A minister whose mother and 19 other family members were murdered by terrorists a decade ago has told of how he was able to resist revenge.

Rev Aftab Gohar says he found peace through Jesus Christ after a double suicide bomber attack at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan on September 22 2013.

There were 122 people killed and 250 injured in the bombings.

The parishioners had just left the church for a meal in the grounds when the bombers struck.

Among them was Mr Gohar’s 79-year-old mother, Iqbal Gohar, as well as his nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts and friends.

The minister, who oversees Eddleston, Peebles Old Parish, and Stobo and Drumelzier churches in the Scottish Borders, said his relatives “died for their faith”.

Although Pakistan’s official religion is Islam, the country’s constitution gives citizens freedom of faith.

However, religious minorities are often attacked and the country’s blasphemy laws have been used to discriminate against non-Muslims.

Mr Gohar believes the law is used as a means to justify attacks, such as a number of church and house burnings in Jaranwala near Faisalabad, Pakistan, last month.

Open Doors, a charity that supports persecuted Christians around the world, ranked Pakistan in seventh place in its top 50 countries where Christian persecution is most rife.

Reflecting on the attack, Mr Gohar said: “It was a very hard time for us all and I was questioning ‘why did it happen to those who were very regular churchgoers?’

“Those who didn’t go to church on that day, did they do the right thing?

“The Bible says ‘when you are persecuted because of your faith in Jesus, you are blessed’. They all died for their faith.

“It was hard for me to forgive those responsible but with the strength of God I did so and freed myself from the extra burden of hatred and revenge.”

He added: “On the cross, Jesus prayed for those who were crucifying him: ‘Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing’.

“Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ – a lesson that some people find impossible to follow.”

Last week Mr Gohar and a number of campaigners handed a petition to Syed Zahid Raza, consul general of Pakistan for Scotland and Northern Ireland, at the Consulate of Pakistan in Glasgow.

The petition called on Pakistan’s government to improve safety for religious minorities, and for the blasphemy law to include punishing those who destroy Bibles or burn down churches and homes.

Mr Gohar says he was inspired by Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who helped Jewish people escape the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The minister commented: “She said ‘forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuff of hatred’.

“It is a power that breaks chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”

The minister was ordained into the Church of Pakistan in 1995, having come to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh in 1998-1999.

He later came back to Scotland to work as a full-time minister in 2008.

Mr Gohar and his wife Samina and their two adult sons, Shahan and Zeeshan, are now British citizens.

Shahan married in Pakistan last year.

Mr Gohar says the loss of his family was felt strongly at the wedding.

Rt Rev Sally Foster-Fulton, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Pakistan as they mark the anniversary of this horrific and unjustified attack on peaceful churchgoers.

“We are united in sorrow as we reflect on the impact this atrocity had on the families of the victims and survivors and sadly Christians continue to be persecuted today.”

She added: “The Church continues to engage with ecumenical and international partners on the misuse of the blasphemy law and we call on the government of Pakistan to redouble its efforts to protect minority groups.”

The Consulate of Pakistan in Glasgow was contacted for comment.

The former leader of Britain First is standing for election in the same constituency as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

Jayda Fransen was confirmed as an independent candidate in Glasgow Southside when nominations closed on Wednesday.

Ms Fransen had announced earlier this year that she planned to stand against the “SNP commie, Marxists, naughty people”.

Although a member of the British Freedom Party, documents from Glasgow City Council show Ms Fransen will be running as an independent.

She has previously been convicted of a number of religiously-aggravated crimes, including harassment in both 2016 and 2018 – the latter of which saw her sentenced to 36 weeks in prison.

Ms Fransen has also been pictured outside the constituency office of Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf holding a sign saying “It’s okay to be white” and “All lives matter”.

Speaking outside the city chambers in Glasgow, Ms Fransen, along with Joe Finnie – described as the Glasgow organiser of the British Freedom Party who will be standing in Glasgow Pollok against Mr Yousaf – said: “We can’t wait for this election, we’re really excited and now we can really kick-start the campaign.

“There’s a lot coming guys and as Joe said: Bring it on.”

Ms Fransen was the deputy leader and leader of Britain First before her departure from the party in 2019.

She stood in the Rochester and Strood Westminster by-election in 2014, winning 56 votes.

Meanwhile Jim Dowson, a founding member of Britain First, is standing in the Airdrie and Shotts constituency.

In a video on the British Freedom Party channel of online video platform Purged.tv, Mr Dowson said: “I’m really looking forward to the people of Airdrie at last having the chance to vote for one of their own, because I don’t mince my words and I’m not there to represent everybody, which all the politicians say, I’m there to represent our people, British people, everybody else can go and take a run and jump.”

Mr Dowson will be standing against former SNP MP Neil Gray, who has vacated his Westminster seat to run for Holyrood.

In a request for funding during the video, Mr Dowson described himself, Ms Fransen and Mr Finnie as “machine guns” and donations as “bullets”.

He added: “Your pound notes equate into weapons of war against our enemy.

“Against the people who are trying to destroy our country and in turn our people themselves.

“We have to get behind this and we have to get wired into this.”

The murder of Asad Shah, the Glasgow based shopkeeper was a brutal affair. We know this, partly because the spiritual leader of the Islamist group Tehrik-e-Labaik, Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, described in detail the actions that the convicted murderer, Tanveer Ahmed, undertook on the defenceless Shah.

The description of the murder of Asad Shah was not made in dusgust by Hussain Rizvi, the spiritual leader of the Islamist group in Pakistan. Yet, it was made in a manner which lionised the murderer, calling him a ‘Ghazi’ or warrior for the defence of Islam.

In September of this year, the Islamist party won over 7,000 votes in a local election and the Party was born from lionising another convicted murderer, Mumtaz Qadri. Qadri was the bodyguard of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, who subsequently went onto murder him at an Islamabad market in January 2011. Taseer was an outspoken critic of the country’s Blasphemy Laws and he had defended the rights of Christian minorities and individuals like Asia Bibi. Out of this brutal murder was born the Tehrik-e-Labaik Islamist party which has also acquired recorded phone conversations with Tanveer Ahmed, from Barlinnie prison in Scotland. Ahmed’s ‘messages’ to people in Pakistan have been played to Tehrik-e-Labaik audiences in the country who sit around their spiritual leader Hussain Rizvi. Rizvi has used the audio-tapes to whip up his audiences into frenzies, using deeply emotive language around the defence of Prophet Muhammad, whilst urging listeners to defend their faith. This has been code for the use of threats and violence.

The recorded phone conversations are used to whip up audiences into a frenzy around Hussain Rizvi who regularly has made a point of lionising Tanveer Ahmed,  now in Barlinnie prison. The main theme for Tehrik-e-Labaik has been the ‘defence’ of Islam and the vilification of those who ‘blaspheme’ against Islam, yet it is so easy to forget the brutal actions of people like Ahmed in this extremist charade which is being played out in Pakistan. It is important to reflect on the comments of Judge Lady Rae who presided over the murder trial of Tanveer Ahmed.

Summing up after the guilty verdict of Ahmed, Judge Lady Rae told him:

“This was a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much loved man who was a pillar of the local community.”

We were notified last week of a Facebook page to the self-confessed killer of Asad Shah, Tanveer Qadiri. The Facebook page, which has 1,621 ‘Likes’ on it, (as of the 10th of July), glorifies and attracts sympathisers who glorify the killer of Asad Shah who was brutally attacked outside his shop in Glasgow. The attack was so frenzied that the killer carried on assaulting the body of Asad Shah, after it was clear that he was seriously wounded in the knife attack.

We are deeply concerned that this Facebook page has not been removed by the social media company and we have also reported it in today. It may well be that a report has not been made on this page before and we would urge members of the public to report it in. It is simply unacceptable.

The pro-Tanveer Qadiri Facebook page also has a number of chilling pictures and rhetoric on it which come across as threatening against the Ahmaddiya movement. For example, the following picture on the Facebook page states:

“Terrorist curse on him,” (Mirza Masroor Qadiyani)

The statement also has a red cross marking out the face of the Caliph of the global Ahmaddiya community who is pictured in the graphic and comes across as suggesting that his personal safety may be in danger.

Also highlighted on the horrendous Facebook page is abuse against the father of the murdered Asad Shah. Not only does the Facebook praise his killer, it also abuses Asad Shah’s father, whom a recent Newsnight report by Secunder Karmani highlighted as having come to Scotland to flee from persecution in Pakistan. The graphic below also seems to indicate that the material may have come from the KhatmeNubowwat (KN) group which has taken a stridently anti-Ahmaddiya approach and with speakers at their events regularly using derogatory terms against the Ahmaddiya community.

Given that the Facebook page praises someone who killed another citizen in broad daylight because of religious differences, the comments and graphics are simply chilling. We, collectively, as citizens of our country must not allow such glorification of the actions of a killer to be justified. We would therefore urge members of the public to report this page in and the link can be found here.

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The man accused of murdering the Glasgow shopkeeper, Asad Shah, has made a statement in court through his solicitors. He stated that he carried out the killing because Mr Shah had, according to him, “disrespected” Islam.

The accused, Mr Tanveer Ahmed from Bradford, issued the statement and suggested that Mr Shah was targeted because he thought of himself as a Prophet. This, according to the Mr Ahmed, meant that he has disrespected Islam and his statement denied that the murder was based on any comments that the deceased had regarding Easter and Christianity.

Mr Shah was found outside his shop and had suffered serious head injuries in the Shawlands area of Glasgow. His death led to an outpouring of grief from all communities and to condolences from a range of communities in the City.

Statement Made by John Rafferty, Mr Ahmed’s Lawyer

“My client Mr Tanveer Ahmed has specifically instructed me that today, 6 April 2016, to issue this statement to the press, the statement is in the words of my client.

“This all happened for one reason and no other issues and no other intentions.

“Asad Shah disrespected the messenger of Islam the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Mr Shah claimed to be a Prophet.

“When 1400 years ago the Prophet of Islam Muhammad peace be upon him has clearly said that ‘I am the final messenger of Allah there is no more prophets or messengers from God Allah after me.

“‘I am leaving you the final Quran. There is no changes. It is the final book of Allah and this is the final completion of Islam. There is no more changes to it and no one has the right to claim to be a Prophet or to change the Quran or change Islam.’

“It is mentioned in the Quran that there is no doubt in this book no one has the right to disrespect the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and no one has the right to disrespect the Prophet of Islam Muhammad Peace be upon him.

“If I had not done this others would and there would have been more killing and violence in the world.

“I wish to make it clear that the incident was nothing at all to do with Christianity or any other religious beliefs even although I am a follower of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him I also love and respect Jesus Christ.”

The killing of Asad Shah in Glasgow which has been widely reported on was shocking and has left a deep impact on communities in Glasgow. Since the case is with prosecutors, we cannot go into further details, suffice as to say that intra-Muslim sectarian hate has for far too long, been brushed off as being ‘internal disagreements’ within Muslim communities and where anti-Shia and anti-Ahmaddiya rhetoric has been allowed to fester without being challenged.  Whilst people have the right to disagree on issues of theology and on core elements of it, creating the mood music by dehumanising one group or another through language should set off alarm bells for those who care about community integration and community relations.

Yet, we have seen time and time again, Ahmaddiya’s being regarded as being less than animals and some commentators within Muslim communities have made similar remarks on social media. Such dehumanization is unacceptable as are threats to minority communities.

The murder of Asad Shah may well be a turning point on intra-Muslim hatred and which we also record in Tell MAMA. If there is anything positive that comes out from this appalling murder, it is that behaviours change so that open hatred against certain groups within Muslim communities stops. As we have said before, people can disagree on theological elements and sometimes these discussions can be heated and passionate, since faith touches the core of some people. However, when it turns into the dehumanization of individuals and when terms are used which put at risk the lives of members of a certain community, then a line has been crossed.

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The murder of Asad Shah has left a huge imprint on many communities, both Muslim ad non-Muslim. The 40-year-old was deeply respected and had posted a social media post thanking the Christian nation that had given him so much. He also highlighted the role of Christ in Islam and had truly straddled and held dearly, being British and being Muslim. It seems that in many ways, he was at peace in his adopted country.

His brutal murder and the violent manner in which he was treated, means that his death is something that we should actively mark. We should mark any murder, with a desire to redouble our efforts to value the sanctity of life and when someone is violated in such a manner, we should stand together and make clear that we as a society cannot and will not accept such actions. Many have done that by standing in silence, together – people of faith and no-faith. It is testament to his personality and to his humanity.

Whatever, the motivation, we know that Police Scotland regard this murder as religiously motivated. Asad Shah was an Ahmaddiya and the murderer, another Muslim of Sunni heritage. We cannot extrapolate and we must not influence process where justice needs to take its course. Yet, the current information provided is worrying and may indicate sectarian hatred.

We will however highlight the fact that we come across anti-Shia and anti-Ahmaddiya rhetoric through the work we do in Tell MAMA. We have highlighted this before on many occasions and these can be found here, here and here and our Director has also highlighted this issue. 

The fact is that such hate against fellow citizens cannot and should not be tolerated. It is unacceptable and should not longer be regarded as an ‘intra-Muslim’ issue. They are hate incidents and are recorded as such by us and dealt with in an identical manner by the police. We must remain vigilant against such forms of intolerance and whilst people may have differences in opinion, openly stating threats against Ahmaddiya Muslims or Shia Muslims is unacceptable.  We should not tolerate such hatred and sectarianism any more.

Examples of Sectarian Material Circulated

These are some of the examples of material that we have picked up:

The post Murder of Asad Shah Has Taken Something From Us All. appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Two Glasgow based young female Muslims contacted Tell MAMA today. The young women are aged 16 and 21 years old and with the younger female wearing a Hijab and the older one, a Hijab and a Niqab.

On Saturday the 17th of October at 11 pm, the girls were waiting to enjoy some desserts in a restaurant and noticed a group of two white males and females. As they walked past the table of the sisters, one of the men was overheard saying, “why has she got that on her face,” at the Niqab wearing female. The sisters decided to ignore the comment and carried on looking through the menus.

A little while later the Niqab wearing female headed to the toilets and as she did, she noticed loud shouting coming from her table. She turned round and headed back to find the group harassing her elder sister and they stated, “get that f***** piece of s*** of your head you b****“. The group were swearing at the seated Muslim female and as the young sister approach the table, the group started abusing her. They stated, “and why has she got her f***** face covered.“

The women stated to Tell MAMA that none of the staff who heard the anti-Muslim abuse intervened. Both sisters did not react as the abuse continued in the restaurant with no bystander helping in any way.

The perpetrators it seems, decided to continue conversations with staff in the restaurant and as one of the females got up to order some food from the till, she was informed that the staff could not serve them. Hungry, angry and humiliated the young women left the restaurant and felt that the staff had acted in a manner which supported the actions of the perpetrators.

This case has been passed to Police Scotland for action.

The post Glasgow Based Hate Incident Shows Aggression Levels That are Concerning appeared first on TELL MAMA.