Reportedly, Samsoon Javed was told he could either surrender his religion or his job. His mother suspects the real story may be even worse.
by Massimo Introvigne
Forced conversions of Hindus and Christians to Islam are a well-known plague in Pakistan but the case of 17-year-old Samsoon Javed includes a somewhat new element. An impoverished Christian worker was offered the alternative of converting to Islam or losing his job, according to information her mother shared with local media and journalists who regularly report on freedom of belief issues on social networks.
Samina Javed, a brick kiln worker from Bhadru Minara village in Sheikhupura District, Punjab, and a member of a Brethren church, is the mother of Samsoon Javed. Samsoon’s father, Falamoon Masih, passed away in 2018 due to illness. Samsoon is one of four children from that marriage. Samina is now married with a gentleman whose last name is Javed, from which she had another son.
In November 2023, Samsoon started a job at an LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) outlet owned by a Muslim man called Usman Manzoor. In July 2024, Umar Manzoor, Usman’s brother, asked Samsoon to move and start working at his own LPG outlet. There the problems started, according to Samina.
In September, Samsoon did not come home from work. The parents visited Umar and he told them that Samsoon had converted to Islam and did not want to go back home or see them any longer.
The mother managed to visit Samsoon some days later, when Umar was traveling. During the short meeting, the son looked terrorized, Samina reported, and kept saying that he would be fired or worse if Umar would learn that he had met his mother.
Both Samsoon and her family are extremely poor. However, Samina does not believe that Samsoon is just afraid of losing his job, although this is something he can hardly afford. She suspects he is held by the Manzoor brothers and their religious leader against his will.
That it is abduction or just blackmail, the incident looks like another chapter in the sad history of conversions obtained through illegal means in Pakistan.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
