While VOM staff consistently work with Christian media outlets to tell the stories of persecuted believers around the world, it is sometimes frustrating that secular media outlets rarely delve into such stories.
Yet earlier this week the New York Times documented the story of an Afghan believer named Josef who is literally in hiding as his family and his in-laws try to find him and kill him for leaving Islam:
Josef’s brother-in-law Ibrahim arrived in Kabul recently, leaving behind his family and business in Pakistan, to hunt down the apostate and kill him. Reached by telephone, Ibrahim, who uses only one name, offered a reporter for The New York Times $20,000 to tell him where Josef was hiding.
“If I find him, once we are done with him, I will kill his son as well, because his son is a bastard,” Ibrahim said, referring to Josef’s 3-year-old child. “He is not from a Muslim father.”
Josef’s testimony is an interesting one. He rejected the hopelessness of Islam long before he knew about and chose to follow Christ:
“When I threw away my Islamic beliefs, I was living in a space of spiritual emptiness,” he said. “During that time I was studying different religions — Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. I was studying Islam as well.”
“I think I was impressed by the personality of Jesus himself,” he said. “The fact that he came here to take all of our sins, that moved me. I admired his character and personality long before I was baptized.”
The choice was a costly one: his in-laws planned to kill the apostate, but wanted his family’s blessing before they did so. While they sought it, Josef escaped. Today he is in hiding, knowing that both his wife’s family and his own are hunting for him. Yet even in hiding he knows the peace that comes from following Christ:
“When I threw away my convictions [of following Islam], it was hard to speak with people about it,” he said…“It was like an imaginary prison.” He paused, the light from his propane lantern casting a long shadow on the wall. “Now it is the other way around,” he said at last. “My body is in prison, but my soul is free.”
Please pray for Josef and other Christian believers in Afghanistan. The Voice of the Martyrs provides Bibles, discipleship training and other assistance to Afghan believers.
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