{"id":35547,"date":"2020-07-08T08:45:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T08:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=35547"},"modified":"2020-07-08T10:38:49","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T10:38:49","slug":"a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/","title":{"rendered":"A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR MAIRA SHAHBAZ"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Christian family in Pakistan fighting for the return of a 14-year-old girl reportedly abducted from her home have had their hopes raised after the Grand Mufti of a local mosque issued a fatwa.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Muhammad Asad Ali Rizvi Efi issued the Islamic ruling on behalf of the Sunni Rizvi Jammah Mosque, Jhung Bazar, Faisalabad, condemning as false (<em>batil)<\/em> a marriage certificate produced in court by Mohamad Nakash, who claims he is legally wedded to the abducted girl, Maira Shahbaz.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Faisalabad Magistrates\u2019 Court had decided in Mr Nakash\u2019s favour back in May but Maira\u2019s family hope the Grand Mufti\u2019s intervention will be crucial in an appeal hearing to be held at Lahore High Court.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking from her home in Madina Town, near Faisalabad, Maira\u2019s mother, Nighat Shahbaz, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Catholic charity for persecuted Christians, that she was longing for her daughter\u2019s return.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mrs Shahbaz, who was rushed to hospital following a heart attack at May\u2019s Faisalabad court hearing, said: \u201cEvery night at two in the morning, I wake and pray to the Lord that he will answer my prayers for Maira to be returned to us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cNobody has the right to take a child from her family without the mother\u2019s permission. She has had her childhood, her youth and everything she knows taken away from her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lala Robin Daniel, family friend and Faisalabad-based human rights activist, who is campaigning for Maira\u2019s return, said: \u201cIn terms of how the marriage is viewed within the Muslim community, the Grand Mufti\u2019s intervention is significant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Daniel said: \u201cThe marriage certificate that Mr Nakash produced is undoubtedly fake.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe signature from the imam solemnising the marriage is false, no mention is made of Mr Nakash\u2019s pre-existing marriage, there is no consent from the woman he is already married to \u2013 everything about it reveals it to be a fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Daniel said that, although police had made progress in tracing Mr Nakash, his precise whereabouts remained unknown and it is thought that he is in hiding.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two Christian men stated they saw Mr Nakash and two accomplices, wielding firearms, kidnap Maira on the afternoon of 28<sup>th<\/sup> April 2020 \u2013 during coronavirus lockdown.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When the case was heard at Faisalabad Magistrates\u2019 Court, Mr Nakash claimed he had married Maira last October when the family state she was still only 13.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Nakash claims Maira is 19 but the family have produced a birth certificate and official Church and school documents to prove she was born in 2005.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Family lawyer Khalil Tahir Sandhu has lodged a petition for the case to be heard on appeal at Lahore High Court but, with most justices on recess until September, a date has yet to be set.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/donate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35565 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-300x44.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-300x44.jpg 300w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-580x85.jpg 580w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-600x88.jpg 600w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian family in Pakistan fighting for the return of a 14-year-old girl reportedly abducted from her home have had their hopes raised after the Grand Mufti of a local mosque issued a fatwa. Muhammad Asad Ali Rizvi Efi issued the Islamic ruling on behalf of the Sunni Rizvi Jammah Mosque, Jhung Bazar, Faisalabad, condemning&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR MAIRA SHAHBAZ - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR MAIRA SHAHBAZ - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Christian family in Pakistan fighting for the return of a 14-year-old girl reportedly abducted from her home have had their hopes raised after the Grand Mufti of a local mosque issued a fatwa. Muhammad Asad Ali Rizvi Efi issued the Islamic ruling on behalf of the Sunni Rizvi Jammah Mosque, Jhung Bazar, Faisalabad, condemning...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-08T08:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-08T10:38:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ACN-20200519-101206-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"528\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"782\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/\",\"name\":\"A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR MAIRA SHAHBAZ - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ACN-20200519-101206-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-08T08:45:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-08T10:38:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/07\/08\/a-glimmer-of-hope-for-maira-shahbaz\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ACN-20200519-101206-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ACN-20200519-101206-1.jpg\",\"width\":528,\"height\":782,\"caption\":\"Maira Shahbaz (14), Catholic girl from Faisalabad. She has been abducted by Mohamad Nakash and two accomplices \u0096 all bearing arms. They bundled the 14-year-old into a car near her home, firing shots into the air as they drove off at about 2pm on 28th April 2020. 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