Posts Tagged ‘Christians’

The pattern of by-elections in Jhang and PML-N's alliance with Sipah-e-Sahaba is a worrisome development. However, this is not the first time that PML-N has established alliances with terrorist organisations. Only a few days ago (in February 2010), PML-N forged an alliance with a terrorist Mullah Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid (the spiritual father of [...]

Here are two news items (which remain hidden in the more important headlines) from today's newspapers. These news items once again reveal the typically hypocritical, class- and religion-centric and misogynistic nature of Pakistani society. The first story is about a protest by certain staunch Muslims against the burial of a Hindu girl (child) [...]

Family members of Shazia Masih, including, from left, her sister; her mother, Nasreen Bibi; and her aunt and brother. The girl died while working as a maid. Photo: NY Times Lahore: February 13, 2010. (PCP) Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group PML(N) and bureaucracy of the Punjab government bulldozed justice in Pakistan with fabricated medical [...]

I have usually found that the closer a religious Christian, Jew or Muslim comes to the Middle East, the madder they become. The most avuncular Shropshire vicar, the kindest Jewish moderate, the most secular Muslim – dump them within a thousand miles of Jerusalem and they have the eyes of Lord Blair of Kut-al-Amara, that crazed, glazed, [...]

The torture and slaughter of Shazia, a 12-year-old maid, in DHA, Lahore has caused a stir. Here are a few reports which suggest that: 1. Domestic servants in Pakistan, house maids in particular, remain vulunerable and subject to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. 2. Life and honour of a non-Muslim (a Christian girl in this case) is [...]

A fading symbol By Zeresh John Monday, 04 Jan, 2010 The cross is the most widely recognised religious symbol of Christianity. Down the years, the emblem has faded from the public eye, rarely seen in the humdrum of everyday life in Pakistan. Born and raised a devout Protestant Christian and a part of the country’s largest religious minority, [...]

Thursday, 08 Oct, 2009 (Dawn)A man stands guard at the door to a church in Gojra.— Photo by AFPGOJRA: Almas Hameed lost seven relatives when an angry mob burnt down his home in a rampage against Pakistan’s minority Christian community and lives in fear that more violence is looming. Standing in the wreckage of his home in Gojra in Pakistan’s [...]

Religion and politics Rubina SaigolMonday, September 21, 2009 The writer is an independent researcher specialising in social developmentIn the past few months, there has been a noticeable increase in religiously-motivated violence against minority communities, especially in Punjab. The most recent case is that of [...]

How ‘desecration’ is stagedPakistan has been saved from another trauma in a village near Punjab’s city of Chichawatni, with a population of 4,000 divided between Muslims and Christians. What happened has familiar pattern: some pages of the Holy Quran were found in the fields and in (more...)

Zubeida Mustafa TALKING to a Dawn panel several years ago, Asghar Ali Engineer, head of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai, had commented that every communal riot in India that he had investigated was found to be rooted in economic factors. Invariably the majority community attacking a minority wanted to undermine it to [...]

Nosheen Abbas Wide eyed, and alert, Javed and Irfaan, two brothers, step in to the house. They sit close to each other, almost in a huddle. Both look slightly anxious not knowing what to expect from our conversation, but as it progresses, they seem more at ease. ‘Two of my cousins and my aunt were burnt alive in (more...)

Zahida Hina writes on the Gojra tragey in Pakistan, in which 8 Christians were burnt alive by the pro-Taliban Deobandi-Wahhabi alliance, namely Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangavi. She also discusses the role of General Zia-ul-Haq in sowing the seeds of (more...)

8 Christians burnt alive in Gojra riots * Rangers called in after mob torches Christian homes * Punjab law minister says preliminary investigation shows no desecration of holy Quran By Ali Usman LAHORE: The government deployed the (more...)

A burnt house of a Christian family in Azafi Abadi at Chak 95-JB on Gojra-Faisalabad Road. –Photo by White Star By Tariq Saeed Saturday, 01 Aug, 2009 TOBA TEK SINGH: A mob burnt 75 houses of Christians over the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran in Azafi Abadi at Chak 95-JB on Gojra-Faisalabad Road, 32 kilometres from here, late on [...]

Christian children, women burnt to death in Pakistan TCM News Desk July 31, 2009 | 00:47:23 SEVERAL Christian children and women were reportedly burnt to death (more...)

In the name of love SOME would see it as a profession of faith. Others may call it a religion of humanity. Either way, such intrepid devotion to the cause of basic humanism can only merit pure homage — as chaste as the aspiration itself, free of doubt and dismay. Gayle Williams, a 34-year-old British-South African aid worker, was one of many [...]