The story of Christians in Pakistan is stained with blood, fear, and resilience. Among countless names, one that shines with eternal defiance is that of Bishop John Joseph, who sacrificed his life in 1998 to awaken the conscience of a nation poisoned by blasphemy laws. His act was not isolated; it was deeply tied to a long chain of persecution, injustice, and false accusations. The following research brings together both historical events and my personal testimony, weaving together cases such as those of Manzoor Masih, Daniel Scott, Naimat Ahmar, Tahir Iqbal, Ayub Masih, and the lived experience of a young Christian student who himself narrowly escaped death at the hands of mullahs.
The Prophetic Kiss: Bishop John Joseph Manzoor Masih, and the Shadow of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Violence
It was a very sad and somewhat hot day of the 7th of April 1994, with the religious temperature climbing very high. It was the day of the funeral of Manzoor Masih of Gujranwala, accused of blasphemy of the prophet of Islam, who was gunned down by unknown jihadist bloodthirsty assassins two days earlier. His co-accused, Salamat Masih (a minor) and Rehmat Masih, both of them also from Gujranwala, and their common friend John Joseph of Lahore, received critical bullet injuries in the incident.
They were victims of a surprise attack of severe firing with automatic weapons by seemingly Muslim zealots who had apparently been hunting them for a long time, on the 5th of April at about 11:00 a.m. The spot of the attack was the Turner Road–Mozang Road conjunction, nearly fifty yards west of the southern gate of Lahore High Court.
Manzoor Masih received fatal injuries and breathed his last there and then. The other three were rushed to the government hospitals immediately: Salamat Masih and John Joseph to Mayo Hospital, and Rehmat Masih to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
They were receiving medical treatment under police guard to avoid further assassination attempts by the Muslims.
And now on the 7th of April, with tensions mounting very high, mourners from all over the country had gathered to join the funeral of Manzoor Masih, the “faithful unto death,” in the Catholic Cathedral on Lawrence Road in Lahore. The mourners included a large number of bishops, priests, nuns, politicians, social workers, leaders and activists of human rights and non-government organizations, and thousands of men and women representing many walks of life, faiths, and creeds.
At the conclusion of the funeral ceremony in the Cathedral, Bishop John Joseph conspicuously stepped forward to the coffin, kissed the feet of the dead body of Manzoor Masih, and addressing it, said, “I wish I had died in your place.”
Then, the funeral procession began its mournful march to the Christian cemetery of Jail Road, Gulberg, at 12:30 noon via Mall Road. The funeral did not raise protest slogans, but sang the Psalms of David in the Punjabi language. However, it stopped briefly for speeches before the Punjab Parliament building and the Governor’s House, without a response from either place. The procession kept moving at a mournful slow pace to its destination, and finally Manzoor Masih became “dust unto dust” at 2:30 p.m. By this time, the words of Bishop John Joseph were on every person’s lips, saying, “I wish I had died in his place.”
Bishop John Joseph’s kissing of Manzoor’s feet and his wish of dying in his place was real and symbolic at the same time. It leads at least to four conclusions.
Firstly, Bishop John Joseph, as a highly conscientious leader, had sensed the nature, seriousness, and direction of the fast-growing Islamic jihad activity in Pakistan, bearing the fruits of brutality, violence, and terrorism, nationally and internationally. He presumably sensed its far-reaching impact on Christian and non-Christian minorities, as well as on the enlightened and progressive Muslims.
Secondly, he responded to the pressure of his inner call and also to the outward imperatives to challenge the threat of the religious cleansing of the smaller and weaker communities posed by the violent jihadis in this region.
Thirdly, he inwardly vowed, inside the Cathedral, in the presence of thousands of faithful, before the coffin of a martyr, to launch a struggle to stop religious persecution more dynamically.
Fourthly, he visualized his obligatory role as a leader, or as a leader of leaders, to carry the cross of the most helpless, neglected, and oppressed communities and individuals on his shoulders.
The bishop, while kissing Manzoor’s feet and expressing his wish to have died in his place, might have had in mind the chain of tragic events of religious intolerance and persecution.
Billy says
ISLAM IS AHISTORICAL, FALLACIOUS, DECEITFUL, AND POLITICAL to conquer and to subjugate Non-Muslims via a MUSLIM-TERRORIST-CRIMINAL-GANG ENTERPRISE(Quran 3:54; 7:99; 8:30, etc.). There is NO MECCA, NO MUHAMMAD, and NO QURAN in the 7th century AD in Saudi Arabia despite the Muslim Standard Islamic Narrative(SIN) claims. Thus, Islam is a FACTITIOUS IDEOLOGY and CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION despicably fabricated over time into the 21sth century, and there is NO PEACE with Islam and its Murderous Muslims(Quran 8:39: 9:5, 29, 111, etc.).
Allah’s cursed Islam, a CRIMINAL-TERRORIST ENTERPRISE and a MURDEROUS-DEMONIC CULT OF BELIEVERS, Terrorist Muslim Soldiers for Allah, continually fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, mass murder, intimidation, supremacy, segregation, hatred, incitement to violence, criminality, genocide, victimhood, censorship, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law, Sharia, and in Islam’s Quran(Quran 5:14,35; 8:60; 9:41, 88, etc.).
Allah’s specious ideology in Qur’an 8:39 commands Muslims to fight Non-Muslims until they surrender to Muslim rule when it says, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” Muslims are encouraged to conquer and subjugate every territory for Islam. Hence, Islam and Muslim actions should be legally challenged with a multi-faceted force of Western Laws like Muslims wield against Westerners via Tax Exempt Organizations, the Media and Hollywood, Foreign Funding, etc. because Islam violates and is incompatible with Western Laws(Quran 8:60; 9:5,29, 111; 47:4; 49:15; 60:4 etc.).
Like a Foreign Terrorist Organization(FTO) designated by the USA Secretary of State, Islam and its Muslims function as a MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION(MTO) fighting against Non-Muslims to make Islam supreme and NOT A PEACEFUL religion under Western Law because Islam funds, teaches, and promotes Terrorist Criminal Organizations with Muslims as Terrorists for Allah(Quran 2:191; 4:89, 91; 9:5,29, 111; 49:15, etc.).
Allah’s Islam, a supremacist Antichrist Ideology, is using Western Freedoms and Laws against Non-Muslims to conquer Non-Muslims under Islamic Rule. Non-Muslims should legally designate Islam as a Muslim Terrorist Organization(MTO) where Mosques, Muslim Schools, Islamic Centers, Sharia Courts, and Muslim Organizations are banned because of their incitement of segregation and discrimination to fight back against ISLAMIZATION, Muslim subjugation, and tyrannical violence(Quran 4:65; 9:5,29,111; 60:4; 98:6-7, etc.).
Allah’s Muslims desire to make Islam supreme. Sahih Bukhari 3126 says, “… the Prophet said, He who fights so that Allah’s Word(ie. Islam) should be superior, fights for Allah’s Cause.” Allah, the Supreme Destroyer, in Quran 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah[ie. Allah’s Cause), so they kill and are killed…”. Allah teaches that Death By Jihad leads to Muslim Paradise and Allah’s reward. Allah in Qur’an 3:169 says, “And do not consider those who were killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Yet they are alive with their lord, receiving their provision.”
Under Islam and Islamic Law, Muslims have the Legal Right and the Quranic Duty to terrorize Non-Muslims because neglecting this QURANIC DUTY is a CRIME of Blasphemy, Unbelief, and Infidelity against tyrannical Allah. Jihad means warfare against Non-Muslims to ESTABLISH ISLAM’S RELIGION AS SUPREME(Quran 3:115, 151; 9:5, 29, 111; Muslim Law Manual: “Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0, etc.).
More specifically, Islam, a terroristic-totalitarian way of life, is a Muslim Terrorist Ideology and Murderous, Criminal Enterprise of: incitement, intolerance, continuous war, discrimination, oppression, segregation, slavery, supremacy, genocide, polygamy, propaganda, deceit, hatred, sedition, terrorism, and violence against all Non-Muslims as taught in the Quran(Quran 2:191, 208,216; 4:65, 89,91, 95, 115; 5:14,64; 8:12,39,60, 74; 9:5,21,29,36, 41,49, 73,88, 111,123; 21:92; 47:4; 49:15; 60:4; 61:9-11; 62:6; 89:14; etc.).
OLD GUY says
Billy your last paragraph says it all about ISLAM, yet so few in our political and leadership position recognize Islam for what it is. EVIL
GP says
Think about the Hindus in Pakistan, how they were murdered,raped, women kidnapped, massacres which the West neglected and the current Christians in Pakistan were Hindus who were systematically converted during British rule and they voted in favor of Pakistan….