Note #9023 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
 

05615 Nov. 15, 2005

Pakistani churches denounce attacks on Christians, appeal to Musharraf

Provincial orphanage, 3 schools burned down by Muslim extremists stirred by 'baseless rumor'

by Anto Akkara Ecumenical News International

NEW DELHI - Church leaders in Pakistan have denounced an arson attack on churches and Christian settlements in the rural town of Sangla Hill in Punjab province.

"The ferocity of the attacks has left us stunned," lamented the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Pakistan, the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, the Salvation Army and the National Council of Churches in Pakistan in a Nov. 14 letter to President Pervez Musharraf.

Elaborating on the attack, the letter said a Muslim mob torched Catholic, Presbyterian and Salvation Army places of worship after desecrating Bibles and holy materials in the buildings in Sangla Hill.

Three Christian schools, St Mary's Convent and an orphanage for poor Christians also were burned by extremist Muslims who had arrived in buses on Nov. 12.

"What provoked such heinous sacrileges? It was a baseless rumor that a certain Yusaf Masih, a local Christian, had set the holy Quran on fire," the Pakistani church leaders said, calling for a judicial inquiry and punishment for the attackers.

Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Catholic church's Justice and Peace Commission, said: "On the face of it, the attack seems to be planned and organized, as the attackers were brought to the site in buses."

Jacob pointed out that nearly 450 Christian families in Sangla Hill had fled their homes the night before because of threats from local Muslims.

"This is a well-orchestrated attack. We want the government to take strict action to stop the recurring of such attacks on Christians and others," Lahore Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, told Ecumenical News International.

"The Christian community is always vulnerable to the accusation of burning the holy Quran, and when this type of situation arises, their lives and property are always at stake," said Victor Azariah, general secretary of the national church council.

"The blasphemy laws are the main source and tools for creating social, sectarian and inter-religious disharmony," the Justice and Peace Commission said.

A study conducted by the commission earlier this year noted that, of 650 blasphemy cases reported in Pakistani media since 1988, 90 were against Christians. About 97 percent of Pakistan's 162 million people are Muslims.