The Pakistani President Asif Ali ZARDARI
It’s very agonizing to note the immense persecution most Christians go through in Pakistan just because of their Christian faith. And the irony of it all is that all these happen in the full glare of the government who is supposed to protect the rights of all citizens in the country.
This is country where the law mandates that "blasphemies" of the Qur'an are to be met with punishment and this has put the 1.5% Christian population into a very serious jeopardy. And it was under this law that one Ayub Masih, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in 1998. He was accused by a neighbor of stating that he supported British writer, Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
Then just recently it was reported by Mission Network News (MNN) about 250 families in Pakistan are being evicted from their homes in Khanewal District by their Muslim landlords. The reason given for this unwholesome act is simply because they stood up in defense of their rights.
Further to that Release International (RI) also reported that their partner in Pakistan intervened to rescue a Christian family - one Yousaf Masih and his wife Suria Bibi, when an angry mob accusing them of blasphemy surrounded their home in Lahore.
The Attack on a Christian Couple
The couple, with their daughter and son-in-law was snatched to safety as an ugly scene developed outside their home in Punjab's capital. They were summoned with mosque loudspeakers, and there and then hundreds of angry Muslims began protesting and in the ensuing protest, one of Yousaf's neighbors accused them of blaspheming against the Koran.
Reports have it that the accusations on the family followed the discovery that the couple, who live in poor, rented accommodation, had made a temporary roof for their bathroom out of a 'banner' which, unknown to them, bore a Koranic verse.
In another incidence in October 2001, gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a Protestant congregation in the Punjab, killing 18 people and until date, o one knew for sure who the gunmen were but officials think it might be a banned Islamic group.
Christians Killed in a Church in Islamabad
Also in March 2002, five people were killed in an attack on a church in Islamabad, including an American schoolgirl and her mother, while in August of the same year, masked gunmen stormed a Christian missionary school for foreigners in Islamabad, six people were killed and three injured. None of those killed were children of foreign missionaries.
Again in the same period grenades were thrown at a church in the grounds of a Christian hospital in north-west Pakistan, near Islamabad, killing three nurses and while the Christians were recovering from it, two terrorists entered the "Peace and Justice Institute", Karachi, where they separated Muslims from the Christians, and then murdered seven Christians by shooting them in the head.
The Death of Three Young Christian Girls
Most agonizing was the death of three young girls in December 2002, who were blown apart when hand grenade was thrown into a church near Lahore on Christmas Day. While in November 2005 3,000 militant Islamists attacked Christians in Sangla Hill in Pakistan and destroyed Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and United Presbyterian churches.
This very attack was over a flimsy allegation of violation of blasphemy laws by a Pakistani Christian and the attacks were widely condemned by some political parties in Pakistan.
Just recently, in March this year to be precise, the Washington, D.C. based International Christian Concern (ICC) reported that a Pakistani Christian man, Arshed Masih, died after he was burnt alive by some Muslims and as if that was not enough a Muslim policeman raped his wife.
Christian Rights Groups Speak Out
And reacting to the gruesome murder, the ICC’s Regional Manager for South Asia, Jonathan Racho, said “We are outraged and deeply saddened by the murder of Masih and the rape of Martha by the police. As this case clearly indicates, Pakistani Christians are treated as less than animals by the Muslims. We urge the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zadari, and other high level government officials to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice.”
According to Greg Musselman of Voice of the Martyrs, Canada, women in Pakistan have virtually no rights, and so these abuses go on all the time and any attempt to get justice is always very difficult.
And it’s regrettable that the Christian population in the country has lost every hope in the government and its legal system as they’ve never lived up to their expectation in protecting life and property of the marginalized Christian people – they never get justice, even when they’re wrongly accused. But the only source of hope left for the people is a continuous looking up to God, who’s the author of life.
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