Arrest Threat and UN Scapegoats Israel Again

Arrest Threat and UN Scapegoats Israel Again

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Guest: Shaheryar Gill

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 7/31/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, welcome back to our program to our Friday edition. We’re super excited to be here with you on Friday right before the weekend. And I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. And joining me as a special guest to give us insights into a lot of things going on really all over the world, but even here right now in the United States is Attorney Shaheryar Gill. Shaheryar from ACLJ. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to be on our program with us again.

Shaheryar Gill:

Thank you for having me, Isaac.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, Shaheryar, as you and everybody listening probably knows if you’ve been looking at the news this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been over here in the United States. He was at the memorial service for Lindsey Graham and he’s doing things. I think he’s mostly in the DC area. They’re working on stuff, of course, connecting and coordinating with what’s been going on in the war with Iran. But you would think a prime minister, especially from an ally nation like Israel coming over to the United States, it makes a little bit of news, but it seems like probably a good thing that he’s over here connecting. But there’s been some interesting news out of New York, and I live in New York, but out of New York City where the mayor of New York City who running for office, he seemed to be very anti-Israel or anti-Benjamin Netanyahu based on some of the things he said.

And he seemed to be more or less promising that he would try to have Netanyahu arrested in New York City if he were ever to come. And so now that Benjamin Netanyahu is in the States right now and he’s planning to be in New York City in September when he comes back in September. And it’s kind of like people are like, “Oh, a showdown is brewing.” And I think it was last week, I think officially July 21st or 22nd, I think July 21st, maybe some of it had come out. But the mayor, Mamdani of New York City, he released a statement and he basically said he doesn’t really have the authority to do that arrest that he had been promising. But in the statement, and Sheriah, there’s so much of this we’ve talked about to some degree, but there’s all this new stuff now. But in this statement, he called Prime Minister Netanyahu a war criminal.

Those are his words. And he went on into that and was kind of defiant even as he admitted that he really couldn’t. And he was pleading with the federal government that they have the ability that they could arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. And he said, “I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City.” Now, this goes back to something that you’ve been explaining to us, Sheriah, for quite a while, but the ICC had issued an arrest warrant for him. So anyways, you’ve written an article on this. I’m going to try to put this on our social media, but could you give us some of your thoughts and explanation of why New York City Mayor Mamdani cannot have Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if or when he comes to New York City as he is planning to do soon to visit the UN?

Shaheryar Gill:

Yes. Isaac, you have already stated, he has already admitted he was wrong the first time. There’s not going to be a showdown. There’s not going to be any arrest. The ICC arrest warrants have no legal value in the United States. Heads of state, they have immunity under international law. Plus the federal government, especially the president and the state department here in the US have authority to deal with foreign affairs matters, which is constitutionally designated to the president. So the courts also defer to the state department on questions of immunity, who has immunity, who the state department revokes immunity. That’s no business of a mayor or even any state official, if you will. It’s only the sole responsibility of the president to grant or revoke immunity. So whatever powers, the police powers the city or a state official might have are preempted by the federal government’s authority over foreign affairs.

So there’s not going to be an arrest.

Isaac Crockett:

This is such a loaded thing. And we’re going to get into this in the next segment too, Shayer, but let’s just say if a situation would arise where something like this does become a showdown. So you have a New York City mayor issuing the arrest warrant. In this case, he was threatening this against Netanyahu. How does that work? Who’s providing the security for somebody like Benjamin Netanyahu? Would we have federal police and state or local police or whatever coming to a head? And if a situation like that starts to happen, who would win, I guess would be the ultimate question.

Shaheryar Gill:

The answer is clear, of course, the federal government has the authority, but let me kind of elaborate in three different points. First, the ICC arrest warrants have no legal value. And why is that? They don’t have legal value in the United States because the United States is not a party to the Rome statute. Jerome statute is the treaty that created the ICC. And under international law, a state is not bound by the terms of the treaty if that state has not ratified the treaty. The US has not or never ratified the treaty. So ICC warrants have no value whatsoever. No legal value in the US. It’s a piece of paper. So therefore no state or US state or city official has any authority to enforce the warrants that don’t have any legal value to begin with. Second, even if let’s say the US was a party to their own statute, it would still be up to the federal government to determine how to comply with the treaty.

So the federal executive’s authority still supersedes a state or city official’s authority. Third, the US has ratified another treaty that governs the matter. So one treaty, as we see, their own statutes have not been ratified. The other treaty we have ratified, and that treaty is the UN Convention on Privileges and Immunities. The US government is in fact obligated to provide immunity to foreign government officials who come to the UN for UN business.

Prime Minister Netanyahu who comes for UN business to address this general assembly, he’s going to have immunity under that treaty. So basically our Constitution, Article six of the Constitution states that the treaties that the US government has ratified are the supreme law of the land. So therefore, basically no state or city official has any authority to arrest a foreign head of state who is under the protection of the US government. Now he’s going to be in the protection of the feds. And guess what? Who’s going to win the jurisdictional battle between a city police officer and an FBI agents or even Secret Service? Obviously it’s going to be FBI agents and Secret Service. So there’s not going to be an arrest. There’s not going to be a showdown. And obviously the federal government has full authority to provide protection to the Prime Minister.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, it sounds like then there’s a lot of political theater here opportunity, but it doesn’t sound like there’s any substance to what the New York City mayor is raging about. And as you’re bringing that up about these treaties that have been ratified or not, it doesn’t sound like the mayor is correct about any of this stuff then because it does not sound like the federal government could issue an arrest warrant since that would break their own law, their own treaty. And since the ICC is not recognized, that is not a treaty that we ratified, so we didn’t recognize it. So a lot to do about nothing, but there’s a lot more about this that we need to discuss. We need to look at what the UN is doing. Again, the UN is trying to scapegoat Israel, blame Israel for things they supposedly did. And even the whole situation of the arrest warrant from the ICC.

Just a lot of these things going on in this visit from Netanyahu sort of brings it up. We want to go into more detail about that and many other topics when we come back on Stand in the Gap Today. Well, welcome back to the program. And I’m Isaac Crockett and we’re talking with attorney Shari R. Gill from the American Center for Law and Justice. And Sheria, as we’re talking about justice, we’ve brought up this visit from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and it’s kind of some of this blustering coming from New York City Mayor Zoran Mandani. And one of the things is he’s been threatening the arrest of Netanyahu. And then it came out late last week, and I think this might have even been after you had written an article on it, that he’s even admitting, okay, he doesn’t really have the legal power to do that.

But even in saying that, he still is, I don’t say defiant reading an ACLJ article by Logan Seculo. And he was quoting from some different sources, but what he’s doing and saying even in this video where he’s admitting he doesn’t have the power, it seems to be putting kind of a dangerous situation for Netanyahu’s visit when he says, let me make it clear. I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City. And he says this, accusations against Netanyahu. These accusations are coming from a source that you’re very familiar with, Shaheryar, from the United Nations, from the ICC. And we want to get you to explain some of this, but he says this, he says, Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people. He goes on, he says, and this is Mamdani again.

He, talking about Netanyahu, is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children. He goes on, he says, for the gunning down of aid workers. He says, “And just last month, the UN confirmed that Palestinian children continued to be deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces more than eight months after the so-called ceasefire.” And then Mamdani says the list goes on and on. Okay. I’m going to stop reading from there for now. All right. So that’s a lot coming from New York City’s mayor. Shaheryar, can you take us back? Let’s start with the ICC, the supposed arrest warrant. Let’s look again at their authority. They don’t have authority in America. Do they have authority in Israel? Do they have authority over Netanyahu? And then let’s just look at this war criminal terminology that Mamdani’s using.

And then after that, I have questions for you about the UN and their International Mission of Inquiry, which I believe the mayor was also referencing. But let’s start with the arrest warrant and all of that. Can you kind of explain that and talk about this war criminal stuff that they’re saying?

Shaheryar Gill:

Right. So Isaac, to answer this question, let’s look at a couple of things. First, short and simple answer is that Israel, like the United States, is not a party to their own statute. So therefore ICC has no jurisdiction over Israeli officials. So that’s a short answer. Second, we must also look at the law of armed conflict to understand about this war, criminal kind of allegations. War is a violent activity. Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, committed horrible crimes, butchering people, raping women, mutilating them, desecrating dead bodies. Now to defend itself, Israel began an operation against Hamas. Now that itself is a legitimate military action. That’s one part of the equation. The second part of the equation is that now once a military conflict has started, individual military strikes must also comply with the laws of war. One such law is that civilians must not be deliberately targeted.

Belligerents, both parties must be always distinguished between military objectives and civilians. Only military objectives may be legitimately targeted. Now, Israel does not deliberately target civilians. Hamas, on the other hand, does exactly that. We also know that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Israel, on the other hand, takes every precaution to minimize civilian harm, including giving warnings to evacuate areas before conducting a military strike at a legitimate military target. So if any collateral casualties occur, that does not automatically mean that Israel has committed a war crime. It is the intentional killing, the deliberate targeting of civilians that constitutes a war crime. And knowing from the facts, evidence of the entire conflict in the Middle East, we know that Israel does not target civilians. So for these reasons, the warrants against the prime minister have no support in the laws of armed conflict.

Isaac Crockett:

Now, I’m going back to a program we did months ago. I don’t know if it was even what year it was, maybe last year. And you compared this sort of to like a homeowner’s association. If there’s maybe a neighbor down the street from the homeowners association, the HOA can’t enforce their rules on that house that’s not within their boundaries. But then secondly, as you just said, even according to international rules of warfare, they are not targeting. So this is false, but somehow they’ve gone and done this. Before we go on asking about the UN International Commission of Inquiry, I know that you have done a lot of work with the ICC. Maybe you could just explain what you’ve done trying to defend truth and justice in this situation for not just Benjamin Netanyahu, but for all who have been falsely accused of this.

Shaheryar Gill:

Yeah. Isaac, we have participated numerous times at the ICC defending Israel, but also defending the US government. Remember our US war in Afghanistan. US government was also under an investigation by the ICC for war crimes in Afghanistan. And we have defended the US government basically making the same argument before the ICC, that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the US. So we have filed multiple legal briefs in the case against Israel and as well as against the United States, arguing that the ICC has no jurisdiction.

So that’s really just the part at the ICC. The other aspect, as you also touched upon, the United Nations, that’s another place where Israel is a constant target of false accusations. And you mentioned about the UN Commission of Inquiry, which is a body created by the Human Rights Council to investigate violations of human rights in Israel and the so-called Palestinian territories, which is the West Bank in Gaza. But for the most part, the UN Commission only focuses on Israel. Not only that, it also distorts the facts and law and falsely accuses Israel of all sorts of violations. We did a program a few maybe weeks ago where we talked about one of the previous reports by the commission in which it has accused Israeli forces of committing sexual violence against Palestinians. But it provides no evidence of that. Now the commission has accused Israel of deliberately targeting children.

And that’s what you were mentioning about Mayor Mamdani was probably quoting from this report. And this report is also, it is basically a biased report, false allegations. It’s a 96 page report and out of the 96 pages, only 13 pages they focus on the alleged targeting of children. The rest of the report is simply a copy paste of its commission’s previous reports. What it does is it relabels past accusations as something new. For example, in a previous report, the commission said by targeting hospitals, Israel was committing sexual and reproductive crimes because the hospitals that were targeted had maternity wards in them. Now the same hospital strike is used as example of deliberate targeting of children. So both accusations are false because targeting a hospital that was used by Hamas to stalk weapons does not amount to reproductive violence or deliberate targeting of children. So this UN Commission simply publishes these false allegations every time it publishes a report, false accusations against Israel.

So that’s what the commission’s job is basically. And we have sent several responses to the UN, to the Security Council, to the Human Rights Council, basically outlining, reviewing these reports and pointing out how wrong these reports are and how they twist the facts and the law.

Isaac Crockett:

Quickly, right before we go to our break. So for example, if Israel is letting the children and the citizens know ahead of time that there’s going to be a planned bombing or whatever, but Hamas keeps those people or keeps those children or Hamas takes a school and uses that as their operations launching point, wouldn’t that actually be Hamas who is doing what they’re now accusing Israel of? Am I correct in thinking of that?

Shaheryar Gill:

Correct. And see, the problem is that these reports don’t actually accuse Hamas of those crimes. Every time Hamas comes up, they say, “Well, we don’t have any independent evidence available against Hamas.” That’s really what the commission’s answer is. But you’re absolutely right. It’s Hamas who uses human shields and they put these people in harm’s way, not Israel.

Isaac Crockett:

Rapid fire question here. From your opinion as a lawyer in civil rights, do you see that the United Nations seems to basically have it in more for Israel than they do for Hamas in this situation?

Shaheryar Gill:

Absolutely. It’s not a level playing field for Israel at the United Nations. Every report, every. The UN gives more statements against Israel, more resolutions against Israel than the entire world. So that’s really what we’re looking at. But what we try at the SCLJ is we respond to a lot of these allegations. We try to show the evidence. We try to show the law. I mean, how soon they listen, how they respond to it. Obviously time will tell. But we take every opportunity to respond to these allegations whenever the UN and these individual bodies at the UN make false accusations against Israel or against the United States.

Isaac Crockett:

Which seems to be quite often unfortunately right now. So with all of this going on, you throw in New York City mayor’s condemnation of Prime Minister Netanyahu. This really is an important thing for us to highlight. And I’m so thankful that ACLJ is doing something about it. Please go to aclj.org. Read more about this. Go to acl.org and look for Sherry R. Gill and look at the articles he’s written on that. We’re going to take another quick time out. We’re going to come back. We have a lot more to discuss. Kind of goes into some of this, but we also want to look at what’s happening in the Middle East with persecuted Christians. Welcome back to the program. And I just want to remind you that if you’re just tuning in now, you can catch the entire program. You can go to our app. If you haven’t downloaded it already to your smartphone, you just go to Stand in the Gap.

It’s the Stand in the Gap app in your smartphone store, whether that be Android or Apple. And you can also go online to Stand in the Gap, and you can find this in our archives online. Or if you’re listening via a podcast or if you like to use podcasts, you can find it on most of the main podcast platforms. And another area where you could listen to this or if you wanted to listen again or share it or see the transcript, I would highly encourage you to go to sermonaudio.com. Our friends over at sermonaudio.com have a channel for us at Stand in the Gap and they put all of the radio programs in that channel so you can listen to it for free, but you can also listen to lots and lots of free sermons. This has been around longer than YouTube and it is a platform, the biggest platform, I believe, maybe the oldest as well for finding sermons online.

And you can not only find sermons from some of your favorite pastors, but you can listen to us, Sam Rohr or Jamie Mitchell and myself and different ones and our interviews from Stand in the Gap Today, all at sermonaudio.com. And then I would also just like to encourage you if you’re looking for sermons or if you’re looking for spiritual encouragement. Our friend Rod Reason over at stayonmission.com invited me to write a devotional for his group. Stayonmission.com is a daily or almost daily devotional group that you can sign up for free and get an email and/or text. I look forward to the text that comes almost every morning with a new short devotional written towards men who are leaders in their home, in their community, at work, at church. So this is great. Anybody can read it and benefit from it, but it’s especially geared towards men and helping men be the kind of Christian warriors that God has called them to be.

That is stayonmission.com. If you would like to see the devotional that I wrote, it’s called The Lord is My Portion by Pastor Isaac Crockett. The Lord Is My Portion When God is Enough. And I would encourage you to go there as well. That’s another partner and friend of ours over at stayonmission.com. And then also sermonaudio.com where you can listen to this whole program, see the transcripts. Or better yet, all of these things, go to our app, Stand in the Gap app. You can get so many good resources right there on our app. Well, Sherry, you’ve been on our program a number of times. And when I look things up about you, I find you at aclj.org, which is where you work. And that’s another great resource and you have a lot of really good articles there. And then I also see a lot about you on our website.

So you’ve been on here talking about the ICC, you’ve been talking about Netanyahu. And those are some things you’ve talked about in the past. But at the very beginning of the program, that Prime Minister Netanyahu is over here in the United States right now. He was at the Memorial Service for Senator Graham, but he’s also working with Pete Hegseth and others in the White House there in DC with what is going on with the war in Iran. As that takes so much news every day, we see what’s happening in Iran. What does that mean for Christians? Christians who already had maybe some level of persecution going on over there. But what are you hearing, if anything, about maybe what the church is facing in Iran during this time of turmoil?

Shaheryar Gill:

Right. So Isaac Woods, all the turmoil going on with the war. We must not forget how Christians are treated in Iran. For decades, as you know, Iranian Christians, particularly converts from Islam, have been tortured, interrogated, imprisoned, and even killed by the Iranian government. This past month, the regime has confiscated a 150 year old church, St. Peter Evangelical Church in Tehran. It confiscated the church, two schools that were owned by the church, and several church owned residences. There were about 20 families that had to flee because of threats from the security forces in Iran. In addition to the church, the Iranian government has also shut down Christian satellite broadcasters. It has labeled them as hostile. As we all know, Jesus’s message is always hostile. So the government directive says anyone who cooperates with these networks, which could include watching these channels, contacted them, contacting them, even sharing their content, can be prosecuted under national security and espionage laws.

So as part of the ACLJ’s work at the United Nations, we have sent a letter to the Human Rights Council asking them to take concrete steps and to have the church return to its rightful owner.

Isaac Crockett:

And it’s so important because I think sometimes when we see some of what’s happening in the somewhat of a revolt that some of the citizens are trying to have in Iran, in your opinion, that is still separate from the Christian movement or persecuted church. I would say I think what we’re seeing on the news is, in my opinion, but I want to see what you think, you know more than I do. Is that more of political, what we’re seeing in the church persecution, Christian persecution is still maybe we could say under-reported.

Shaheryar Gill:

I think absolutely correct. There’s political turmoil, but at the same time, Christian persecution is still ongoing. And sometimes it can go hand in hand because a lot of those protest is sort of the government associates it with the Western ideology. And Christians are also called agents of the West. And so sometimes it goes both hand in hand. But at the same time, what we see in Iran is there’s an uprising among the people. The people are, I mean, it’s just great people. And it’s sad to see how oppressive regimes really kind of suppress modernity among their citizens.

Isaac Crockett:

Let’s turn now to Pakistan because that’s a completely different situation, a nation that’s in a similar part of the world and it is Muslim majority, but there is a legal system there that is a lot more hopeful. It’s very similar to what we see in the West. But yeah, unfortunately, there are still false accusations of blasphemy and different people get used and abused in different ways. But you’re working within that system over there as well. And would love to get an update. I think you told me that there’s an update on a couple of Christian brothers that you talked about the last time you were on our program and you were hopeful that they would have their day in court in the Supreme Court. Any update on the Amoon brothers? Any information about possible court case for them?

Shaheryar Gill:

Right. So Amoun Brothers are two brothers who are on death row. We have been representing them for, well, one of the brothers for over 10 years and took on the other brother’s case as well recently. Last time I was on the show, Isaac, we said that we were praying that the Supreme Court hears the appeal, the conviction appeal. And so since then, we have had a hearing at the Supreme Court. So we presented our argument about two weeks ago and the court asked us to submit written arguments from both sides basically. So we have submitted those. And now the court’s website basically says the judgment is reserved and we are hopeful that the court will announce the decision anytime. So huge prayer request for the listeners that we please pray for the Amun brothers, Amun Ayub and Kaiser Ayub, that the court would have mercy on them.

They would rule with justice and without pressure from the society and Muslim groups so that these two men can hopefully rejoin their families.

Isaac Crockett:

With this one, Sheryar, how long have these men been in jail as a result of this blasphemy accusation?

Shaheryar Gill:

I would say both of them have been, one has been in 11 and the other one 12 years. So about 12 years. Definitely 10 plus years. I don’t know exact months, but about 11 to 12 years in prison. And much of that has been on death row.

Isaac Crockett:

Wow. And it’s again, these are guys you’ve told us about how they have used this as kind of a Daniel moment or Shadrach Michek in a Bendigo moment or Joseph. Even in chains, even in jail, being able to share the gospel to help each other and others fellowship and grow in Christ. But it’s such an important case. Please be in prayer that this would be decided in favor of them and that it would come down soon. I know, Shera, this is on the top of your mind. In fact, you and your family were with my family and I, we were doing some things. In fact, I think we were out in the woods, I think with guns even hunting. And you happened to get a signal and it was your lawyers in Pakistan giving you an update on that case a day that all of a sudden it looked like they were going to get to talk to the court.

So this is something that keeps coming up and we’ve been talking about this for a couple of years with Sherry R. It looks like, Lord willing, this could come to the resolution. And let’s pray that it comes to the right resolution, that these men are let free from this and that justice is truly done. This is kind of the opportunity we’ve been waiting for, but now we want to pray all the way through. So please, please be in prayer for them. Sharia, we have just a moment, but what timeframe are you expecting that you may know for sure which way the court rules? Or is there any expectation?

Shaheryar Gill:

Isaac, there’s just No deadline. The Supreme Courts makes that decision. I think a lot of it’s going to come down to the security situation in Pakistan. We don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes between the government and the court. There may be some monitoring of the religious groups activity because this is a very high profile case. On the day of hearing at the Supreme Court, there were multiple groups of Muslim groups that were there concerned about the hearing, kind of expecting maybe to pressure the government. And there was some foreign media as well. So I think the pressure from both sides were gone.

Isaac Crockett:

The

Shaheryar Gill:

Government knows that the international community is watching. We have done a lot of advocacy for the Christians.

Isaac Crockett:

So let’s pray that the right pressure is put on them and that they don’t bow to the wrong kind of peer pressure, but let’s be on our knees praying for these men. We have more to talk about when we come back on Stand in the Gap Today. All right. Well, welcome back to this program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett talking with my good friend attorney Sherry R. Gill from the American Center for Law and Justice, ACLJ. And Shaheryar, as I think about it, that name really kind of sums up so much of what we’re talking about. I mean, here at Stand in the Gap Today, we’re all about looking at the world through a biblical lens, a biblical worldview, and that’s what you over there with the Sekulows and others working with you are all about. And that brings us to a point of true law and justice.

And we started looking at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and these threats against him from New York City Mayor Mamdani. And we went through what’s going on in the UN where they’re scapegoating Israel, accusing Israel of the things that are really, if anybody’s doing, it’s Hamas’s fault. Israel’s not been targeting the civilians, children, things like that. And so we see these things. It almost always seems that these globalist groups, like what I think the UN is, that they call good evil and evil good. We’ve been looking at, in many ways, the state of the church and the freedoms that we enjoy and those freedoms are not enjoyed in some of the other places throughout the world. And as we get ready to wrap this program up, Shaheryar, as you do travel the world and you deal with cases from all over and you’re looking at situations legally, why is it important for those of us who know Jesus Christ as savior, those of us who are Christians, Bible believing Christians, those who are listening to us right now?

And that could be people all over the world, especially in the United States and even Kenya and Uganda on the radio there, as well as on the website. We could be anywhere in the world. Why is it important for Christians to know the truth? Why is it important that they care about law and justice and all these things that we’ve been talking about?

Shaheryar Gill:

Isaac, it’s important for us to understand what’s going around the world. I think first, because sometimes I believe coming from a different country and seeing the freedom that we have here in the United States, I think we can sometimes take these freedoms for granted. I’ve heard people complain. I’ve heard people take these freedoms for granted. So I think it’s important for us to know what happens to Christians around the world. Jesus said himself that you will be persecuted because of my name. So as we discussed issues in Iran, the persecution of Christians in Iran, things that happen in Pakistan under blasphemy laws. So I think it’s important.

A big reason would be for us to be able to pray for our brothers and sisters. I think that’s extremely important. We need to be praying. And as we ask for a prayer request for the Amun brothers and other clients in Pakistan, we also can then become aware of what’s going on and hopefully all we can participate with groups like the ACLJ, with Stand in the Gap at American Pastor Association that do work in these areas. And the people who can’t really actually participate physically, they can also contribute with these organizations through their support, through even financial support, or just praying and just coming along and supporting them. So I think it’s really important. And plus it also reminds us of what we have here in the US, the freedoms that we have here so that we don’t take them for granted.

Isaac Crockett:

Great reminders that those ways of contributing, praying, giving financially, and then just listening and reading and sharing it with people. Telling people about aclj.org, go find Shaheryar’s articles that we just referenced and use us. Read them and share them with people. Take this program. On our website, there will be an archive of this with a transcript and everything. Take it and share it with somebody. Maybe they want to read it as a transcript. Maybe they want to listen to it, whatever. Use it, share it, pass the word. Those are great ideas. Well, we oftentimes, when we look at the headline news and so much of what we hear is negative. And even when we talk about persecuted church, sometimes it sounds like, oh, there’s one issue after another. But there are a lot of positive things happening too, especially with the work you’re doing with ACLJ and ECLJ and all these other international groups you’re working with.

Could you take time? And I know you’ve got a lot of them, but you were telling me about one not long. Actually, I think it was just within this week. Could you give us a positive story of maybe a family or somebody who has an encouraging, hopeful story from recent days?

Shaheryar Gill:

Yes, absolutely. Isaac, this is the fifth victory in Pakistan for this year. We’ve had, and I’ll just share this one last, the most recent one. Just a couple days ago, we have rescued a Christian family of six from bonded labor. This husband and wife and their four children were trapped in an agricultural farm where they worked day and night taking care of the farm animals and basically were paid almost nothing. The farm owner didn’t allow them to leave. He beat the man. And a former client of our organization in Pakistan, he knew this family and he informed our team. Our attorneys then filed a petition for habeas corpus at the court. This petition is basically to recover a person illegally detained. The court ordered the police to rescue the family and produced them in the court. The police raided the farm and rescued the entire family and produced them before the court the next day.

The judge heard their story. He heard their testimony and he basically ordered that this family be freed. So that was a huge relief, great victory for this family who has spent years at this agricultural farm for almost nothing. We’ve rescued people in this situation before. And time and again, we are reminded how people are oppressed. And we’re just thankful for the opportunity that God has provided us through the ACLJ to work in Pakistan and serve these families.

Isaac Crockett:

And it’s such a neat way to serve and to help them because it’s not just winning in the court, but it’s in being the hands and feet of Jesus and helping set them up for life and for the rest of their lives, as well as the education that you’ve been seeing going on. Sometime we could spend a whole program just on that, your heart for educating not just the young people, but all the Christians in Pakistan. But you have seen a lot of that lot of growth and just so much to thank the Lord for, but don’t forget, keep praying for all these cases that Shaheryar has shared with us, especially the Amu brothers. As right now, their decision could come down anytime. Let’s pray that the pressure that is against the judges, that the Lord would not allow that to affect it, but that there would be a good ruling and it would happen in his timing in the safest way possible for these Christian brothers.

Attorney Sherry Argill, again, thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for the heart that you have for God’s church and what you’re doing at the ACLJ. We really appreciate you on the program today and all that you’re doing. Let’s go ahead and close this program in prayer. Our gracious heavenly father, we thank you for all that you’re doing. We pray now that your kingdom would come and your will would be done in our lives. In this case of the Amoon brothers, in every case that we’ve heard about from Shaheryar and others, we just pray that you would receive the glory and that you would get all the honor and that this would be a light that draws people to Jesus Christ, to a saving knowledge of him, how they can experience that grace and find eternal life and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ our savior.

We pray this in the power of your spirit and we pray this in the name of Jesus, our redeemer, our king and our savior. We love you and thank you, Father. Amen. Well, again, attorney Sherry R. Gill from ACLJ, thank you for what you’re doing. Thank you for your time today. And all of you who are listening, I’m so thankful for you. And we really do appreciate not just the financial gifts, we do appreciate financial gifts. We also appreciate prayer and we really appreciate it when you share this with others. Whether you’re listening somewhere here in the United States, maybe you’re over in Uganda or Kenya where we have millions that are reached through the radio signal there, or maybe you’re listening online somewhere else that I haven’t even mentioned. Wherever you are, however you’re listening, thank you for listening. Pray that God would be glorified.

Pray for us. And until next time, I pray that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are.