When the Christian youth joined the protest against the burning of the Holy Quran in Florida, they all had one motive: to show that they just want peace and religious harmony.
Arshia Arooj, a third-year MBBS student, felt that she is under threat even though she has no personal enemies. In reaction to Pastor Terry Jones’ desecration of a copy of the Holy Quran, Christians have already been targeted twice in the last three days: one in Lahore when a church was attacked and another in Hyderabad where six Christians were beaten, out of which four succumbed to their injuries, she said.
Fearful of the backlash, Arooj accompanied other members of the Christian community to the Karachi Press Club on Thursday to pacify her Muslim brothers and sisters hurt by this act. “I am a Pakistani before I am a Christian and I am here to show that that it’s not just the older generation but the younger generation as well that wants peace and religious harmony in the country for their future,” she said.
Addressing the press conference, MPA Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, who is also the Christian Parliamentarians Forum coordinator and All Pakistan Minority Alliance Sindh president, said that the entire Christian community in the country stands united against such hate-mongering.
“It’s a violation of our religious ideology and a plot to upset world peace,” he said. “It is not what our religion preaches.”
He said that our respect for the Muslims’ holy book can be gauged from the fact that minority members of the assembly take an oath by the Holy Quran, although in court the Christians give their testimony by taking an oath by the Bible and Hindus by the Geeta. Khokhar said he has already tabled a resolution in the Sindh Assembly condemning this “barbarous” act.
“The religious leaders of all faiths in Pakistan are not playing their part and religious intolerance in increasing day by day,” said Reverend George Gill of the United Church of Pakistan. Ghazala Shafiq, the Minority Women Forum for Justice spokesperson, criticised politicians, saying that both the attacks on Christians were a reaction to Chaudhry Nisar’s speech.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2011.
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