Christian persecution still prevalent
By Arun R. Zaheeruddin • Jun 15th, 2009 • Category: Misc • 42 CommentsThe bomb threat is just one of a series of intimidating message given to the Christians in this security crisis. As the situation worsens throughout the country, extremists try to indulge into bullying the religious minorities into a state of fear.
Four days ago, on the 10th of June 2009, two men entered National Catholic Office for Social Communications, which also houses the offices of the WAVE (Workshop Audio Visual Education) studios, Radio Veritas Asia’s Urdu service and the Union of Catholic Asian News. Storming into the offices, these masked men obviously had a mission. A mission for which they had prepared themselves beforehand. Their motorbike, which they used as their primary transport was seen without number plates as it parked outside the offices. Along their way, these notorious messengers came face-to-face with a brave Christian woman and said, “We know that you and those at the recording studio are Christians.” They continued, “We warn you to leave this area, embrace Islam, pay 1,500,000 rupees (almost £11,300) or be ready to die in a suicide bomb attack. Inform your neighbours as well.” Christians have seemed to have received several threats over the period of time the Government has been fighting militants in the north-western province.
Sacred Heart Cathedral is just one of the Catholic schools in Lahore where various pastors and teachers have received threatening notes telling to convert to Islam or suffer consequences. A Pentecostal Bible school in Quetta, the capital city of Baluchistan provice was closed indefinitely after suspected Islamic militants (most probably the Taliban) threatened to blow up a suicide bomb within the campus last month. In some cases these threats do not even come from the militants but from normal people who hold grudges against Christians just to extort sums of money. Christians, being the pacifists they are, usually obey the demands of the people intimidating them.
Fr Nadeem John Shakir, director of Rabita Manzil, the offices building issued a statement in Lahore immediately after learning about the 10 June threat to this centre. “This is the first time the studio has received such warning,” he said in a press release. “This has made us sad and very insecure. We are quite helpless in this regard. The threat has also demoralised our employees. If something happens to our centre, a number of Church activities would collapse.” But Fr Shakir, instead of giving into the demands of the militants asked people to pray for the centre and its employees saying, “I call upon the people to pray for the studio staff and also to pray for the people engaged in such inhuman acts or their supporters. Pray that they may get a change of heart and become good human beings.” The priest also said the centre’s neighbours have been supportive.
In the war against terrorism, Christians hold their position as a peaceful crowd. Compared to all sort of people, Christians in Pakistan have always wanted peace and recognition, but they are the only people that get persecuted over and over again. Where such news is so common throughout the country, the newspapers seldom feature them for their covers. Fr Shakir continued, “However, no one can guarantee the security of our houses, Convents, Churches, schools, hospitals and other institutions. Even the law enforcement agencies are not safe themselves.”
Roughly about 2% of the population of Pakistan is Christian and the number is slowly falling. The reason is not that Christians convert to other religions, but that they are massacred at the hands of these very Islamist terrorists. The threats that they always receive would either be that of “beoming a Muslim”, “paying ransom for their own lives” or “just be killed.” Can the Christians feel safe in Pakistan any more? Or would it take a three million Christian deaths to tell the tolerant Muslims of the nation where they are going wrong? It is time that the Muslims take notice of the atrocities, terrorists are committing in their religion’s name. Before you answer any of the questions asked in this article, consider something: Did you know that 80% of students in Pakistan are educated at Christian institutions and 68% of people are treated at Christian hospitals?
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[...] Posted in Domestic Affairs by onpakistan on June 14, 2009 Christians, the complaint is made, are “the only people that get persecuted over and over again”. Not true, all religious [...]
Arun
You have presented a painful pictures of Christians in Lahore ,in one of lively city but do you think anybody is safe even we muslims are safe in lahore.This massacre is not being done on religious basis around us.Master minds of these deadly games know very well that they cant convert christains ,sikhs into whabis this ways, but surely they would get get some short lived monetary benefits from this game. so Christians have to wait till this bloody windstorm subsides and give relief to all ordinary people of Pakistan.
At this moment only those are safe who are favoring war on our borders at tha cost of all kind of destruction.Those who want to dare to speak against America and Army as leaders or minority will be faced death by so called talibans as US wants war in this region at all.
Mr. Arun Zahiruddin:
Whenever you copy content from another source, you MUST cite and credit the original source. It is really unethical to copy a whole article from a source and posting it under your own name! In academic circles, such behavior is known as plagiarism.
It seems that you are openly flouting the rules and ethics of blogging.
Pak-Spectator, please take notice!
After all, a lead story should be original work of an author, not a the work of some plagiarist.
@Nazia: I believe it is just this very turmoil that the country is going through at the time that Muslims end up being on that end of the ladder where terrorists even bother them but as the first post clearly states, we as the people of Pakistan should let minorities thrive in the region rather repress them with laws like the Hudood Ordinance Act etc.
@Plagarism-Notice: Consider there is a fire in a certain neighbourhood. A man sees it and writes about it, then another reads, who hasn’t actually seen the fire. It is this chain that needs to get to the fire department (consider these a primitive). Would each be blamed for plagiarism that spread the word. This is not plagiarism. This is SPREADING THE WORD. Btw, this might be a reproduction of a work, but includes further facts and original research.
The lead story on Dawn is about the offensive ordered against Baitullah Mehsud. BBC cracked it first, so should Dawn be considered a plagiarist. Wake up, you troll.
Dear Arun,
i salute you for this article.
Yes we need to SPREAD THE WORD and speak out loudly……..
Well done brother.
Pls. ignore comment 3….
content is far far more important than the source of this article……..
@ Plagiarist Arun Zaheeruddin:
Go and See the Definition of Plagiarism in any good dictionary.
Its not about reporting a ‘fire’ or any such incident. It is about an article that you copied from another source, cunningly re-phrased a few paragraphs anf published it under your own name. This is a blatant instance of plagiarism.
You yourself admit that your article is ‘reproduction of a work’. So didn’t you have the courage to credit the original source? Or were you looking for some instant-fame?
You may have added your so called ‘original research’ to this re-produced work, but the fact remains that bulk of your story is a reproduction. So in keping with the ethics of blogging, you should have atleast cited the original source in the footer of this article.
And by the way, Dawn always cites and credits the original sources in their publications. Wake up you Plagiarist!
Arun, posting comments under ridiculous pseudo-names as BhaiLog won’t help you.
Don’t try to justify your plagiarism!
I’m not against you. I only want you to realize your mistake and rectify it. Take my criticism positively and always mention the original source, the next time you try to publish.
Dear Friends,
our Christian brothers they may be having certain grievances and rightly so; one can visualise that some time they can be genuine also but to call any odd incident of intimidation by certain groups as a persecution— may not hold any waters.
I don’t think so that our Christian brothers in Pakistan are being persecuted like Ahmadis; that they were; earlier thrown out of the pale of Islam and then they were asked to denounce themselves as non- Muslims also. They were defunct and were asked to call themselves non-Muslim and by simply saying the common greetings: Aslamou alaikum they are liable to be persecuted and there are cases that they were sent to jail for this crime up to 7 years. Pakistan very much upholds death sentence for blasphemy and Ahmadies are supposed to be the prime targets.
There may a case; where some intimidators from certain religious fanatic groups may be indulging in act of violence for which it is advisable that rather than spreading despondency rumours; one must refer the case to the Constitution of Pakistan which guarantees equal rights to all the citizen of Pakistan. They have got their equal rights and unlike India where menial classes like Dalits, etc are graded as the outcast untouchables, in Pakistan there is no differentiation of any kind or any classification of minorities.
Christian are certainly not degraded or intimidated at national level. And in any case this is not the time of fanning such cases. This nation as whole is at war and we need to remain united.
Khokar
Your theoretical expressions are excellent but completely void of realities.Our majority Christian community lives around us in Pakistan in an islamic states are recognized as “choras”(lot of apologizes form inner core of my heart to our respectable community”)and considered for menial jobs only.Near every modern societies you can found this community in slums and and shabby conditions even our cricketer mohd younus has come form same background.This is very common in our brutal society that women from uneducated or even educated never allowed them to touch their eating utensils or eating items,left over is spared for them and they are not allowed to touch their religious things .
So before attacking Indians on dalit you have to study our culture too.In Karachi maid is called as massi and this term is frequently used as derogatory remarks for describing a lower class women.You know how this word massi came into being.It is from word Maan si(like mother) or we say khala(arabic word for mother’s sister)
So I am telling you about my real experience that many of ladies of my community having lot of daras culture at their home boycott my home visits as my maids were usually Christians who offered them drinks and tea.. I tried to convince with almost same type of logics as you did in above comments even told them that when you eat outside in hotels how can you aware of religion of cook all the time but they never listened my logics of equality and claimed to be more Muslims than me in same manner as you always proved that you are more Pakistani than me who has close relations with Indian agents..
one above me and commentator no 1 is always in pain………………….pathetic…………….blalabla bla bla
probably in mittleschmerz pain…………….ahahahaha
Sir you are again out of your mental asylum again.You have to change your mental hospital that can better take care of you in more safe and sound living conditions.You also need to change your panel of doctors as already referred doctors have been failed to improve your mental disorders.lot of sympathies for you.
Nazia,
I do know the practices of the past that while toeing the line of Indian culture, most of the creeds that used to bring about day to day services were called as menials. The people called as massih had generally accepted to work as clearing the night soils from the communal toilets and thus were seen in as degraded position for their handling the refuse and filth that others were reluctant to take on this job. Rightly so the other menial groups who used to bring about the services like hair cutting service, message bearers, like cobblers or weavers etc were also facing same type of degradation. But they are not degraded as person that Islam does not allow any such degradation or humiliation of a human soul.
But times have changed now; there is education and enlightenment everywhere. This era has come closer to the teaching and values preferred in Islam; any adopted profession to bring about the services like the one we discussed above are totally not degrading. In the west too there are certain people who do carry out such jobs but their charges are about four to five times higher than say a common plumber but they certainly use their mechanical tools and vehicle especially made for this purpose. Street Rubbish cleaners are also paid much more than normal workmen.
People opting to adopt such professions have to upgrade themselves. The old manual efforts are to be transformed into mechanical one and also earn more mony by using the mechanical tools, vehicle, appliances and other equipment.
Any how our society too has to shun certain evils and ailments where ever we have. Dignity of a person must be up held but the affected lot have to come up and fight for their rights and stature themselves not through agitation but through hard work and perseverance.
Arun:
Your Christian community in Pakistan is doing far better than your counterparts in India. Don’t you know how hundreds of christians were butchered systematically by Hindu fanatics in Indian state of Orissa, their churches burnt, and priests and nuns tortured to death. All that massacre happened with the connivance of the Police and local government of Orissa.
In Pakistan such things have never happened. Christian community in Pakistan enjoys far better freedoms than in many other regional countries.Christians enjoy a great deal of security in Pakistan. There has never been any sort of systematic discrimination against this minority.
And about the threats to your Churches by terrorists, I must say that our country is in a state of war. Threats by militants to those who condemn them are common. Look how a Moderate Moslem Cleric Mufti Naeemi was brutally murdered by these terrorists. Mosques are targets of suicide bombings each day, so your assertion that its only christians who are being victimised is not valid at all.
Dear Hassan Amin
Get ur facts right.
Only 40 christians were killed.
NOT HUNDREDS OF THEM.
Our Indian fellows have made it a point to pop up on our blog whenever India’s despicable Human Rights record is discussed.
Read this, as it may open your eyes to the real ‘truth’. It says that atleast 500 Christians were butchered. And these are the government figures. The actual death toll is considered to be around 2500 Christians butchered by Hindu Fanatics in Orissa.
Atleast 500 Christians killed in Orissa, government sources say.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – A representative of the local government in Orissa estimated that more than 500 people died as a consequence of the anti-Christian pogrom launched by Hindu fundamentalists. He said he personally authorised the cremation of at least 200 bodies.
In the government version of the facts some 12,641 people who fled destruction live in 15 refugee camps where they are well-fed, have access to doctors, drugs and schooling for the children.
The CPI-ML team visited the camps in Phulbani, Tikabali, J Udaygiri and Rakiya where they found that food rations were inadequate, drugs non-existent and pregnant women were left without any medical care.
They depict an atmosphere where terror reigns among Christians, who fear for their lives if they go back.
Fundamentalist groups, who want the central government to pull back the police units it sent in, are organising themselves into armed groups, threatening anyone who refuses to convert to Hinduism.
Whilst this is going on, camp administrators are trying to get the refugees to go back home, telling them that life has gone back to normal.
The CPI-ML inquiry said that the pogrom had been in the works for some time, and that it was organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal.
For this reason it calls on the government to ban the two organisations.
The actual number of Christians butchered is considered to be at a minimum of 2500.
Do u know CPI-ML is an extreme left wing pol.party????????
do u know anything abt CPI-ML ?