mourning for the country’s worst anti Christian violence in years and in an effort to repeal feared blasphemy laws, church representatives and religious rights activists confirmed Saturday, December 17.
The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) told BosNewsLife that the special day on December 20 was also "a mark of solidarity with the Christian brethren who became victims of violence" last month in Sangala Hill in Punjab province, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city.
The November 12 riots began after a Christian man, Yousaf Masih, was allegedly falsely accused of desecrating the Quran, the secret book of Islam.
Thousands of angry Muslims burned a Roman Catholic Church, two United Presbyterian Churches as well as the local Sisters Convent, St. Anthony High School, a hostel and Christian homes, including residences of a Catholic priest and a pastor, the APMA said.
CROSSED BURNED
About 500 Bibles, Christian literature and schoolbooks as well as crosses were among the other items set ablaze by the mob, several sources said. Ironically, "Islamic studies books and copies of [the] Holy Quran were also" destroyed said APMA, a religious and ethnic rights watchdog.
It was the country’s worst outbreak of anti-Christian violence since gunmen attacked a church on Christmas Day, 2002, and underscored concern over the country’s blasphemy laws, said Barnabas Fund, another religious rights advocacy organization.
Barnabas Fund, which has close contacts with Pakistani Christians, claimed Tuesday’s upcoming Day of Prayers and Fasting was also aimed at overturning legislation, introduced in the 1980’s, which it claimed "created an atmosphere of insecurity and intimidation," among believers.
DAMOCLES SWORD
"The law hangs over the Christians like a sword of Damocles," the group told BosNewsLife,
referring to the possibility of a death sentence under the legislation.
"The parts of the law which cause difficulties for Christians are 295-B which was added in 1982 and 295-C which was added in 1986. They protect only Islam, rather than all religions." Another problem is that section 295-C "omits any requirement for the offence to be committed deliberately," the group explained.
Section 295-B covers defiling, damaging or desecrating a copy of the Quran, which is to be punished with life in prison while 295-C deals with "defiling the name of Muhammad," a crime which was initially punishable by death or by life imprisonment. But in "1991 the life imprisonment was removed, leaving a mandatory death sentence," Barnabas Fund said.
FALSE ACCUSATION
Barnabas Fund stressed that the law is abused by militants as the alleged offense of blasphemy against Islam "can be merely spoken, and there is no need to prove intent." Although there is a mandatory death sentence, "there is no penalty for false accusation," Barnabas Fund noted.
"So, unsurprisingly, numerous cases have been registered under this section against Christians, Muslims and Ahmadiyyas. Almost all have turned out to be malicious accusations made by someone with a personal grudge against the accused."
Although all religious groups have suffered under the legislation, "Christians are much more vulnerable because there is a tendency for both police and judiciary to give greater weight to the testimony of Muslim witnesses than that of Christian witnesses," said Barnabas Fund.
It recalled that Muslim militants "often feel they have a religious duty to make sure that the accused is killed, no matter what the legal authorities decide." Several Christians have been murdered, as well as a judge apparently for acquitting a Christian, the group added.
MOB TENDENCY
Human rights watchers also say the there is tendency for Muslim mobs to target not just the accused Christian individual but the whole of the local Christian community as witnessed during last month’s at Sangla Hill.
The APMA said it had urged the government to arrest the suspects and to publish the report of the judicial inquiry with out any further delay. It also demanded the release of Christian Yousaf Masih and that blasphemy charges against be dropped. "People who made announcements by Mosque amplifiers to provoke people to attack Churches and Christian community should be punished" APMA said.
Bishop Anthony Lobo, secretary general of Pakistan’s Catholic Bishop’s Conference stressed in remarks to BosNewsLife that "discriminatory laws and intolerance are the barriers in the progress of interfaith harmony and reconciliation. We must accelerate our efforts to establish a society based upon the principles of founding father."
GOVERNMENTS STRUGGLE
However several Pakistani governments have tried to introduce amendments to the blasphemy legislation, and pledged to crackdown on Islamic extremism, but "intimidation from Islamists have led to any substantive changes being abandoned," cautioned Barnabas Fund.
"South Asian Islam places huge emphasis on the veneration of the person of Muhammad. This is why feelings run so high about the blasphemy law, and it is so difficult to change this powerful weapon against Christians," explained Barnabas Fund’s International Director Patrick Sookhdeo.
"There are calls for the introduction of such a law in Bangladesh as well. In the United Kingdom, where a large proportion of the Muslim community have their roots in South Asia, some Muslim leaders have indicated that they hope the proposed law on incitement to religious hatred will function as a blasphemy law to protect Muhammad, just like Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code," he added.
Christians account for less than three percent of Pakistan’s 150 million, mainly Muslim, population, according to official estimates. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Pakistan).
