Episcopal Press and News
Episcopal priest testifies before Congressional committee on persecution of Christians in Pakistan
Episcopal News Service. March 7, 1996 [96-1408]
Charlie Rice, Communications Assistant in the Diocese of Southern Ohio
(ENS) In Muslim-dominated Pakistan, charges against Christians of blasphemy can lead to death threats, physical assault and murder, an Episcopal priest told a Congressional committee studying religious persecution and human rights.
"The purpose of my testimony is not to demonize Islam," the Rev. Patrick P. Augustine told the House Committee on International Operations and Human Rights on February 15. "I have been working for many years to hold Christian-Muslim dialogues. My plea is for people of both faiths to unite against injustice."
A member of the presiding bishop's advisory committee on Christian-Muslim relations, Augustine, associate rector of the Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna, Virginia, is a native of Pakistan and an honorary canon and bishop's commissary of the Diocese of Peshawar. He also serves as chair of the overseas mission committee of the Diocese of Virginia, and is a member of the steering committee of the Global Episcopal Mission (GEM) Network.
Christians in Pakistan are highly vulnerable to both legal charges and extra legal claims that they have blasphemed the Muslim religion, he reported.
When Naimat Ahmera, a Christian poet and nationally known writer, said that he believed Jesus Christ to be the way to God and salvation, teachers at the school where he was headmaster claimed that he had insulted Muhammad, Augustine related. Afatwa, or holy condemnation, was pronounced against him by Muslim clerics.
"Anxious about his safety, he managed to get a transfer to the District Education office," Augustine said. But on January 6, 1992, "a butcher's son, Farooq Ahmed, came to his office and invited him to lunch, and killed him in full public view. The murderer danced and trampled on the body, exulting that he had earned a place in heaven for himself."
Augustine has called for a repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy laws that he said have been used to persecute Christians for political and economic reasons.
A progressive Muslim newspaper examining various cases of Christians accused of blasphemy recently noted, "In all cases an ulterior motive for the charge appears a distinct possibility. Religious fanaticism has been whipped up to such an extent that one who is accused of blasphemy may not be safe even if he is acquitted."
In a highly publicized event, Salamat Masih, an illiterate Christian boy, along with two of his uncles, was accused of writing blasphemous slogans on the wall of a mosque. One uncle died when Muslim extremists opened fire on all three as they emerged from trial at the Lahore High Court, Augustine said.
The other two were finally acquitted on February 23, 1995, but had to flee to Europe because of death threats.
In another case, Augustine testified, two brothers, Bashir and Gul Masih, were accused by a neighbor of breaking the blasphemy law. Both were arrested and imprisoned.
"Bashir was later released, but Islamists demonstrated in the street demanding that both brothers be killed for their blasphemy," Augustine said. "Mullahs issued a fatwa that they deserved death, and posted large notices around the city demanding that the brothers be killed. They also appointed a death squad of young college students to carry this out."
Bashir went into hiding, but Gul was chained in solitary confinement "with no blanket against the cold, and was harassed and beaten by the Muslim prison Mullah," Augustine said. He was found guilty at his trial before the district judge in November 1992 and was given a death sentence."
International human rights organizations appealed for his release, Augustine said, and although the Lahore High Court eventually reversed his conviction and released him, Masih remained under a death sentence from Muslim clerics.
In a development linked to the Masih case, 250 Christians from a village near Lahore were forced to abandon their homes and property when young Muslim militants issued death threats against them. Augustine testified that a spokesman for the youths said, "There is no way that we will let people from the 'Masih' faith pollute our village. We won't let them stay here and we don't care about the police or anyone else."
"The walls of the buildings on the road to the village were painted with anti-Christian slogans," Augustine testified. "And the Christians reported that they received daily death threats from the boys."
He added that the Roman Catholic Church helped to resettle the entire Christian population of the village near the city of Gujranwala.
"There is a general mistrust of Pakistani Christians," Augustine declared. "They are often accused of espionage for Britain, the United States and even Israel. During the Gulf War of 1991, Christians suffered extra persecution. Many were beaten. Some were killed. Churches and cemeteries were bulldozed and the debris set on fire."