Pakistani Christians: we cannot let them die in silence!

Written by Romain Blachier on Lyonnitude(s), August 12th 2010.
Translated by Lorna Miskelly. See the original article in French
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The terrible natural disaster that has ravaged Pakistan has been in the news recently. We can, and indeed must make a gesture, for example, by making a donation on this site.

There is, however, a sadly particular situation for the 2.8 million Pakistani Christians (versus a Muslim population of 97%) which is relatively unknown.

On 11th August, Pakistan’s Minority Day (Hindus, Buddhists, Christians etc…) took place. The Christian community decided to boycott the event and to observe a Black Day in protest against the persecution and harassment that they are subjected to. You’ve never heard anything about it? That’s to be expected as last night there was yet another French football team loss to watch on the box…

Recent times have been atrocious for the Pakistani Christian minority. Murders, group rapes, lynching, men, women and children burnt alive… Life for local Christians is becoming more and more difficult. The list of atrocities is long whilst the attention given to these people remains quasi non-existant.

Pakistani Muslims often use the anti-blasphemy law with regard to the Qur’an as a way of accusing Christians of all sorts of evil. As it happens, this is a fairly easy accusation to make, especially in the case of personal litigation.

And so, in Punjab over the last few weeks dozens of Christians have been killed -sometimes burnt alive- by groups that accused them of profaning the Qur’an.

So, 1st August, seven Christians were committed to flames by a mob of 2,000 fanatics. A family of five, including a 75-year-old grandfather, a couple and their 6- and 13-year-old children were locked in their house and burnt alive. Under the watchful eye of the gang that set the house alight.
So in Pakistan, many people refuse to eat out of the same crockery as Christians. Last November, a Christian was beaten to death after drinking from a Muslim’s teacup…
So the recent story of a young Christian girl, Kiran, ten-years-old and burnt alive. This girl had been converted to Islam and forced to marry. She was raped but managed to flee, going straight to the police. They promptly sent her back to her husband. He then burnt the little Christian who was pregnant with his child.

So several months earlier a young Christian was tortured and beaten to death. The police initially refused to file her complaint and the rigged trial acquitted the murderers.

So 19th March, a couple that refused to convert to Islam were tortured. The woman was raped by policemen while her husband was burnt alive. All of this in front of their three now orphaned children aged between seven and twelve…

Shall we keep going? So 29th April, a Christian barber accused of having accepted to shave a Muslim’s beard off, was beaten and violated by a group of eight Islamic men.

So in Islamabad, there is a wall which gets a lot less media coverage than the one that separates Israel and Palestine. It surrounds the Christian quarter and the population has been ghettoised tending to do the worst jobs available.

So… there is a lot more that could be said.

There would also be a lot that could be said about the fact that all of these acts go entirely unnoticed. A lot could be said about the feeling that as far as the current agenda of international indignation and political correctness is concerned, there is never, absolutley never a good time slot to denounce and fight against these atrocities.

In the massive wreck that Pakistan is unfortunately becoming, despite the inter-religious dialogue that does also thankfully exist, there is a need for people of different faiths to speak up, in particular Islamic voices. Just as Christians condemn the Islamophobic nastiness, there is an urgent requirement for voices that demand that the hatred, discrimination and horrible indifference cease. That’s without forgetting the clouds gathering over Bhutan, not to mention elsewhere…

Two different organisations work to help Pakistani Christians; Open Doors (a Protestant group¹) and AED (Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic group)

Translator’s note:
¹ Open Doors is an organisation that “serves persecuted Christians worldwide” (see their website, http://sb.od.org/). In recent times it has come under fire for its missionary zeal.