Giving new hope to Pakistans Christians

It’s one thing hearing reports of how bad the situation is in Pakistan and another thing altogether to go there and see for yourself the difficulties that our Christian brothers and sisters are facing on a daily basis.

The stifling heat during my visit could be a metaphor for the pressure bearing down on the Christian community across Pakistan, as lawmakers turn away from their duty to speak up for all citizens and the judiciary shirks from bringing to justice those who do them harm.

I had hoped that a visit to my home country would throw up some cause for optimism, even if only a small one. Instead, I heard report after report of how Christians are being driven to the margins in their own country, facing frequent charges of blasphemy and with no one to fight their cause.

It’s difficult for them to know where to turn for help since the murders of their principal allies earlier this year, Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, and Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer. Both were killed because of their support for reform of the blasphemy laws – the chief source of misery for Pakistan’s Christians. Little progress has been made in the trials of their suspected killers as judges run a mile from the prospect of trying someone who is being hailed a hero by even the more moderate Muslims.

One member of the team handling the Bhatti investigation told me that some people were trying to influence the investigation and put a stop to it – including some Christians. Making things harder is the fact that the judiciary consists entirely of Muslims, despite there being several senior lawyers of the Christian faith who are qualified enough to become a judge of the high court.

The marginalisation continues in education, where Christians are virtually excluded from the government’s scholarship fund that enables Pakistanis to study in universities abroad. In the light of such blatant discrimination, a quota should be fixed to ensure that Christians also have a chance to break free from the shackles of poverty. This is an issue I have raised with the Pakistani government but they have paid little attention.

Then there is the one-sided school education system. I was shocked to hear from nephews and nieces that they were studying Islam because Christian religious education was not available in their school and, apparently, no one is ever failed in Islamic studies. It is deeply concerning that there is no option of Christian studies in schools.

One Christian leader of a student union told me that he was invited to a gathering of radical Muslims in Raiwind, Lahore, by accident. There, young Muslims were being encouraged to start relationships with Christian girls and then convert them to Islam. I am not shocked to hear of such things as, over the last few years, cases of kidnapping and forced conversion to Islam have dramatically increased. There was even one such case in the UK.

Surpassing all of these different kinds of discrimination is the one threat that leaves no Christian safe – the blasphemy laws. During my visit, I met some victims of these laws who are still living in hiding even though the charges against them have been dropped or they have been acquitted by the court.

The fact of the matter is that once a charge of blasphemy has even been levelled against a Christian, they are never again able to lead a normal life. These are people living in poverty and fear and with a lot of unanswered questions about when they will be safe again, when they will be able to get on with their lives, when they will be able to live out their faith without fear of being killed or thrown into jail.

I see the searching in their faces and I have as yet no real answer for them. These are the families as a result of whose sacrifice and poverty the world has come to know about the persecution of Christians in Pakistan. Yet it is an embarrassment to me that although Christians are so few in number in Pakistan, there are millions of Pakistanis who do not give anything to help them pay for their food, their shelter and the school fees for their children. These brave believers are concerned for their lives, but what concerns them more is their children’s future, which remains so precarious and seemingly without hope.

The future can be changed, however. We have seen that so dramatically with the Arab Spring in recent months. Seemingly impossible situations can turn around when it is least expected and almost in the blink of an eye. If Pakistan’s Christians are struggling to find hope, then we must work to give them a new hope by advocating on their behalf, praying for them, and offering practical support. We may not be in Pakistan, we may not be in their shoes, but just knowing that we remember them and care will go a long way to strengthening them in their faith.