Islamic style inter-faith outreach…

ARGODHA, Pakistan, December 13 (CDN) — An evangelist is still recovering from burns after six young Muslim men beat him with clubs and belts and set him on fire last month in a village near this Punjab Province city, the Christian told Compass.

Area Christians said they found the Rev. Wilson Augustine, 26, of Village No. 44-SB, unconscious with burns on his head, hand and arm on Nov. 22 near the bus stop of Village No. 101-NB on the outskirts of Sargodha.

Christian elders Austin Masih and Nadeem Samuel of nearby villages said that Augustine, who was ordained in a small Presbyterian church in Village No. 44-SB, was distributing pamphlets and proclaiming Christ door-to-door the previous day among Christian families of villages Nos. 79-NB, 98-NB, 99-NB, 96-NB and 101-NB some 25 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of Sargodha.

Rustam Masih, a Christian from Village No. 99-NB, told Compass that Augustine was going door-to-door in Village 96-NB when the sons of a powerful local land owner saw one of the pamphlets. Augustine later identified the six as Muhammad Usman Ghani, Muhammad Taha Khan, Talha Mehmood, Nisar Warriach, Zareen Cheema and Jamshaid Ali Ansari.

Aamir Masih, a Christian elder of the same village, said that the young Muslim men mistakenly regarded verses in the pamphlet describing the resurrection of Jesus as derogatory to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

“This angered the Muslim men, and they ordered Augustine to leave the village at once and stop preaching the gospel in Village 96-NB immediately or face the consequences,” Masih said.

…Though blinded by the headlights, Augustine recognized their voices as they hurled obscenities at him, he said. They cut their engines, and he was able to catch a glimpse of them before they started to beat him with clubs and belts, he said. They threw a cold liquid on him, he said, and lit a match box, setting him ablaze.