Story number 1 for 29 Jun 2001

(Pakistan)–Topping the news, the Voice of the Martyrs requests that Christians around the world pray for Pervez Masih (PER-vehz mah-SEE), a 35-year-old Christian schoolmaster in Pakistan charged with blasphemy. VOM’s Todd Nettleton. “The reality is that these charges, we believe, were brought by a competing schoolmaster who runs a Muslim school in the same place where Pervez runs a Christian school. Apparently, this Muslim schoolmaster has trumped up these charges and coerced some students into signing a false complaint against him.” Masih has been tortured by police who are demanding that he convert to Islam. Nettleton asks believers to pray. “Pervez Masih has appealed so that the bail will be granted and he can be released from prison. So I think that we can pray that this appeal for bail will be granted so that at least while his further appeals are going forward, he can be home with his family. Pray for his spiritual health, that he will just continue to rely on God and that God would be especially close to him during this time.”