Posted on 01/16/2009 1:51:34 AM PST by Cindy
DHAKA, Bangladesh – Muslims in a village in western Bangladesh have forced two brothers to expel their parents from their home for converting to Christianity.
Ishmael Sheikh, 70, and his wife Rahima Khatun, 55, were baptized on Nov. 9. By the end of the month, Sheikh told Compass, Muslim neighbors in Kathuly village, near Gangni town in Meherpur district, had compelled their two sons to expel them from their house.
The ailing Sheikh told Compass that his two sons had come under tremendous pressure from neighbors in the village, which was entirely Muslim before the coupled received Christ. The neighbors threatened that the children of Sheikh’s sons would not be allowed to marry anyone from the village if the brothers allowed their parents to remain in the home.
“My sons are afraid that if we go back to home, their sons and daughters will not be married off in the Muslim society,” Sheikh said. “We are the first converted Christians in this village. Neighbors told my sons, ‘Why should your parents live in this village? They do not have right to live here because they are no longer Muslims.’”
The couple went to a shelter used by itinerant minstrels who sing traditional Bengali songs a half kilometer away from their home.
“I got salvation in Jesus,” Sheikh said. “In this shelter without food, I am ready to flirt with death by debilitating illness or by attack by Muslim neighbors, but never will I go back to Islam.”
The couple’s pastor, Jhontu Biswas, has met with their sons several times, most recently on Thursday (Jan. 8), to request that they take their parents back into their home. The sons would like to take them back but cannot because of the pressure from the Muslims, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at onenewsnow.com ...
I wonder how many people here would even require any outside pressure to drive out any relatives who had decided to convert to Islam in the same way?
> “I got salvation in Jesus,” Sheikh said. “In this shelter without food, I am ready to flirt with death by debilitating illness or by attack by Muslim neighbors, but never will I go back to Islam.”
The words of a very brave man. “Sheikh, my Brother, I remember you in my prayers tonite. I seek God’s blessing on you and your wife. Only be strong in the Lord.”
I agree and I will be praying for them, too.
In Jesus’ Holy Name.
Amen.
Ishmael Sheikh and Rahima Khatun, you may have been kicked out of your earthly home, but the Savior welcomes you into His eternal home.
God bless the couple’s pastor, Jhontu Biswas
Yes.
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