Print
this page
Email
this page Inter Faith in Action - Perspectives
An Introduction to the Country of Pakistan
By The Rev. Canon Patrick Pervez Augustine
“... It is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order ... where shall be guaranteed fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association...” from the Preamble, Constitution of Pakistan
Pakistan - History
The Pakistan Movement took shape in the early part of the 20th century. Although the vision of Pakistan was first given by Muhammad Iqbal in 1930 during his famous address at Allahabad, it was clear long before then that there was a Hindu-Muslim disharmony that could not be ignored forever. Muslims had been rulers over a large part of the sub-continent for about 800 years. During the British Raj Muslims felt marginalized and they had become a minority.Ultimately, the “two nation theory” emerged, which stated Muslims and Hindus could not live together because they had different ways of life. Thus, a movement for a separate nation called Pakistan took shape, focusing on “Islam” as the basis for Muslim unity. Unlike other nationalism that have emerged in other places of the world in the struggle for freedom, such as Turkic, Arab, and Malay nationalism, etc., the Muslims of India were of different ethnicities, languages and cultures, united only by the slogan of Islam.
Pakistan was created on August 14 1947 to be a homeland for the Muslims of the Indian Sub-Continent. The revivalists, particularly Abul Ala Mawdudi’s group and some rationalists insisted that Pakistan is a new homeland for Muslims. It was formed with the slogan, Pakistan ka matlab kya, la ilaha illa Allah, meaning, “What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is no God but Allah!” (The cry rhymes in Urdu).
The founding father of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his compatriots were secular modernists in their outlook and practice, at the same time appealing to popular Islamic sentiments as a way to rally the people. In a famous speech at Independence on August 15, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, advocated religious tolerance and the right of every individual to practice his own religion. He emphasized that in the state of Pakistan religion was to be a private matter. Within a year popular protests had forced the leaders to change track. The precise role which Islam should play in public life has since been a major feature of political discourse.[1] Sadly, that ideal has been eroded as successive governments have implemented a program of Islamisation. The landmark event that took place shortly after the founding of Pakistan was the approval of the Objectives Resolution. The points in the resolution were designed to govern any constitution that would be written. These points could be summed up: (1) Sovereignty belongs to God, not the people, and (2) no law shall be framed that is repugnant to the Qur’an and Sunnah. Islamists believe that the future ofIslamic revival is destined to commence from Pakistan.
Until 1971, the country consisted of East and West Pakistan separated by 1,000 miles of Indian territory having little but Islam in common. After a brutal war, East Pakistan became Bangladesh, a separate nation. Pakistan's history has been unsettled right from its creation, and is still unstable. “What we in Pakistan have consciously constructed instead is rule by a small elite—never democratic—all working with a tribal-feudal mind-set, ‘in the name of the people’ with democratic camouflage. This small elite comprises of feudal barons, tribal warlords, and politicians of all hues. In Pakistan we inherited a feudal, patriarchal society. The population is divided into vertical compartments of provinces, tribes, clans, castes, and subcastes.—Our history of dysfunctional democracy has caused us great grief, most hauntingly in the separation of East Pakistan in 1971.”
Pakistan is divided into four provinces: Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab and the North West Frontier Province. The country is a kaleidoscope of different ethnic groups, each very distinct. One estimate is that 70 different languages are spoken in Pakistan but in general citizens have one thing in common: Islam.
The Situation Today and the Concerns of non-Muslims in Pakistan
Pakistan’s total population is 138 million. Non Christians known as minorities comprise four percent or less of the population. According to Pakistan’s Year Book Christians are 3% of the population. A similar number of other religious minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhist and Bahai’s also live in Pakistan.
Following are the major concern minorities face in Pakistan:
1. The first is the issue of a separate electorate. Since its inception the nation has been divided into two camps of voters, Muslims and non-Muslim. Non Muslims have separate seats and can be elected only to this certain number of seats. This requirement has cut Christians and minorities off from mainstreampolitics and has turned them into second-class citizens.
2. The second issue is the controversial blasphemy law. In 1982, under
President General Zia Ul-Haq, Blasphemy Law section 295-B was passed. This
law dealt with defiling the Holy Qur'an, a crime to be punished with life
imprisonment. Four years later, section 295-C was added, concerning offenses
against Prophet Muhammad, which were to be punished with life imprisonment
or death and a fine.
This section was given even greater force when the federal Shari'at Court
in
Pakistan ruled that the life imprisonment option should be disallowed,
leaving death as the mandatory sentence for defiling the name of Prophet
Muhammad. This ruling was enforced in 1991. The problems of bribery and
corruption and passions of an illiterate society preclude the opportunities
for a fair trail even for the poor Muslim masses, let alone poor minorities
who have no way of protecting themselves from false or impulsive accusations.
3. The Third concern is the legal rights. In normative interpretations of Islamic law, non Muslims cannot give any testimony in cases involving had common law with divinely defined punishment). The law also requires two women witnesses to equal the testimony of one man (for Muslims and non-Muslims alike). In the law of Qisas (retaliation), non-Muslims testimony is accepted only if the accused is also a non-Muslim. These laws, although part of an interpretation of Islamic law, can be interpreted to be counter to the norms of human rights and pluralism that are being advocated the world over.
4. The fourth concern is that of conversion, which raises a number of
issues. When minor children convert to Islam, for example, it is possible,
as was ruled in one magisterial decision, that they can be taken from the
custody of their Christian parents and placed in Muslim families.
5. The fifth major concern has to do with education. Students in grade school must take Islamic studies as a mandatory subject. While at an earlier time non-Muslim students were allowed to elect exams in their own traditions, this option was withdrawn in 1962. Certain basis in the syllabus hamper the growth of a pluralistic society. According to the article, “the curriculum seems to encourage Islamization of non-Muslims.3
Christians in Pakistan:
98% Christians in Pakistan live in Punjab; approximately 60% of whom live in the villages. Most of the Christian in Punjab were converted from the lower-caste Hindu background. There are also recent tribal Hindus landless workers in Sind, who have recently converted to Christianity, coming from the Katchi, Parkar, Kholis and Marwaries tribes. These people before they were converted were poor, illiterate, exploited and were kept out of the political-economic order of the day. The Christians though better today, does not reflect any major progress in-spite of some hundred plus years of consistent missionary aid and development.
The Roman Catholics constitute about 55%, and the rest are divided among different Protestant denominations. Among Protestant the Church of Pakistan (a United comprising of the Anglicans, American Methodists, Scottish Presbyterians and Scandinavian Lutherans constitute the largest group, followed closely by the American Presbyterians, and the rest are Evangelical churches constituting a very small percentage.4
Examples of the impact of the Islamic laws:
In Islamabad, a Muslim professor, Dr. Sheikh at a medical college in 2004 was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death after students complained about him to the local religious leaders. Dr. Sheikh in a letter from Central Jail Rawalpindi complained about the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan which, he said, “is wide open to abuse, through and by the miscreant mullahs for political, repressive and vindictive purposes on the pretext of undefined blasphemy… its abuse is a rising wave of aggressive ignorance, incivility and intolerance as well as the medieval theocratic darkness.”
Dr. Sheikh noted that his trial was held in Camera inside the jail. “The learned court … succumbed to threats and afterdubious in camera proceedings sentenced me to the death penalty under the said Blasphemy Law 295/C PPC without good evidence … even my solicitors were harassed with a fatwa (bull) of apostasy and they were threatened with the lives of their children.”
May 6, 1998, The Rt. Rev. Dr. John Joseph, Roman Catholic bishop of Faisalabad and a high profile human rights activist, shot himself dead in the dark corridors of a sessions court in Sahiwal in protest against the death sentence recently given to a poor Christian Ayub Masih for blaspheming Islam. This is the same spot where Ayub Masih, a Christian of his diocese, was shot at on 6 November 1997. Earlier on the day of his death the late Bishop sent a open letter to Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, Dawn. Following are the two excerpts from Bishop Joseph’s letter:
After several serious consultations, the following points became clear: “We have to act in unity and coordination: The bishops inside and outside Pakistan, the parliamentarians inside and outside the parliament, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, men, women and the youth, all in harmony, Pakistani NGOs and NGOs abroad to support the repeal of Sections 295-B and C in the Pakistan Penal Code. Now we must act strongly and in unity, without worrying about the sacrifices we shall have to offer. Dedicated persons do not count the cost.
The Final push: 295-C is the greatest block in the good and harmonious relations between Muslims and the religious minorities in Pakistan. In order to achieve national harmony, let us give a mighty push to this immense boulder, before it crushes all of us. Once this obstacle is away, each Pakistani will be able to live and work in peace and our beloved motherland, Pakistan will prosper. Let us pray continuously for it, publicly are in private, throughout the country. Amen.
Why Such Militancy in Pakistan:
Pakistan since 1970s has been breeding ground for a number of militant groups. This is in part a by-product of the Afghanistan conflict. In order to defeat the Soviets, the US Saudi Arabia, China and Egypt assisted and armed Afghan mujahideen and others, including Arab militants, to fight against the Soviet invaders. Through Pakistan, the CIA provided weapons and funds, eventually totaling more than 3 billion dollars, to a fratricidal alliance of seven Afghan resistance groups, none of whose leaders were by nature democratic, and most of whom to a greater or lesser extent fundamentalist in religion, autocratic in politics, and venomously anti-American in both respects.
Once the Soviet machine was defeated, the US quickly dropped the Afghan problem and abandoned support to Pakistan. The US began to return to its all-consuming non-proliferation agenda, under which Washington withdrew all economic and military assistance to Pakistan. The Pakistan government and the Jihadi Islamic forces felt abandoned and betrayed by the West.
Christians are often seen by Muslims as party to the West. After 9/11 there have been attacks on the worshippers in Pakistani churches and Christian schools and hospitals. On October 29, 2001 four gunmen entered inside St. Dominic’s Church, Bahawalpur and started shouting: “Pakistan and Afghanistan, graveyard of Christians. Allah is Great. This is just the start.” They opened fire and killed 17 Christians. Since then a senseless slaughter of Christians has been repeatedly done several times in different parts of Pakistan.
A culture of militancy, weapons, and drugs now flourishes in Pakistan. A deadly al Qaeda terrorist network entrenched itself in our major cities and the mountains of our tribal agencies on our western border with Afghanistan. A culture of targeted killing, explosives, car bombs, and suicide attacks took root. … Today, the central masses are confused about where Islam actually stands on various issues facing the world in general and the Muslim world in particular. They need to be drawn away from the clerics’ obscurantist views, and toward the enlightened, progressive, moderate message of Islam. The challenge is great, no doubt, but it is eminently achievable.
Building Bridges—Building the Kingdom of God:
Over the centuries, both Christianity and Islam expanded through empire and on a few but terrible occasions have confronted each other in conflict. Woe unto us if we allow a clash of civilisations to develop along the lines that the scholar Samuel Huntington suggested could be in prospect. With the weapons of mass destruction that exist in our technological age, a truly awesome conflict between the two could result in bloodshed on an unimaginable scale. A cause of hope for lies in the fact that two great missionary faiths of Christianity and Islam now increasingly are encountering each other, especially in the West, not by empire building but by migration. Pakistani Muslims now live in the neighbourhoods of Christians and non-Christians as minorities. There are tremendous opportunities to build bridges on an individual, neighbourhood and community scale. Our task is to live together in peace and to talk with each other so that even the simplest levels of dialogue can develop the awareness of common values and aspirations that lead to mutual understanding, tolerance and even co-operation.
An excellent example of bridge building and peace making is the story of Bishop David Smith of the Anglican Diocese of Bradford, England, and Mr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Information Officer for the Bradford Council of Mosques and Director of the Racial Equality Council, set an excellent example in October 1997 by visiting Shantingar, a Christian village in Pakistan burnt by Muslim extremists in February 1997. They traveled together to both Muslim and Christian places of worship and shared the message of peace and reconciliation.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Williams visiting Pakistan in November 2005 spoke to a group of Muslims and Christians and encouraged constructive dialogue between two faith Communities. He said, “Dialogue is not debate; dialogue is not proselytism; dialogue is not the attempt to persuade; dialogue is not negotiation. When I enter dialogue with someone of another religious tradition ... I am not out to secure agreement, but to secure understanding. An honest and constructive dialogue leads us to go away thinking ‘Now I begin to see a little better what it is like to hold those views, pray those prayers and to live those lives’. “Dialogue is possible, dialogue is necessary and, happily, by the grace of God, dialogue is above all, actual. The very fact of our meeting this afternoon is, I hope and pray, a sign of how that dialogue can and will unfold in the years ahead.”
If we embrace the idea of dialogue, if we would reach out to foster understanding and create bonds of community, how do we—Christians or Muslims, as a practical matter—go about doing so? What should be our agenda? What are some concrete ways in which we can overcome mutual suspicion?
The Church in Pakistan may be small but its witness to peace, harmony and reconciliation can be a powerful tool to heal the nation. As Christian we should let the light of Christ’s love shine in our lives, as we follow the Golden Rule of doing to others as we would have them do unto us, and as we strive to love our neighbors as ourselves. We must respect the integrity of individuals and groups even as we witness to Christ in their midst. Christians bear witness in the way in which we love; it is God who converts.
Speaking in Rawalpindi on Tuesday 22nd November 22, 2005 The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Williams told the Christians that their situation was similar to the boy whose loaves and fishes fed the five thousand (in John 6 v 5-14):
“For us, gathering as a small church in the middle of a society that is mostly not Christian, we think ‘what can we do and what can we give?’ We give our love, we give our compassion to those around us; we give our service and our witness: and the apostles of Jesus Christ say to us ‘Don't worry; give it to Jesus, he knows what to do with it.’ ” “So however small the gifts we feel we are giving, however small the influence we may sometimes feel we may have, give what we have to Jesus and he knows what to do with it. This does not come without cost ... when we offer our service and compassion and step out from the crowd, we don't feel very safe... but it is those acts of generosity where we take a step towards love and compassion that is when Jesus can most use what we give.”
May the faith of Christian in Pakistan uplift them in a spirit of courage, commitment and joy that will enable them to enter into dialogue and build bridges of communication that can create the understanding and mutual respect that will establish tolerance and peace for peoples of all faiths throughout our nation and the world. My prayer is that the Muslim community in Pakistan will come to join us in the common purpose, in turning from heartache to the realization of that hope for peace and haromony.
Top
