Rafiqul’s home was burnt down in hopes to drive him away
Some of Bangladesh’s majority population can be extremely intolerant toward minority religions, especially the Christian population. They often see the Christians as weak and take advantage of them in the form of illegal land grabbing, because they know they can get away with it.
Muslim background believer, Rafiqul and his family are victims of extreme intolerance. Their perpetrators have been trying for a long time to kick Rafiqul out of his own home and land, and now his house has been burnt to ashes. There is nothing left.
It happened so suddenly. When Rafiqul and his family left the house in the morning, they never expected their home to be gone by the time they came back in the afternoon.
Rafiqul and his family are all converts from Islam who live in a small village in Northern Bangladesh. They are the only Christian family in their neighbourhood.
On the 25th of August, Rafiqul and his family had gone out to complete their daily work. Sometime in the afternoon, Rafiqul heard about his home from someone in the village. He rushed home to see the damage that had taken place.
Everything was burnt – from the ceiling to the floor, except for his Bible and a few Adult Literacy books – a miracle indeed. Seeing that everything was burnt except for Rafiqul’s Bible sparked curiosity among some of his neighbours. They wondered why the Bible and the Adult Literacy books remained unburned.
The source of the fire is not identified. No one was home to have a fire burning in the morning, and there were no witnesses to testify as to how the fire started or where it came from.
“The neighbouring Muslims have been persecuting the family for the last couple of months,” said Rafiqul’s local pastor, “The perpetrators have attacked the family and even filed a false report stating that Rafiqul harassed them. The perpetrators have been trying to grab their land and property for a long time.”
Rafiqul assumes the reason for this tragedy is because the extremists in their village wanted them out of the village and he believes there is no other reason for it.
Since the incident, Rafiqul and his family have been sleeping under the open skies with just a small plastic roof over their heads to shelter them from the rain. There are nine of them in the family. No one in their neighbourhood was willing to help them because they’d converted to the Christian faith. With nothing but the clothes on their back from the day’s work, Rafiqul and his family have survived the worst.
Open Doors local partners in Bangladesh have now supported them with food and new clothes. Rafiqul and his family have managed to slowly rebuild their home in a simple way to keep dry from the rainy season. However, they could still use your prayers.
Please Pray
- Pray for the family that they will be able to overcome the situation and back to normal life soon. Pray that they will find hope in the Lord in this hardship. Pray for God to protect them from any sort of unexpected incident for there is no safe living under the open sky, especially for the women and the children. They need safe and sound sleep after working hard the whole day. Pray for God to provide them with a house soon so that they will be safe.
- Pray for the local believing Christians that they will extend their helping hands toward the family so that they will not feel alone and uncared for.
