Former Muslim arrested for ‘forced conversions’

SRINAGAR, India — Peerzada Shakeel, a convert to Christianity from Islam in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, was arrested along with his wife, Arifa, on March 26 on false charges of forced conversions after he refused to deny Christ. On March 21, members of the local mosque broke into his house and beat Shakeel, asking him why he was not offering Islamic prayers. They dragged him to the mosque and struck him more when he told them he would worship none other than Christ. Shakeel’s father, local mosque member Peerzada Gulam Nabi, brought the charge against him, and Shakeel and his wife were arrested and taken to the Ram Munshi Bagh police station at Sonwar, Srinagar. Since becoming a Christian in 2006, Shakeel has faced severe opposition from his family and community; he and his wife had begun studying at a Bible school in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2006, but family and community pressure forced them to finish the studies in another state. Shakeel and his wife were released on bail March 27 but remain under house arrest now.