When they heard about the incoming mob last week, some residents of the Christian neighborhood of Issa Nagri in Jaranwala hid in fields or in factories. Others were housed by Muslim friends as rioters looted homes and torched churches, enraged by allegations that two residents had defaced the Koran.
Non-Muslims make up around 3.5% of Pakistan’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population, and although the country was intended as a secular state, it has often been accused of majorityism. Experts say the state’s policies have allowed religious hostilities to flourish and created a powder keg for violence.
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Pakistan was established as home to India’s largest religious minority. Does this promise of a safe haven also apply to minorities in Pakistan today?
“Unfortunately, intolerance has increased in Pakistan because of a combination of factors,” says human rights activist Malaika Raza, including the weaponization of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which mobs often use to justify vigilantism.
Now, religious minorities and their supporters are demanding accountability while calling on their fellow citizens to resist division.
“The first thing that needs to happen is for Muslim and Christian leaders to sit together and resolve the hatred between these two communities,” said Maulana Imran Qadri, a local faith leader who has made several attempts to calm the mob. “The people who committed this act violated the principles of Islam.”
In the Christian neighborhood of Issa Nagri lie the ruins of a once-thriving church – one of more than a dozen targeted after rumors spread that a few Christian residents in Jaranwala, Pakistan, had defaced the Holy Quran.
On the morning of August 16, an angry mob vandalized the building and the adjacent courtyard. Hundreds of Muslim men tore down the walls, desecrated the nave, burned copies of the Bible and set fire to the furniture.
“The violence started in another neighborhood,” recalls resident Rashid Javed. “When people found out what was going on, they started evacuating the area.” Some hid in fields or in factories; others fled to relatives.
Why we wrote this
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Pakistan was established as home to India’s largest religious minority. Does this promise of a safe haven also apply to minorities in Pakistan today?
When the mob arrived in Issa Nagri, rioters began looting the abandoned houses. “They stole the fan in my house,” says Pervez Masih. “My daughter-in-law had 1.5 tola [approximately 18 grams] jewelry, and they took that too.”
Non-Muslims make up around 3.5% of Pakistan’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population, and although the country was envisioned by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as a secular state, it has often been accused of majority thinking. Experts say the state’s policies have allowed intolerance to thrive and created a powder keg of violence. Now, religious minorities and their supporters are demanding accountability while calling on their fellow citizens to resist division.
Hasan Ali
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Rashid Javed, resident of Issa Nagri, stands amid the ruins of his local church August 21, 2023 in Jaranwala, Pakistan.
“The first thing that needs to happen is for Muslim and Christian leaders to sit together and resolve the hatred between these two communities,” says Maulana Imran Qadri, a local faith leader who gave sanctuary to two Christian women and made several attempts to calm them down Mob. “The people who committed this act violated the principles of Islam. … Our Prophet said that it is the duty of all Muslims to protect Christian places of worship until the end of time. If you are willing to sacrifice your life to defend the honor of the Prophet, you must also be willing to defend his teachings.”
More than 160 Muslims were arrested by police, as were the two Christian men alleged to have committed blasphemy.
According to Pakistan’s penal code, blasphemy carries the death penalty. Although no one has ever been executed, vigilante groups like the one in Jaranwala have murdered several people accused of disregarding the Islamic faith. Earlier this month, Abdul Rauf, a Muslim English teacher, was shot dead in Turbat after his students accused him of blasphemy in one of his lectures.
“Religious intolerance in Pakistan has regrettably increased due to a combination of factors,” said Malaika Raza, Secretary-General for Human Rights of the Pakistan People’s Party. “The rise of extremist ideologies, the weaponization of blasphemy laws, growing income inequality, and political and social unrest have all contributed to a climate in which diverse religious beliefs meet hostility.”
Many attribute the problem to the late 1970s, when the government of military dictator General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq initiated a policy of Islamization. After persecuting and hanging a secular political leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, General Zia consolidated his power by reshaping the state according to his interpretation of Islamic teachings. These included the establishment of Shariat courts, the introduction of punishments for immorality, and the promotion of religious conservatism in schools and universities.
Charlotte Greenfield/Reuters
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Kanwal (right), a Christian woman displaced by sectarian violence along with her family, comforts her 12-day-old baby boy while taking shelter at a school set up as an emergency shelter in Jaranwala, Pakistan August 21, 2023.
According to feminist scholar Farzana Bari, these measures, coupled with the Pakistani state’s support for the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, created an “ecosystem of intolerance.”
“During the Cold War, the state used religiosity to create a jihadist mindset,” she says. “They used madrassas [religious schools] and the education system to create a mindset that was both sectarian and fundamentalist.”
More recently, critics have accused the Pakistani military establishment of using hard-line religious groups to pressure politicians and human rights activists.
“Religious fanatics are given a free hand and are even encouraged by the state to act with impunity,” says left-wing historian Ammar Ali Jan. “The result is this.” [religion] becomes the only means of mobilizing the population. If you protest for human rights, you will be arrested immediately. You create an anti-minority mob and the state disappears.”
But Murtaza Solangi – who serves as information and broadcasting minister in the interim government – reiterated interim PM Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar’s commitment to fighting religious extremism.
“The prime minister’s vision is that fearing a Hindu-majority state, Pakistan was created to protect India’s then-Muslim minority groups. Anti-majoritarianism is the essence of Pakistan,” he says. The Prime Minister “said that our state should stand by the weak, the vulnerable and the marginalized.”
On Monday, authorities distributed 2 million rupees ($6,800) each to around 100 Christian families whose homes were attacked last week. A day earlier, the Acting Prime Minister of Punjab assured the Jaranwala Christian community that the government would restore the damaged churches to their original condition.
However, survivors say monetary compensation is not enough to meet justice. “We want reassurance that an incident like this will never happen again,” says Christian resident Tehmina David. “Our holy book tells us to forgive those who don’t know what they are doing, but it becomes very difficult to live in this version of Pakistan.”
“For Christians like us, such an incident is a form of torture,” said Pastor Jamil, a laborer who traveled from Karachi to distribute relief supplies. “What happens here is like dying every day.”
If there is any consolation, it is the strong public reaction to what happened in Jaranwala. Faith leaders and politicians have strongly condemned the attacks and expressed their solidarity with the Christian community. On Saturday, International Interfaith Harmony Council President Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi described the violence in Jaranwala as an attack on all Pakistanis.
“The rioters shamed us, for which I apologize to Christians around the world, including those in Pakistan,” he said. “I was traveling when I saw the pictures of Christian daughters spending the night in the fields. My eyes filled with tears as I felt these were…my own daughters.”
There were also reports of Muslims in Jaranwala coming to the aid of Christian neighbors.
“Our Muslim brothers and sisters stood by us,” says Lubna, a local Christian woman who declined to give her last name. “There were Muslims who came and burned our houses and Muslims who came to save our lives. Not everyone is the same.”
Source : www.csmonitor.com