Wednesday, December 07, 2005 E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

Christians announce campaign against religious intolerance


Staff Report

LAHORE: A number of Christian organisations have announced a movement against religious intolerance in the country after the desecration of churches and missionary property in Sangla Hill.

The movement will be followed by a number of press conferences and an awareness campaign against religious intolerance and the government will be pressed to form a policy to promote religious tolerance, representatives from National Commission for Justice and Peace, Commission for Peace and Human Development, Centre for Legal Assistance and Settlement (CLAS), All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Christian Study Centre (Rawalpindi), Justice and Peace Commission (Multan), Adal and AWARD (Faisalabad) and Human Development Centre (Toba Tek Singh) told a press conference at the Lahore Press Club.

Peter Jacob, Joseph Francis, Waseem Anthony, Father Andrew Ansari and Khalil Tahir addressed the press conference. The Joint action Committee for Peoples Rights will support the movement.

They said the Sangla Hill incident was merely one manifestation of the religious intolerance prevailing in the country and added that hate speeches and discriminatory laws were fuelling it. They said the government had failed to control the situation and was protecting those who instigated mob violence. Hate speeches against Christians were on the rise in Nankana district but the government had done nothing to stop such anti-social behaviour, they alleged. The judicial inquiry into the incident was being made useless through procedural delays. The government is also guilty of hiding facts from people, the Christian representatives said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...12-2005_pg7_16
The Christians are on the warpath.

Interestingly, with Pakistan beholden to the US, little that the GoP can do.

The battle lines seems to have been drawn.

It will be recalled that a Pakistani Bishop had written a letter to the Secretary General of the UN enumerating the human rights abuses against the minorities of Pakistan.