India – Muslim Background Believers Threatened To Relinquish Faith

SANTA ANA, CA – Six Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) and their families in Nutangram village of Murshidabad district* in West Bengal, India, have been pressured to relinquish their Christian faith.

Muslim women in India

The mosque committee called for thousands of villagers from nearby areas to come against the Christian families on September 4, as they wanted the families to recommit themselves to Islam. The believers, who came to faith little more than one year ago, are terrified.

A few days prior to September 4, the mosque issued a ban against anyone communicating with the MBBs. As a result, vegetables were not sold to them, no workers came to do jobs in their fields, and no customers came to their shops. They were further threatened that they would be killed and their homes burned if they did not give up their faith. The extremists stirred up the women to attack one of the Christian women. They physically tortured her, examining her body as they searched for “Christian signs” on her.

Open Doors in India came to know about this incident through Pastor Bashir, who works with the Khoda-e-Jamat ministry and is based in Behrampur (the district headquarters of Murshidabad district), about 3 miles away from where this incident occurred in Nutangram. He requested intercessory prayer for these Christian families. He has been a mentor and pillar of support for the believers, leading worship every Friday from the premises of a health care center located in Behrampur.

He told Open Doors about how a Muslim couple came to know the Lord two years ago through the heath care center run by his wife and himself. Tasleema (29) first believed and then her husband, Johad (35). Pastor Bashir said he encouraged them to share the gospel of Christ with their relatives. As they did so, he said God’s Spirit inspired the relatives at Nutangram to accept Jesus as their savior after few months, and they were baptized with water. Six families came to accept Christ and grew strong in faith.

Johad and his wife have been facing opposition from his family for quite some time. They have been boycotted from any further social interaction with any of the family members and have been asked to leave the house. The other MBB relatives and neighbors who live in Nutangram are suffering hardship from the social boycott raised by the mosque. They own homes and land within the village and have no where else to go.

Recently Pastor Bashir and the Khoda-e-Jamat ministry have also been threatened by the Muslim extremists. When Open Doors personnel spoke with him on September 6, he said the situation was tense.

Prayer requests:

• Please pray for Pastor Bashir (42), his wife Ayeasha (39), and their daughter Noori (9), for protection and for wisdom to be able to speak the right words in times of crisis. Bashir has been threatened by the Muslim extremists. He cannot visit the believers in Nutangram as the extremists recognize him, and will not spare him in the present circumstances.
• Please pray for Johad and Tasleema and their daughter (12) as they have been excluded from their family and loved ones on account of their faith in the Lord Jesus. Pray for God’s blessings over them, as they uphold their faith in the midst of opposition.
• Please pray for the six Christian families who are being asked to deny Christ. Pray that God would strengthen them. Also pray for those in opposition, that God would soften their hearts and that they too would come to the saving knowledge of Christ.

Note: An excellent resource on MBBs is the new book “Secret Believers” (Revell, 2007) co-authored by Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors, and Al Janssen. To order the book and for more information on MBBs, go to www.secretbelievers.org.
 

* Murshidabad district is 221 kilometers north of the capital city of Kolkata, and the district shares its border with Bangladesh. The names of the MBBs living in Nutangram village have been withheld for security reasons.

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