Passion and Pain

Week Three: The Islamic Republic of Pakistan We ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure (2 Thessalonians 1:4).

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is located in South Asia, and shares its borders with Iran, India, China, and Afghanistan. Partitioned from India in 1947, Pakistan emerged on the world map on the basis of ―two Nation Theory.‖ This Theory was propounded on the grounds that Hindus and Muslims living in undivided India were two nations. Christians were then and remain now—at best—an ignored second class minority or—at worst— persecuted by the Muslim majority. In 1964, under pressure from fundamentalists, the Pakistani Constitution declared the new name of the country as ―the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.‖ Through this Constitution and contrary to the nation‘s founding, Islam became Pakistan‘s official state religion.

Muslims make up more than 95 percent of the population. Pakistan‘s small Christian minority accounts for less than 3 percent of the population. Christians are openly and officially discriminated against by Pakistan‘s government, being afforded far less legal, political, educational, and employment rights and protections than their Muslim counterparts.

Perhaps the gravest injustice in Pakistan‘s history has been the imposition of its abusive ―blasphemy laws‖, under which anyone convicted of insulting Islam‘s Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in word, deed, or symbol, must be put to death. These harsh statutes have been repeatedly used and abused by Muslims against Christians to settle personal disputes – often costing the Christians their freedom, and sometimes their lives.

Christians in Pakistan are frequent victims of brutal acts of violence both by sections of the general Muslim populace, and often even more brutal ones by militant Islamic extremist groups. Pakistani police, known for their corruption, are both unwilling and unable to protect Christian citizens.

As the world has seen, Pakistan‘s small Christian minority has been subjected to especially heinous and frequent attacks since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, and subsequent US military action in Afghanistan.

Just over a month after the events of September 11, Islamic extremists burst into a church service in Bahawalpur. Sixteen worshippers were gunned down in cold blood, and at least seven more severely wounded.

On March 17, 2002, during Sunday morning worship service, grenades were hurled by militants into the sanctuary of the International Protestant Church, which is located in the Capitol of Islamabad squarely in the midst of foreign embassies, including adjacent to the American Embassy. Five believers died, and 45 suffered various degrees of shrapnel injuries.

On August 5, 2002, masked gunmen firing automatic rifles stormed the campus of Murree Christian School, killing six and wounding three others. Less than one week later, three Muslim assailants hurled grenades into a crowd of women gathered at a church in the