RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Attacks on Christians Spotlight Blasphemy Laws

By Zofeen Ebrahim Reprint | | Print |

Zofeen Ebrahim

PUNJAB, Pakistan, Aug 25 2009 (IPS) - The death of nine people following this month’s riot directed against a Christian colony in eastern Pakistan has cast a pall of gloom over a nation carved out from the Indian subcontinent in the name of religion.

Charred remains of a house in a Christian Colony in Gojra. Credit: Ehsaan Sadaqat

The tragedy in Gojra City came a full two weeks before Pakistan celebrated its 62nd Independence Day, on Aug 14, since its birth in 1947. On Aug 1, a group of Muslims looted and burned houses and a Catholic church in the colony.

This incident transpired a day after a similar event took place in Korian village, seven kilometres away from Gojra. Houses, livestock, and a Catholic church were looted and burned down on July 31, after some Muslims from a nearby mosque held a protest rally expressing outrage over an incident that allegedly involved Christian children tearing pages off the Koran, Islam’s holy book, during wedding festivities on July 25, recounted Tariq Mehmood, head of the Labour Party of Pakistan’s local chapter, who also lives in Korian.

A fact-finding mission by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in a report released on Aug 4, said the Gojra incident was pre-planned and the police had information that an attack was brewing but did nothing to prevent it.

"The police had been informed (about the planned attack). Had the local administration acted with alacrity after what happened in Korian, the Gojra incident could have been prevented," said Minhas Hameed, who lives in the area. Six of the victims who were burned alive during the tragic incident were members of his family. His father was the first to be killed among them.

Just four days after the Gojra tragedy, a Muslim factory owner in Sheikhupura (also in Punjab, Pakistan’s second largest province) and two workers were killed by an enraged mob.

The 32-year-old Hameed, still grieving the loss of his loved ones, voiced what is perhaps the sentiment of many Christians in this Muslim-dominated South Asian country.

"For over six decades, the Pakistani Christian community has just been (the Muslim majority’s) menial servants, (their) toilet cleaners," he said. "We have never been allowed to come to par with the Muslims. We are very poor, yet we live peacefully—as second-rate citizens in our own country."

Christians are the second largest religious minority community in Pakistan after Hindus. According to the latest available census report, dated 1998, by the Population Census Organisation, they form only 1.59 percent of the country’s 132 million-strong Muslim population.

The HRCP said the Gojra attackers came armed with petrol bombs and wearing masks. They destroyed about 40 houses in a "trained" manner in less than an hour. Muslim homes in the same area were spared.

Since the Korian episode, the pesh-imam [prayer leader] of two mosques in Gojra had been making vitriolic speeches against the Christian faith, using very insulting and abusive language, said Hameed.

"They incited the people to make ‘mincemeat’ of us and called us American agents. It wasn’t even that the police and the local administration were unaware, as the speeches were made on public address systems, which they said they had heard," he said.

"The barbaric attacks are an embarrassment for any society or people who call themselves civilised," said the HRCP report, noting that the local administration’s inaction ahead of the riots was intriguing.

"The police remained silent spectators," said Zahid Iqbal, a local councilor who lives near the Christian colony. He said the city’s local administration could have "pre-empted" the tragedy. "They could have called for extra police force and saved the day. The miscreants were just five or six who came fully armed and masked. They started firing at the police to keep them at bay before burning down homes."

As a result of the mayhem in Gojra, two police officers heading the local administration, namely, the district coordinating officer and the divisional police officer, were transferred to another post. Former law minister Iqbal Haider expressed dissatisfaction with this decision. They should have been arrested instead "for abetting the terrorists," he told IPS.

He described the government’s action as "callous indifference" to the plight of the aggrieved Christians. "The government must send a strong message that there will be zero tolerance against these terrorist groups," he added. "Organised acts such as these only succeed with the support and patronage of the administration."

Muslim residents in and around Gojra did not seem to exhibit the hatred sown by the Muslim fanatics responsible for the attack, or the alleged indifference that the local authorities had reportedly shown. Iqbal and his neighbours, for instance, provided shelter to many of the displaced Christians.

"We have lived [together] peacefully for decades. Why would we start a fight now?" he said in a phone interview with IPS. "I do not recall any episode of religious extremism here." His statement lends credence to reports that the attack was instigated by outsiders.

Hameed confirmed that some of his Muslim neighbours tried to help him and his family while the attackers were setting their house on fire. Many also came to his home the following day to condole with him, he said.

Even the HRCP noted that some "Muslims in the neighbourhood provided shelter to Christian women fleeing the violence."

As an act of solidarity toward the Christian communities that have been targeted by Muslim militant groups, the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research—a non- governmental organisation engaged in research and advocacy on labour rights, social justice and human development—has proposed the conduct of an interfaith memorial service and the generation of rehabilitation funds to match the monetary support of the government.

"Many of us have been enriched by several years of education at Christian institutions, often through undeserved subsidies," he said. "It would be especially appropriate for Muslim alumni to take the lead in these demonstrations of solidarity."

The provincial government of Punjab gave each victim’s family 500,000 rupees (about 6,000 U.S. dollars) as compensation. The chief minister, or the head of the provincial unit, has also promised to re-build the torched homes.

Both Gojra and Korian tragedies have trained the spotlight, yet again, on Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws, which have formed the basis of criminal charges and other abusive acts against Christians and other religious minorities, observers note. In a climate of religious intolerance and increased vigilantism, these laws can and have been misused time and again, they said.

Rights groups have long demanded that any law that can be used to victimise persons or settle personal scores needs to be scrapped. In a climate of religious intolerance and increased vigilantism, these laws can and have been misused time and again.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, considered the strictest among countries with a Muslim majority, are contained in several sections of its Criminal Code. The provisions forbid, among others, defaming the Koran and Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Islam religion. The first merits imprisonment for life and the other, death with or without fine. The Constitution declares Islam as the state religion and that it is the country's duty to foster the Islamic way of life.

The blasphemy laws of Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, were enacted under the administration of military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1986 in a bid to Islamise the country.

In 2000, then President Pervez Musharraf promised to amend these laws, only to backtrack later, fearing reprisals from conservative clerics.

On his visit to Gojra soon after the incident, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said the government may bring about changes in its discriminatory laws. Observers noted the evident lack direct reference to the federal republic’s blasphemy laws.

According to official sources, since the laws came about, 500 people have been charged with blasphemy.

"Ninety-nine percent of charges of blasphemy are made on account of personal enmity and jealousy," said Haider. "The need for such a law in a Muslim-dominated country (is) a contemptuous enough thought."

The Britain-based Minority Rights Group International, which raises awareness of minority rights, puts Pakistan seventh in a list of countries where minorities are most under threat.