Much
vocal/written criticism against human rights violation and ill-treatment of
Christians has been raised by high profile International human rights
organization such as Amnesty International, The US State Department, UK Foreign
Affairs ministry and even various UN based agencies. The government of Pakistan usually handles
such allegations with contempt issuing contradicting statements that “All is
well in Pakistan” and “Pakistani Christians enjoy religious freedom”. The government’s
mouthpieces Christian MNAs and parliamentarians have repeatedly refuted
international criticism adding that Christians are happy here, enjoy religious
freedom and are provided protection at all times. To convince the international
community, the government of the day handpicked lackeys/stooges usually shower
praises on the government thereby corroborating with the governments positive
statements. These stooges are then
rewarded by being given prominent positions including Members of National
Assembly, Ministries and in most cases land or money in lieu.
On other
occasions the government blatantly reminds members of the minorities who are
required to speak at domestic & international forums to refrain from making
negative comments about the draconic situation that otherwise prevails in
Pakistan. Blackmail is a preferred
method of extracting a favorable response from the minorities. Knowing the mindset of the Christians who
after decades of subjugation offer little or no resistance, the government
succeeds in realizing their agenda.
This
stranglehold on the Christians has many benefits for the government. Since Pakistan is a developing nation with a
sizeable population whose is eternally dependent on foreign financial
assistance, most donor countries assess the human rights situation before offering
financial assistance. Almost every donor donate funds for poverty alleviation
but Christians rarely see a piece of the pie and actually taste it because the
financial assistance directly goes to ISI which is then further distributed to the
Talibans and these development funds divert for other illicit purposes such as
acquiring the latest conventional weapons including weapons of mass destruction,
establishing terrorist networks and promoting Islam through propaganda.
The situation of
Christians stays same and despite of getting developed they still live in mud
houses in posh and expensive city like Islamabad. And the donation money goes
to the terrorists and to those who are in power. Donors are of view that if
terrorists of northern areas of Pakistan will get educated they will change and
will think differently and positively but my experience says a Pakistani Muslim
more educated person more criminal and terrorist minded. Some prominent
examples are Abdul Rashid Ghazi of Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) Islamabad, Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui, Faisal Shahzad responsible of bomb blast in Times Square, New York is
a son of Air Vice Marshall, two star general in Pakistan Air Force. Faisal
Shahzad confessed bombing attempt and throughout his court appearance, he
remained unrepentant.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer
Khan, Junaid Jamshed and Imran Khan are the examples of their educated criminal
mindset. Imran Khan, he studied from Oxford University, London. But no Oxford
can change his mindset; Imran Khan is in fact a Osama Bin Laden in disguise.
Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervaiz Khattak of Pakistan Tehreek e
Insaaf, political party of Imran Khan, gave a statement that Muslims cannot be
hired as sweepers and cleaners only Christians will be hired for sanitary jobs.
These are only few examples; there are many other incidents of USA, UK and
other European Countries.
89% of Muslims
of Pakistan, including army generals and other high officials support Talibans.
I have witnessed warm welcomes of terrorists and killers of Christians in
prison by prison staff; and the prison staff considers them as the heroes of
Islam. The staff takes proper care of them and provides them every facility in
prison.
The Christians
in Pakistan live in sewerage lines and are living in dreadful and terrible
condition. These places where Christians are living are the worst places but the
Mullahs and other agencies want them to leave these places. They don’t want any
Christian to get educated and tries to keep them away from education; this is
why they attack their places and Christian enclaves time to time. This cycle
has been repeating itself since 1947. The government, mullahs and the general
Muslim population are of the view that if Pakistani Christians are happy, then
foreign financial assistance will cease to flow into Pakistan.
Christians have been made the scapegoat for decades and yet pundits
in the Christian community not only support the government for their own
self-interest but all too often shift the entire blame on the Christians for
the predicament they are in. These Christian so called leaders or members don’t
care about their Christian nation and they only think of making money because
they are the selected members not the elected ones. The self-professed leaders
of the Christians of Pakistan like J. Salik need to look deep and find that
particular characteristic known as the ‘conscience’ in order to restore human
dignity among themselves.
Pakistanis are
the only people on earth with a bottomless stomach and if the world wants a
peaceful and civilized Pakistan, than it is impossible. To find a needle in a
haystack is much easier than to change the mindset of a Pakistani which is aggressive
and discriminative, till they don’t change their syllabus which teaches hate against
other religions.
Dilemma in
Pakistan is this that whoever struggles for Christians gets trapped in false
cases; the cases can be of any nature e.g. fraud, criminal or blasphemy. Real ruler
of Pakistan is not the government but ISI. As long as ISI continues to
intervene in all matters, it is impossible to bring any change in Pakistan for
Christians no matter who’s ever government is.
Let’s touch on
another issue that has caused consternation among the Christian minority – the
issue of Religious Freedom. While every government official from the President
downwards is quick to point out that Religious freedom exists in Pakistan –
quite the opposite is true. Permit me to
elaborate. In all my years of existence,
never have I ever heard any Priest or Padre ever criticize other religions or for
that fact categorically degrade adherents of other religions, on the other hand
rarely does any Friday go by without a mullah criticizing Christians or
Christianity. Every Friday in mosques during sermon, it is announced that Bible
is changed, that Jesus is son of God (which is a blasphemy in their eyes), and
that Christians eat haram. They urinates on Cross or crucifix, I myself have
witnessed this during the Denmark issue. There is no such big blasphemer as
Pakistani Mullahs and whoever follows them doesn’t know about their own
religion Islam. They keep hurting Christians in the name of blasphemy and when
it comes to Christians, they burn their whole enclaves and houses without any
proof.
While the
government is aware of such lewd behavior, they are either gutless to take
action against such mullahs and perhaps give tacit approval to further their
agenda.
Muslims do not
acknowledge the crucifixion of Christ, while Christian ideology is based on
this fact. Muslims heckle the cross even
though it is the most sacred icon of Christianity. Muslims accuse Christians of making changes
in the Text of the Bible proudly claiming that the text of the Koran has
remained unchanged, but can they prove otherwise?
My argument is
that what right does a Muslim have to degrade Christianity? Why is that Muslims
detest other religions on the one hand and expect compassion from Non-Muslims
on the other? Hatred breeds Hatred, violence is answered by violence or have
the mullahs forgotten this. Just because
we Christians in Pakistan
are small in number, Muslims prefer to exhibit their prowess to subdue us. Muslims must be very insecure in themselves
to have to resort to this sort of behavior.
Muslims are brainwashed
from an early age into believing that Islam is the only superior religion and
all other religions are either fake or irrelevant. Muslims are also under the wrong impression
that by virtue of them being Muslim, all sins are automatically forgiven and
Paradise is promised to all Muslims irrespective of their sinful existence on
Planet Earth.
In that context
ordinary Muslims are not to blame for this mindset, the blame lies squarely on
the shoulders of the intellectuals & Islamic clergy. If Muslims cannot tolerate other religions
then how can they state that Christians have religious freedom in Pakistan? Now
only if I could amicably convince my fellow Muslim of this reality. Until then
the suffering will continue and untold miseries inflicted on the Christians all
in the name of Islam.
Hector Aleem
Chairman
Peace Worldwide
URL:www.pww.org.pk
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