
Shamraiz Masih, 14, of Sultan City, Sargodha, Pakistan, was forcibly transformed to Islam by his Muslim employer on July 21, 2025. (CDI-MSN courtesy of household)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Day by day Worldwide–Morning Star Information) – The Muslim employer of a Christian boy forcibly transformed him to Islam and is preserving him in his unlawful custody, the household’s legal professional mentioned.
In Sultan City, Sargodha in Punjab Province, 14-year-old Shamraiz Masih went to a market on July 21 and didn’t return, legal professional Tahir Naveed Chaudhry mentioned. Shamraiz had begun as an apprentice at a motorbike restore workshop owned by Rana Munir after the dying of his father, Imran Masih, 4 months in the past, Chaudhry mentioned.
After trying to find him with out success, Shamraiz’s brothers registered a First Data Report (FIR) of abduction.
“In the meantime, somebody knowledgeable them that they’d seen Shamraiz and Munir coming into the Madina Ghausia Madrassa [Islamic seminary] situated within the Firm Bagh neighborhood,” Chaudhry advised Christian Day by day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “When the boys went to the madrassa and requested for his or her brother, they have been advised that Shamraiz had willfully transformed to Islam and was not part of their household.”
Shamraiz, a member of the native Presbyterian church, belongs to a really poor household, and his widowed mom was pressured to ship him to work after his father’s dying. Chaudhry mentioned that Shamraiz’s brother Sahil Masih had initially filed the kidnapping case in opposition to unknown individuals, however when Munir’s position was uncovered, his identify was added to the FIR as major suspect.
The legal professional discovered that on July 22, an utility was filed within the courtroom of Rana Sohail Riaz, Justice of the Peace Part-30 Sargodha, in Shamraiz’s Muslim identify, “Muhammad Umar,” in search of permission to file his assertion within the abduction FIR registered by his brother, Sahil Masih.
“Within the utility, ‘Umar’ claimed that he was a 15-year-old ‘grownup’ and had transformed to Islam of his free will after getting ‘impressed’ by Islamic teachings,” Chaudhry mentioned. “He additionally claimed that his brother had registered a faux abduction case in opposition to Rana Munir which must be dismissed as a result of he had left dwelling willingly.”
The Justice of the Peace issued discover to Sahil Masih and the investigation officer for Friday (July 25). Complying with the courtroom’s directive, relations and their legal professional appeared earlier than the Justice of the Peace that day, however Shamraiz didn’t.
“As a substitute, the police submitted a doc in line with which Shamraiz had recorded his assertion within the courtroom of Muhammad Kashif Pasha, particular judicial Justice of the Peace in Lahore, on July 24, reiterating his declare of willful conversion,” Chaudhry mentioned. “After seeing the courtroom’s doc, Decide Riaz disposed of Shamraiz’s utility.”
Those that forcibly transformed Shamraiz to Islam deliberately acquired his assertion recorded in a Lahore courtroom to stop the household from assembly their son, Chaudhry mentioned.
“If Shamraiz had appeared within the courtroom in Sargodha, he would have absolutely revealed the reality after seeing his mom and brothers, which is why they took him to Lahore,” he mentioned. “We are going to now take this matter to the superior courts, as a result of Shamraiz’s mom is his authorized guardian even when the opposite facet claims that he has transformed to Islam.”
It was apparent that Munir forcibly transformed Shamraiz to Islam to maintain him in everlasting bondage, Chaudhry mentioned.
“There’s no different believable motive for this alleged conversion,” he added.
The legal professional, a former member of the Punjab Provincial Meeting, mentioned that he had reached out to native Muslim leaders and to attempt to persuade them to assist get better the boy.
“We advised the spiritual leaders that we’re not against adults altering their religion, however we can’t stay silent on pressured religion conversions of minor youngsters,” he mentioned. “Nevertheless, we didn’t get any optimistic response from them.”
The problem of the boy’s pressured religion conversion surfaced within the Punjab Provincial Meeting’s session on Friday (July 25), the place Falbous Christopher, chairman of the standing committee on human rights and minorities affairs, and different Christian lawmakers condemned the act and sought the federal government’s intervention.
“The appeals of the boy’s widowed mom for his restoration have precipitated ache and anguish in the complete Christian neighborhood,” Christopher mentioned. “How is it potential that solely a 14-year-old illiterate boy acquired inclined in direction of Islam whereas his different relations are nonetheless Christian? Such incidents convey a foul identify for the nation, and it’s time that the federal government takes motion in opposition to abduction and compelled conversions of minor ladies and boys.”
Makes an attempt to forcibly convert Christian boys or males to Islam are uncommon in Pakistan. Christian and Hindu ladies and younger girls are continuously kidnapped and compelled to “convert” to Islam earlier than being coerced into marrying a Muslim.
In September, a 17-year-old Christian boy, Samsoon Javed, who labored at a fuel outlet owned by Umar Manzoor, a Muslim in Bhadru Minara village, Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province, was forcibly transformed to Islam by his employer.
Some Muslims consider that the mere recitation of shahada (“Kalima” in Urdu, the Islamic proclamation of religion) is enough to transform a non-Muslim to Islam, even when there isn’t any perception and it doesn’t matter what circumstances encompass the “conversion.” As soon as an individual turns into a Muslim, she or he is taken into account apostate in the event that they return to their authentic religion.
Apostasy is punishable by dying, imprisonment or confiscation of property in line with Islamic legislation, although in trendy occasions that is hardly ever practiced on the state stage. Some zealous Muslims, nonetheless, have believed they have been doing the fitting factor by attacking or killing apostates.
Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Listing of probably the most troublesome locations to be a Christian.
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