John Pontifex
As I picked my way along a narrow walkway, I had to cup my hand over my mouth to block the stench. At various intervals, the path that threaded among simple brick dwellings disappeared and revealed the sewer underneath. Here in the Christian quarter of a village in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, we were accompanying the parish priest on his sick rounds. At one doorway, we stopped and he entered. A crowd gathered round and as we peered through the door, the whole family stood with the priest as he offered a solemn blessing over the sickbed, while its occupant was deep in prayer.
Whispering to me as we left, the priest said: “I have to visit. It’s the only thing that seems to lift their spirits. In any case, when they get ill, they don’t call a doctor. The first thing they do is to call a priest and only then will they think about getting medical help.” A scene that could come straight from the pages of an 18th-century English clergyman’s diaries is a snapshot of modern-day life in Pakistan. About 85% of Pakistan’s Christian population lives in the Punjab’s villages. The large number of Christians – up to three million – belies their largely invisible status in a country that is at least 95% Muslim. Even the gas stations have mosque “prayer rooms.”
An Islam that echoes through the air – especially at prayer time – also explains why a Christian born into poverty will almost inevitably die poor, too. Most work as domestics, cooks or – more likely – as labourers at brick kilns or in the huge fields of cotton and wheat that spread far and wide. They face huge problems obtaining identity cards, making it very difficult for them to get on the voters’ list or to gain access to health care and other state benefits. Pakistan is dominated by a form of Islam that tends to view outsiders with suspicion if not contempt. As priests, sisters and lay people frequently said to us during our three weeks in Pakistan: “We know we’re not wanted here.”
This means that Christians are dangerously at risk from laws with the severest of penalties. One such Christian is Yusif Said, who was at the centre of one of the biggest religious disturbances in Pakistan’s history. Last November, Yusif, a 46-year-old man from Mosquito Colony, Sangla Hill was falsely accused of breaking Article 295-B of the Blasphemy Law after a row over a game of cards. His alleged crime was to have burned pages containing the Koran; his sentence if found guilty would be life imprisonment. His accuser went on to call successfully on local imams to take action against the whole Christian community. The result was that 3,000 men, many of them bussed in from outside the town, ransacked Sangla’s Christian quarter, burning two churches and their adjoining presbyteries, schools and hostels.
Tearful throughout an interview, Yusif made it clear that if he changed his religion the charge would have almost certainly been dropped and that he would be able to walk away a free man. Now, even though a group of Christian lawyers successfully fought his case, Yusif must remain in a safe house. The support given to him by organizations such as Aid to the Church in Need, which I represented while in Pakistan, will prove crucial for his future well-being. If Yusif stepped outside, the fear is he would be killed. The fact remains that, regardless of the outcome of the court case, Yusif is a guilty man in the eyes of the Islamists.
The situation would have been even worse if he had broken another article of the Blasphemy Law, 295-C, which states that insulting the Prophet Muhammad is worthy of death. In the 20 years since the introduction of the Blasphemy Law, the courts have dealt with 900 cases, a disproportionately high number of them involving Christians. What increasingly makes matters worse for Christians is the perceived link between them and the Western world, which is now being demonized by extremists. Unable to hit out at the West, some Pakistani Islamists take out their wrath on the local Christian population. This happened recently with the row over the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. In Pakistan, at least three churches were burned, and countless other Christian buildings came close to suffering the same fate. Complete article from the national post.