While officiating at a wedding on June 3, 2006, Filipino Pastor Mocsin L. Hasim received a text message: "Pastor, you will die today." He brushed it off. After the wedding, he and his 22-year-old daughter, Mercilyn, headed home by motorcycle.

Their bodies were later found near their motorcycle in an isolated area of Zamboanga Del Norte province on the southern island of Mindanao. Pastor Hasim had been shot 19 times, mostly in the back. Mercilyn was shot five times.

There were no known witnesses to the gruesome killings, but police suspect that there were three gunmen, possibly new members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group with a long history of armed conflict against the national government. One of the pastor's nieces noted, "Some Muslim extremists in the area were inviting him to embrace Islam once again, but he refused."

Pastor Hasim, 47, had received death threats in the months leading up to the murder. During a gift-giving activity in one community, a Muslim approached him and told him to stop what he was doing or he would be killed. Despite these threats, he remained unmoved and continued his activities, even starting a radio ministry.

Pastor Hasim was affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of the Philippines. For the last ten years, he had been reaching out to the Kalibugan tribe, a mix of the Subanen and other Muslim tribes. They are considered to be the fiercest among the 13 Muslim tribes in the Philippines.

Pastor Hasim had shown the Jesus film in various places. He was bold in sharing the gospel to his own people.

Although the Philippines is known as Asia's only nation with a Christian majority (80 percent Christian and 8 percent Muslim), the southern islands—especially Mindanao—have been a hotbed of persecution against Christians, including the murder and capture of Christians and the bombing of churches. Rebels have terrorized Christians in the southern Philippines with the goal of creating a separate Islamic state.

Persecution Report is presented in cooperation with Open Doors USA, which serves the Persecuted Church through training, Bible distribution, and community development. For more information, call 1-888-5-BIBLE-5 or visit www.odusa.org.

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