"They wanted to hang me... they thought it would be an insult to Islam if I lived"

Her Islamic supremacist attackers are the ones who are really disfigured. "'They wanted to hang me... they thought it would be an insult to Islam if I lived': New beginning in Texas for Pakistani Christian woman who suffered savage acid attack by Muslim man who thought she was a traitor," by Laura Cox in the Daily Mail, July 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A 26-year-old woman horrifically burned in an acid attack has spoken out about her trauma as she re-builds her life in Houston, Texas.
Julie Aftab was 16 and working in an office in Pakistan when a man walked in and asked her if she was Christian, spotting a small cross she wore around her neck.

She replied that yes, she was and the man became abusive, shouting at her that she was living in the gutter and would go to hell for shunning Islam.

He left and returned half an hour later, clutching a bottle of battery acid which he savagely chucked over her head. As she ran screaming for the door a second man grabbed her by the hair and forced more of the liquid down her throat, searing her esophagus.

Teeth fell from her mouth as she desperately called for help, stumbling down the street.

A woman heard her cries and took her to her home, pouring water over her head and taking her to hospital.

At first the doctors refused to treat her, because she was a Christian. 'They all turned against me,' she told the Houston Chronicle.

'Even the people who took me to the hospital. They told the doctor they were going to set the hospital on fire if they treated me.'

Eventually Aftab's family found a hospital that agreed to take her in but there was little they could do.

Aftab could not speak or move her arms and the acid had burned through her skin to leave bone-deep wounds.

67 per cent of her esophagus was burned and she was missing an eye and both eyelids. What remained of her teeth could be seen through a gaping hole where her cheek had been.

Despite the odds she pulled through. She remained in hospital for a year, unable to speak or see for the first three and a half months.

On leaving the hospital she was labelled a pariah in her neighbourhood, her family was persecuted and their home was burnt down.

'They wanted to hang me,' she told the paper. 'They thought it would be an insult to Islam if I lived.'

But there was light at the end of the tunnel for Aftab. A nondenominational bishop arranged for her to be treated in Houston and to live with a local couple, Lee and Gloria Ervin, whom she now calls Uncle Lee and Auntie Gloria.

Supported by her host parents a now 26-year-old Aftab says the attack has made her faith stronger than ever.

'Those people, they think they did a bad thing to me, but they brought me closer to God,' Aftab told the paper. 'They helped me fulfill my dreams. I never imagined I could be the person I am today.'

Aftab has had 31 surgeries to reconstruct her face and has gone on to accomplish things no member of her family had done, including graduating from high school and going to college. ...

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9 Comments

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boakai ngombu | July 12, 2012 8:02 AM | Reply

Julie, may your faith in Jesus and His healing, bring you the everlasting blessings He promises.

the Allah god (as imagined) can not heal; certainly not through its spokesman Muhammad (somewhat contrived).

Mccafferty1 | July 12, 2012 8:58 AM | Reply

It doesn't seem fair, does it? Julie was serving Christ, and yet she experienced continual suffering. Why would God let one of His faithful servants go through so much pain? This isn't just a question about Julie; it's an issue many Christians that live where Islam is on the rise are facing today. In our minds, the Lord should protect His loyal followers from hardships, but He doesn't necessarily do so.

Maybe our reasoning is backwards. We think faithful Christians don't deserve to suffer, but from God's perspective, suffering is what produces faithful Christians. If we all had lives of ease without opposition, trials, or pain, we'd never really know God, because we'd never need Him. Like it or not, adversity teaches us more about the Lord than simply reading the Bible ever will.

'Those people, they think they did a bad thing to me, but they brought me closer to God,' Aftab told the paper. 'They helped me fulfill my dreams. I never imagined I could be the person I am today.'

Depending on your response, trials can be God's greatest means of building faith or an avenue to discouragement and self-pity. If you'll believe what Scripture says and apply its principles to your situation, your trust in God will grow, and your faith will be strengthened through adversity.

Genesis 50:20

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

john spielman replied to comment from Mccafferty1 | July 12, 2012 9:01 AM | Reply

excellent post!

Alexander W. | July 12, 2012 9:46 AM | Reply

How could Islam be labeled "The Religion Of Peace™" is still beyond my understanding! Moderate Muslim piety in action: 1)At first the doctors refused to treat her, because she was a Christian! 2) On leaving the hospital she was labelled a pariah in her neighbourhood, her family was persecuted and their home was burnt down....mmhhh....Could somebody please tell those moderates Muslims that islam is about dialogue, mutual respect, love for human rights and peace? Where did these Muslims get the strange idea that Christians are to be persecuted? Mmhh...The Koran strikes again!

Battle_of_Tours | July 12, 2012 11:15 AM | Reply

Snake biting its own tail news in 'moderate' Indonesia:

Shiite cleric convicted for blasphemy in Indonesia

He was awarded two years in prison for suggesting prayers be reduced from five times daily to three, and that warlord Companions of Muhammad were 'infidels'.... Tsk tsk, it's not nice to say bad things about Islam... Allah remains deafeningly silent, as always, but his slaves will be sure, with murderous intent, to see to it you are severely punished.

salah | July 12, 2012 4:40 PM | Reply

Acid attacks on the rise in islamic regions. In ISLAMIC regions!!! (The Progressive Women's Association - Pakistan)
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/05/acid-attacks.html

fitna replied to comment from Mccafferty1 | July 13, 2012 9:02 AM | Reply

I thought your god protected his bleating sheep. Sometimes he lets them get mauled and disfigured so they could be 'closer to him.'

Maybe it should be the goal of all Christians to be doused by acid by muslim attackers so they could also be closer to god?

Why fight Islam if everything is part of god's plan? Why not just sit back and let Islam take over?

Christian woman gets disfigured in acid attack = God's will. So don't bother fighting back.

Or just maybe there is no god and these are just two groups of humans who follow different mythologies-one far more malevolent and savage than the other?

And that no god will ever intercede and save us from such muslim monsters-it is up to us to defeat them. Just a thought.

Mccafferty1 replied to comment from fitna | July 13, 2012 12:58 PM | Reply

I understand you’re more rational and realistic conclusions, which makes them seem superior to those who believe in supposedly nonrational spiritual truths. It is important to note in this connection that, from a biblical perspective, “irrational” is not the only alternative to “rational.” There is a third category called transrational—a level of thinking that is not irrational though it is beyond human rationality.

For example, God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9). This passage refers to thoughts and ways that are beyond (trans-) human thoughts and ways, beyond human comprehension.

Therefore, while belief in an unseen God may appear humanly irrational because it is beyond the limited reach of the human mind, it is perfectly rational from God’s perspective, which we embrace as Christians.

Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

dumbledoresarmy replied to comment from fitna | July 13, 2012 9:56 PM | Reply

Fitna

you will find a much less simplistic discussion of evil, suffering, and the Biblical God, in Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart's "The Doors of the Sea".

the short version is here:

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3301

Where Was God? An Interview with David Bentley Hart

Hart argues very strongly against any kind of 'Christian fatalism'.

He discusses 'The Brothers Karamazov' and states:

"...This is what he [Ivan] finds intolerable: the notion that the suffering of children will prove to have been meaningful, to have had a purpose, to have been in some sense a good and necessary thing; for him, the suffering of children is an infinite scandal, and his conscience could never allow it to sink to the level of some provisional passage through darkness on the way to some radiant future.

"My contention is that this places Ivan’s sensibility much nearer to the authentic vision of the New Testament than are many of the more pious and conventional forms of Christian conviction today

"The gospel of the ancient church was always one of rebellion against those principalities and powers -- death chief among them -- that enslave and torment creation; nowhere does the New Testament rationalize evil or accord it necessity or treat it as part of the necessary fabric of God’s world."

"All that Christian scripture asserts is that evil cannot defeat God’s purposes or thwart the coming of his kingdom.

"Divine providence, of course, will always bring about God’s good ends despite -- and in a sense through -- the evils of this world; but that is not the same thing as saying that evil has a *necessary* part to play in God’s plans, and that God *required* evil to bring about the kingdom.

"As the empty tomb of Christ above all reveals, the verdict of God that rescues and redeems creation also overturns the order of the fallen world, and shatters the powers of historical and natural necessity that the fallen world comprises. "...

'Q: Does your understanding of evil have implications for pastoral practice in the face of evil?

'A [Hart speaking] : "I honestly don’t know. I haven’t a pastoral bone in my body.

"But I would implore pastors never to utter banal consolations concerning God’s "greater plan" or the mystery of his will.

"The first proclamation of the gospel is that death is God’s ancient enemy, whom God has defeated and will ultimately destroy.

"I would hope that no Christian pastor would fail to recognize that that completely shameless triumphalism -- and with it an utterly sincere and unrestrained hatred of suffering and death -- is the surest foundation of Christian hope, and the proper Christian response to grief...".

So, where is the Biblical God in this story from Pakistan?

Not in the acid-thrower, who chose - possessed by the demonic - to do evil; but in the rush of charity from representatives of the Church Universal who swooped in to rescue this girl from the horrors of dhimmitude, and from death, and whisked her away to a safe place where she could be healed physically and psychologically.

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