Members of the Pakistani Christian
community hold crosses in front of a fire during a protest rally to condemn
Sunday's suicide attack in Peshawar on a church, with others in Lahore
September 23, 2013. A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the
130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday mass, killing at least 78
people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim
country.
Police in Pakistan are doing little
to protect the minority Christian community from the harassment they face from
the Muslim majority, including threats to convert to Islam or abandon their homes,
according to an Asian Human Rights Commission report.
While attacks and persecution
against Christians have been ongoing throughout the country in the past few
years, AHRC said in its report that Christians
residing in Chak 44, Mandi Bahaudin, Punjab Province, have especially faced
aggression at the hands of the local Muslim community.
The human rights report summarized
several local instances of Muslims placing conditions on Christians to choose
between converting to Islam or leaving the village, a threat which police have
done little to respond to. What is more, Christians often face unsubstantiated
allegations of blasphemy, which puts them in trouble with Islamic clerics.
Christian residents of Chak 44 have
said as many as 75 percent of followers of Christ have fled from the village,
while those who remain have no food to eat, with the local Muslims refusing to
sell them provisions.
"The situation is getting worse
with each passing day. The Christians are living in constant fear that their
houses may be set on fire by a mob if the police does not provide them with
round the clock security," the AHRC report warned.
The human rights group has called on
both the central Pakistan government and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the
freedom of religion to intervene and pressure local police to do more to ensure
the safety of worshipers, as well as to bring perpetrators of violence to
justice.
Christians have suffered attacks not
only in smaller villages but also in major cities like Lahore. A horrific attack at the end of June saw a
Christian mother beaten and gang-raped in front of her five children by a
Muslim man seeking to avenge his family's "honor," because the
woman's sister fell in love and fled with the man's brother.
Christian lawyer Aneeqa M. Anthony,
coordinator of the NGO "the Voice Society," explained that the Muslim
man in question who escaped with the Christian girl came from a very
influential family in Lahore, which prompted his brother to seek revenge.
The AHRC suggested that Christians
can take steps to demand better protection from government authorities, such as
writing letters.
"The Christian community of
Chak 44, in Tehsil Phaliyan, Mandi Bahaudin's cordoning off by the Muslim
clerics and their supporters in the area, must be immediately halted," the
group stated back in May, and
listed the mailing addresses of a number of officials that can be contacted.
"The state must proactively
work towards encouraging interfaith harmony and prosecute perpetrators of
violence in the name of religion without fail or delay," it added.
By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter.
By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter.
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