EU urged to pressure Pakistan over Christian attacks

Scores of Christians have been killed and their property and homes destroyed in recent years by Islamic extremists.

The petition asks the UN to urge the Pakistani government to prosecute the perpetrators of the attacks.

“The Pakistani government must prosecute acts of violence based upon religion,” the petition reads. “Only when the Pakistani government effectively prosecutes those responsible for the acts of violence will attacks against Christians end.”

Christians in Pakistan have come out in force to protest the violence, which most recently saw at least seven Christians burned to death in Gojra following accusations of blasphemy.

“We have expressed in the strongest terms possible that the Pakistani government must prosecute acts of violence based upon religion,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ECLJ.

“Christians are being singled out and murdered because of their faith.”

Pakistani Christians complain that the laws, which make blaspheming against the Islamic Prophet Muhammad or desecrating the Koran punishable by imprisonment or death, are frequently misused by Muslims to persecute them.

Mr Sekulow said the country’s blasphemy laws were “abhorrent” and “violate the principle of the universality of religious freedom, which is proclaimed to be an international human rights standard by Pakistan itself”.

The ECLJ petition appeals to the Pakistani government to repeal the blasphemy laws.

“More than two decades of blasphemy laws have taught Pakistani Muslims that the punishment for allegedly insulting Islam is death,” it states. “The Pakistani government must repeal or procedurally change blasphemy laws.”