A Pakistani businessman is taking a bold, dangerous stance for Christ by building a 140-foot tall cross in Karachi.

Parvez Henry Gill wants to encourage his fellow Christians not to flee the country in the wake of intense persecution at the hands of Muslims.

Gill, a native of Karachi, describes himself as a property developer and owner of farmland.  He said that God came to him in a dream and told him to do “something good” for the people.

“I said, ‘I am going to build a big cross, higher than any in the world, in a Muslim country,’ ” said Gill, 58. “It will be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry-free.”

Gill believes the cross carries a message to the Christians of his city.

“God will protect you. Stay in your country. Don’t be afraid,” the businessman said, according to CBS.

While many religious leaders in Pakistan believe the cross will be seen as a way to encourage interfaith cooperation, former Pakistani ambassador to the U.K. Akbar Ahmed said some radicals will see the cross as a provocation.

“They will say this a challenge to Islam and that it can only be met by destruction,” Ahmed told HuffPost. “It’s a smaller group, but it’s the smaller groups that can inflict a lot of damage.”

While the cross is not the biggest in the world as the Great Cross in St. Augustine, Florida is 208 feet tall, it is still the biggest in a Muslim dominated country.