Updated:2007-05-17 11:47:33
Convert or Die? Pakistani Christians Seek Help
By MUNIR AHMAD
AP
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (May 16) – Christians in a Pakistani town beset by pro-Taliban militants sought government protection Wednesday, the eve of a deadline for them to convert to Islam or face violence.
About 500 Pakistani Christians in Charsadda, a town in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan , received letters earlier this month telling them to close their churches and convert by Thursday or be the target of “bomb explosions.”
Several Christians, a tiny minority in the predominantly Muslim country, have fled town and others are living in fear, community leaders said.
Some complained that police were not taking the threat seriously.
“Police say someone is joking with us by writing these letters,” Chaudhry Salim, a Charsadda Christian leader, said during a news conference in Islamabad. “They have deployed only two policemen at our churches … this is the kind of security we are getting now.”
Shahbaz Bhatti, a prominent Christian leader and head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the provincial government, which is controlled by a coalition of pro-Taliban religious parties, would bear blame for attacks after the deadline.
Bhatti also urged Muslim religious scholars to condemn the threats and said the federal government should take “concrete steps to provide protection” to Christians.
Asif Daudzai, a spokesman for the provincial government, asked Christians not to panic, saying authorities were doing all they could to ensure their protection.
“Christians are our brothers and sisters, and we will not allow any one to harm them,” he told The Associated Press.
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities make up about 3 percent of Pakistan’s 160 million residents.
Most live peacefully alongside the Muslim majority, although the groups have been targeted repeatedly in attacks blamed on extremists since the country allied itself with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Islamic radicals trying to impose Taliban-style social edicts in northwestern Pakistan are growing bolder, bombing shops selling Western films, threatening barbers for trimming beards and warning hotels to remove televisions from guest rooms.
Minorities and secular opposition parties say the government is doing too little to counter the “Talibanization” of growing swaths of the country.
Associated Press Writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.
DO ANY OF YOU HAVE A CLUE HOW AWFUL YOU LOOK AND SOUND AND HOW YOUR WORDS REFLECT THE KIND OF PEOPLE YOU TRULY ARE
THIS IS SOMETHING HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, TODAY, NOT IN THE BIBLE AND NOT IN PAST HISTORY
OPEN YOUR EYES, I DO NOT WANT YOU TO BE IDENTIFIED WITH ME AS A CHRISTIAN, I WILL NEVER TRY TO CONVERT YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO FULL OF YOURSELF, YOUR HATE AND YOUR VENOM
YOU MUST BE “NEW” HERE….
All religious extremists need to be tortured.
I am very glad you posted this for several reasons:
1) To show those who whine and complain about persecution here in the USA that they have it CUSHY compared to what others are going through and they really do not have ANYTHING to complain about
2) To demonstrate to those who want religion to determine our laws and goverment exactly what happens when one faith is given too much power in society. Theocrasies SUCK! Secular democrasies RULE!
My heart goes out to those who have suffered at the hands of hateful, religious bigots in Pakistan.
Just because they are prosecuted there doesn’t give them the right to say they are prosecuted here. Besides, look at all they people Christians prosecute, and dare I say, Still do. Shit goes around.
Just as I said yesterday, dont believe a single word. christians are not being persecuted.. They are doing the persecuting.
Christian persecution in America will end when they finally have a Christian President. Or 43 of them in a row.” -Jon Stewart
Funny. Just since January I have heard differently.
In Tanzania alone, I have heard that whole Christian families are being wiped out and hunted down by Muslims there. I am in contact with a Muslim convert to Christianity, and his whole family is in hiding because of threats and actions taken against his family members and friends.
In just his family and circle of friends, 8 people have been killed. A Muslim man killed his Christian wife, and then abandoned his 3 young children to live in the streets of Dar es Salaam. My friend’s uncle was killed by Muslim when he mentioned to them that he was thinking about converting to Christ, like his sister. Many other Christians are killed daily, or starved out, like in Darfur and the southern Sudan. Open your eyes, man !
THIS is true Islam.
I read all the answers up to now, and I didn’t see any hate or venom.
But my answer is, yes many christians around the world may well be being persecuted in some places around the world and it is a real problem.
Another problem is, though, in many cases, they have brought it upon themselves from things they have done in past, or continue to do now. What goes around comes around, and Christians are also doing the persecuting here in America and in other places around the world.
Christians are’t known to be the most tolerant or accepting of other religions or lifestyles.