop of Truro © Crown Copyright 2019 !2 Contents: 1. Preface…………………………………………………………………………………4 2. Introduction&Acknowledgments……………………………………….6 3. Methodology of the Review & Report………………………………..9 4. ‘The Persecution Problem’: Introduction…………………………12 a. The Interim Report………………………………………………….13 b. Introduction to Focus Countries……………………………. 52 i. Iraq……………………………………………………………….53 ii. Nigeria………………………………………………………….60 iii.Indonesia………………………………………………………67 iv. China…………………………………………………………….73 v. Sri Lanka……………………………………………………….80 vi. Pakistan………………………………………………………..84 vii.Syria……………………………………………………………..93 c. Written & Oral Submissions: Methodology and Summary Conclusions…………………………………………………………….101 5. Analysing FCO Response: Introduction………………………………105 a. ‘User’ Survey: questionnaire and commentary…………………………………………………………….106 b. Survey of FCO posts: questionnaire and commentary…………………………………………………………….112 c.…
A Pakistani pastor has been incarcerated in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Central Jail since July 2012, when police charged him with the offence of sending blasphemous text messages. On 3 May 2017, Pastor Zafar Bhatti (56 years) was sentenced to life imprisonment for blasphemy, a charge he adamantly denies. Rather peculiarly Pastor Zafar’s conviction occurred despite the mobile phone in question not being registered to his name. Please sign our petition calling for an end to Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws (click here) On 19 June, blasphemy victim Pastor Zafar’s appeal hearing was adjourned for the seventh time. On this occasion, the stated reason…
The British Asian Christian Association has published a 490 page book authored by Desmond Fernandes – Call it by its name: ‘Persecution!’ – that comprehensively analyses and documents the manner in which Christians have been – and continue to be – persecuted throughout Pakistan. For Saleh Memon, a member of the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities: “This book paints a truly horrific picture of the treatment of Christians in Pakistan, based on concrete evidence. It also shows how Pakistani politics have gone toxic when politicians and religious leaders are using extreme communalism to gain political leverage. It is clear that Christians are discriminated…
A Christian school which escaped the nationalisation programme of schools and colleges in Punjab Province instigated by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972, but was later usurped ilegally by a later Governor of Punjab, is struggling in the face of threats to release itself from the shackles imposed on it by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkwa. The principal of the college had complained of threats to kill his family should he not conced the school to the provincial government. Edwardes College was established in 1900 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and was a private Christian College owned by…
A teenager concerned about knife crime has asked people to support her in a project that would provide a welcome place for East London teenagers to meet, socialise and ‘address personal problems together’, under a safe supervised environment. Watch Hannah live on Premier Christian Radio with Presenter :Mary Rodrigues: Hannah Chowdhry, wrote a letter to the London Mayor Sadiq Khan and and PM Theresa May earlier this year, which received personal responses from both of them. In this letter she refered to her roles as both an Essex and Redbridge Youth Councillor and shared the contents of a survey she…
Usually the only help for an uneducated poor Christian woman in Pakistan is to marry herself out of poverty. The arranged marriage process has its faults but for many Christian families it has allowed social progress through beneficial loving Christian relationships. However for Rita Yousaf the process became a diabolical nightmare – not once but twice! Rita Yousaf was 23 when she married her Christian husband, a marriage her parents’ thought was a potential ideal escape for their daughter. Being one of six children, her struggling parents found it tough just to put food on the table and finding suitable…
Mehwish, Sehrish (bride in 2016), Farzana and a friend A Survivor of a Muslim gang-rape has chosen marriage over victimhood after receiving biblically based trauma counselling Farzana who had survived one of the most brutal gang-rape incidents that British Asian Christian Association has ever responded to, has chosen to forgive her rapists and drop her sense of victimhood in favour of marriage after a series of trauma counselling sessions with Mehwish Bhatti, our National Executive in Pakistan. Farzana’s sister, Sehrish, who was also attacked at the incident, married in 2016 after finding solace in her innocence and the love of…
Sania’s younger sister Muskan, mother Aasia Bibi and father Latif Masih along with BPCA officer Zeeshan A Muslim man has been detained for questioning by police during an investigation into the disappearance of an 8th grade Christian schoolgirl, Sania Masih (15 yrs). Please sign or petition calling for end to abduction, rape and forced Islamic marriage of Chrstian girls (click here) Razaabad police arrested Mohammad Nasir on the first day Sania went missing, Sunday 19th May 2019, but stopped the investigation a day before Eid-ul-fitr. Sania Masih is the 2nd child of Mason Latif Masih, (39 yrs) and housewife Aasia Masih, (35 yrs) and…