Christian Pakistanis stage hunger strike

By PATRICK WEST
CfflumfoiPaldstanis from the length and breadth of the kingdom descended on London last Friday to demonstrate against Islamic brutality aimed against Christians following the suicide of a Roman Catholic bishop four weeks ago.
A one-day hunger strike by the Pakistani Christian League outside Number 10 Downing Street was conducted in an effort to bring worldwide attention to the plight of Christians in the country. In the wake of the death of Bishop John Joseph, who shot himself in the temple three weeks ago in protest at Pakistan's blasphemy laws, Christians accused of defaming the name of the Prophet, have been subjected to beatings, burnings and rape.
"We are demonstrating our feelings for our cousins in Pakistan who are mistreated" says James Mesih, originally from Pakistan, but now living in Slough one of around 15,000 Pakistani Christians living in Britain. Those at the demonstration were representative of the spectrum of Pakistan's Christian denominations, with Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostalists and Roman Catholics all in attendance, though quite naturally interdenominational differences have now evaporated. Dr Naseem Dean, International President of the Pakistan Christian League, said: "We don't have any difference between Catholics and Protestants. When Muslims beat you they don't ask you what denomination you are" When pressed on which denomination he belonged to, one demonstrator retorted: "I don't believe in these denominations. I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus".
This is a sentiment mirrored by the Christian churches in Pakistan, who in the aftermath of Joseph's death, have decided for the first time to campaign together against the country's blasphemy law. Dr Dean believes that accusations of blasphemy are entirely false.
Commenting on the prospects of Christians in his home country, Dr Dean said: "The Christians in Pakistan are not safe at all. Muslims have burnt at least three hundred houses in the Punjab and then they burnt 13 churches. They desecrated a lot of Bibles, hymn books and other religious books. Over a hundred girls were abducted and gang-raped. After five days they were recovered by the army, and later found to be pregnant. They had to undergo abortions and they were charged with adultery, which is very wrong." The escalating nuclear crisis in the region, and the fierce Islamic nationalism it has engendered, may only serve to heighten the Christians plight which has steadily worsened in the last twenty years with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. "It is very difficult being a Pakistani Christian," said Sam Dean, a schoolteacher: "I was very happy in the past in Pakistan. I had a lot of Muslim friends but when I go back now everything has changed. Things are getting worse day by day."