WCC Pastoral Delegation to Pakistan Learns Extent of Christians' Trials and Tribulations

November 11, 2002

"An extreme kind of terrorism never witnessed before – an execution carried out by professionals," was how a former officer of Pakistan's airforce described a recent attack on the offices of a Christian institution in Karachi. Seven young Christian workers were killed in the 25 September attack on the Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf (Committee for Justice and Peace). The officer was speaking at a 5 November meeting of church leaders with a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) on a pastoral visit to Pakistan.

The 2-9 November WCC visit to Karachi and Lahore was intended to express solidarity with churches and Christians, hear about the effects in Pakistan of the war in Afghanistan, and learn about the challenges currently facing Pakistan's churches. The delegation met church and lay leaders, lawyers, jurists, leaders of non-governmental and Islamic organizations, members of political parties, families of blasphemy law victims, and the families of the Idara staff killed in the terrorist attack. They were told that such attacks against Christians have increased since the war, and that the security of the Christian community is gravely threatened.

Grave crisis

The overall message to the delegation was that Pakistan is going through a grave crisis. Feudalism, corrupt politics and repeated military interventions in civil and political life have destroyed democratic institutions and systems of governance. According to members of Pakistan's human rights commission, injustice, poverty, illiteracy and rapid population growth are preventing progress and development. These factors, they said, are responsible for the current environment of religious intolerance, hatred and sectarian strife in which human rights violations by both the state and private actors are rampant.

Other representatives the delegation encountered pointed out that corrupt and inefficient law enforcement, a complacent judicial system, and lack of accountability have encouraged a climate of violence and impunity. What some observers called a "military tyranny" is driving Pakistan towards further divisions, while the government's preoccupation with military and political matters leaves it little time to address ordinary people's life-and-death concerns. Christians, but also other minorities, are trapped in this situation and subject to discrimination and attacks.

Christian grievances, Muslim grievances

Hearing about two brothers who, charged under blasphemy laws and sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment, have been in jail for four years pending a High Court appeal, the delegation was moved by their plight and that of their families. Delegation members were impressed by the faith and Christian commitment of a group of young Christian girls who had been forced to convert to Islam. Meeting the young widows of the Idara victims, they were sharply aware of the difficulties such women face in Pakistan's cultural context. And they were distressed to hear from church leaders that none of the perpetrators of terrorist attacks on Christians in Taxila, Murree, Islamabad and Bahwalpur have been apprehended and brought to justice.

Another set of grievances was voiced at a meeting convened by the recently formed Muslim-Christian International Federation. Here, the WCC delegation heard complaints from Muslim leaders about ill-treatment of their compatriots in the West. According to the leaders, the Christian West has systematically targeted Muslim countries like Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq, and Muslims are subjected to racial profiling, discrimination and arbitrary arrests in the US, the UK and Australia. This creates resentment and anger in the Muslim world, the leaders said.

The delegation assured these leaders that churches in the US, UK and other western countries do not agree with their governments' policies on the war in Afghanistan and a possible war against Iraq. The churches' theological and ethical position, the delegation explained, is to denounce violence and the spirit and logic of war, and to insist that differences and disputes be resolved peacefully through the United Nations and not through war or military strikes.

At the close of its visit, the delegation called on the WCC to continue to monitor the situation of Christians in Pakistan, and to accompany and support the churches there during this period of trial and tribulation.

Members of the WCC delegation: Bishop Roger Sainsbury, moderator of Churches' Commission for Racial Justice, UK; Rev. Ms. Youngsook Charlene Kang, deputy general secretary, Mission Contexts and Relationships/Mission Education, United Methodist Church, USA; Rev. John Moyer, director, Frontier Internship in Mission; Prof. Leo Koffeman, advisor for Ecumenical Relations to the general secretary, Uniting Churches in the Netherlands; Mr Tony Warawantu, International Affairs secretary, Christian Conference of Asia; Mr Clement John, Pakistan, Executive Secretary, International Relations, World Council of Churches.

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