Pakistan's unknown human tragedy

EVERYONE knows about the earthquake that devastated the Pakistani part of Kashmir. It was a natural calamity of the first magnitude. A few days ago there was another disaster. Its proportions are not as dramatic as the one created by nature.

This human tragedy is totally man-made and is symptomatic of a sub-culture of intolerance which is still rampart in Pakistan. The international media did not cover this tragedy. As a result, the rest of the world does not know about it. Their lack of knowledge does not diminish but increases the significance of the tragedy.

For the benefit of our readers we would like to outline its parameters.

On November 12 at least 2,000 men, armed with sticks, hammers and containers filled with flammable substances, swarmed across the parish compound in Sangla Hill, 140 miles south of the capital, Islamabad. They broke into the Church of the Holy Spirit, smashing the marble altar, pulling the vestments from their cupboards and shattering the stained-glass windows. They set the priest's house on fire before moving on to St Anthony's Girls' School, where most of the 450 students had already been sent home. Soon flames were licking the school walls, and smoke billowed into the sky. Finally the rioters broke through the convent door and did a lot of damage.

The violence that swept through Sangla Hill has shocked Pakistan's Christian community and highlighted the failure of the authorities to protect religious minorities. Two other churches - one Presbyterian, one Salvation Army - as well as at least half a dozen houses belonging to Catholic families were also burned in the attack.

The incident was sparked by allegations that a Christian had burned pages from the Muslim holy book, the Koran. The charges against the man, named by police as Yousaf Masih, remain unproven. Friends and family say they stem from a gambling dispute with Muslim men.

On November 16, Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf, condemned the attack. "Muslims need to show more tolerance toward a smaller, minority community," he told reporters. But human rights campaigners and Catholic leaders say the incident also highlights Musharraf's failure to reform the laws that endanger religious minorities and the reluctance of his Muslim-dominated police force to protect them. Police have detained 88 people in connection with the attacks, but many Christians criticised their failure to halt the violence.

Under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws, desecration of the Koran is punishable by life imprisonment. Insulting the name of the prophet Mohammed carries a mandatory death sentence. But the law, which can be invoked on the word of one witness, is frequently misused to settle scores, avoid debts or rouse violence against religious minorities. It hangs like Damocles' sword over the head of religious minorities. Bishop Joseph quite a few years back committed suicide publicly as a sign of protest against these laws. It seems that his supreme sacrifice has till now borne no fruit.

Pakistani Church leaders wrote to President Musharraf asking for a high-level judicial inquiry into the attacks and desecration at three churches and other church properties. In their letter they detailed the destructive acts. According to Archbishop Lawrence Saldana of Lahore, this was no spontaneous outburst of anger. It was orchestrated, and local mosque officials had been whipping up anti-Christian feeling in the community to such an extent that 450 local Christian families had fled the area before the attacks started.

The Tablet (November 19), commenting editorially on these ugly incidents, described the extreme radicalisation of Islam as one of the greatest threats to world peace and national and international harmony. The Tablet says that these attacks demand a carefully gauged response from the West and from the leaders of Christian Churches. "They have some influence in Pakistan, not least at a time when President Musharraf needs the goodwill of the international community if he is to raise the sort of help his people desperately need in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake."

It is a pity that the conditions of Christians are deteriorating in a number of Muslim countries. The Catholic periodical expanded its comments to address two key Muslim countries where Christian minorities have felt especially beleaguered, Turkey and Iraq. "The West should not shrink from applying appropriate pressure in the name of human rights, nor should Christian leaders fail to speak up for their co-religionists."

It reserves a special word for Turkey as it moves gradually towards its goal of European Union membership. "A new report from the European Commission has found that significant legal and practical obstacles were preventing Christian Churches from functioning normally, and restrictions on teaching Christianity to the next generation constituted a threat to its very survival. Countries like Britain, which have taken the lead in supporting Turkey's case for membership, are well placed to make it clear beyond ambiguity that full respect for religious freedom is a non-negotiable condition of EU entry. And now would be a good time to say so."

Perhaps we Maltese Catholics could have used in a better way the great opportunity that presented itself to us during the CHOGM. It could have been used to lobby civil society groups as well as governments in favour of basic human rights including religious liberty.