Churches Attacked

From The Persecution Times

By Sheraz Khurram Khan
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service in Pakistan

GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN (ANS) — In an attempt to grab the land where a church stands now, three Muslim men allegedly incited and led a Muslim mob to attack a church on Tuesday, March 18, in Gajrakh, a Christian neighborhood in the Pakistani city of Gujranwala, during the Holy Week.

This prompted angry Christians to stage a protest demonstration on March 19 against the incident, International Christian Concern has reported.

Earlier, a Christian man, Zahid Salamat was executed in Pakistani city of Multan during Lent on March 12 for murdering a 9 year old Muslim minor, Muhammad Adnan. The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and some other Christian rights groups had called for postponement of Zahid’s execution but government went ahead with hanging Zahid during Lent.

The latest church attack has been carried out by Muslim mob to grab the church property, but Pakistani Christians had been fearing attacks on churches, missionary schools and other church properties since staging of the anti-cartoon protests in Pakistan last month following reprinting of sacrilegious caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by some western newspapers.

According to a story released by the International Christian Concern (ICC) (www.persecution.org) the mob wanted to seize a community centre that belonged to a church in Gajrakh started tearing down the walls of the church.

The mob manhandled Pastor Shairf Bhatti, who appeared at the scene of incident along with a group of Christians, apparently to stop the mob from attacking the church.

The angry mob, according to the story, hurled stones at the church. The local Christians rushed to the scene, forcing the mob to flee.

The Christian residents of the area staged a protest demonstration, the next day, on March 19 to express their anger against the attack on the church. They called for protection of religious minorities and their places of worship, said the story.

The protesters, the story said, blocked the main government transport road at Gondlawala, a major intersection, by parking tractors laden with garbage across the road.

It said the enraged protesters during the demonstration that lasted for more than two hours raised slogans against the people responsible for the church attack and demanded that the culprits be arrested.

Pastor Sharif Bhatti, Pastor Sabir and other union leaders threatened to stage protests in front of offices of police officials if they did not arrest those responsible for the Church attack, it said.

In a latest development, the ICC reported that Adnan Gujar who along with two other Muslim men including Muhammad Asghar and Muhammad Ashraf had allegedly led the mob to attack the Church has been arrested. The others it said are still at large.

The Christians, the latest ICC update said, had bought the land where the church is standing now in 1984 from a Muslim man, Muhammad Nazir. It said the sale angered his sons who have been trying to get the land back since then. It described the attack on the church as an attempt by Nazir’s sons to get the land back.

Condemning the latest attack on a church in Pakistan, Chief Coordinator of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, Mr. Sohail Johnson has called on government to take stern action against the land mafia.

The land mafia attempts to grab Christian properties and Churches in connivance with some black sheep, said Johnson while referring to some unscrupulous government officials.

He also called upon Christians across the country to rise above their petty differences and emerge as a united force against any possible future attempts by the land mafia to occupy churches or Christian properties.

Many Pakistanis believe bishop died a martyr, but persecution goes on-- Bishop John Joseph

National Catholic Reporter
May 7, 1999
Denis Coday

One year ago, on May 6, Bishop John Joseph of Faisalabad, Pakistan, stood outside a courthouse and shot himself in the head with a pistol. His action -- widely understood as a protest against persecution of Christians in Pakistan -- resounded through the country and echoed into the wider world.

In Pakistan, Joseph is hailed as a martyr. His death is never described as "suicide" -- an act condemned by the Catholic church -- but as a sacrifice on behalf of his people.

"The very night he gave his sacrifice, people sent out messages, first in the city of Sahiwal, later by telephones all over the country," recalled Fr. Bonnie Mendes, a priest of Faisalabad diocese. "At once there were demonstrations, processions, rallies and the unanimous slogan, `Bishop John Joseph, martyr.' For the people, he is no less than that."

A few days before Joseph shot himself, a Christian man, Ayub Masih, had been condemned to death at the courthouse for blasphemy against Islam. His crime: He allegedly had spoken favorably of British author Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Muslim officials called for Rushdie's death in 1989, forcing him into hiding.

For Joseph, the persecution of Ayub Masih symbolized the plight of all Christians in Pakistan. Masih -- a name given to all Christians in Pakistan -- was the fourth Christian to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in that country since the early 1990s. It was a use of religion by Islamic authorities that amounts to "purely political gimmickry," according to Peter Jacob, executive secretary of Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace. Three others had their convictions overturned by higher courts, but death threats forced them into exile. Several Christians have been killed in mob violence while awaiting trail for blasphemy charges.

Joseph said the charges against Ayub Masih had been trumped up to force 15 Christian families out in a local land dispute.

Speaking at a rally in Vienna, Austria, in March 1998, one of his last public speeches outside Pakistan, Joseph, summed up the sentiments of Christians in Pakistan, had warned, "We have had enough. We shall protest in such a way that the world will be shocked."

Bishop Joseph Coutts, Joseph's successor, said, "For the people, Bishop John is quite clearly a martyr," whether he is officially accepted as one or not. In Pakistan, people saw his action as like that of a mother who throws herself in the line of fire to save her child from being killed, he said. "The words of Ayub Masih's mother sum it up: `He died to save my son's life.'"

This popular sentiment is evident at the bishop's grave today. His gravesite in the compound at the Faisalabad cathedral has become a shrine that pilgrims visit.

A calculated risk

Those who knew the bishop well deny speculation that he was depressed or ailing.

"He was of sound mind -- one of the most sound minds in the Catholic church of Pakistan," says Mendes, who first met Joseph in 1956 when they were both seminarians. Mendes spent years struggling beside Joseph on the peace and justice commission and many other projects.

Mendes describes the bishop's suicide as "a well thought out calculated risk. I am sure he prayed over it for a long time. In the last year or more, he kept saying, the time for sacrifice has come. You could say that he was full of hope that his death would help highlight the sufferings of the minorities internationally."

"I think it became quite clear to him that now was the time to give a big push and to do something dramatic," said Coutts, who studied dogmatic theology under then-Fr. Joseph at the National Theology Seminary in Karachi and in 1976 joined the seminary faculty when Joseph was dean of studies. The two served together on the bishops' conference of Pakistan for 10 years.

In Lahore on April 7, 1994, at the funeral of Manzoor Masih (another Christian charged with blasphemy who was gunned down outside the courthouse while still on trial), Joseph publicly announced that he was ready to die if necessary.

Mendes recalls the words the bishop preached at Manzoor Masih's funeral: "Bishop John said, `Manzoor, we are sorry this happened to you. If anybody's blood was needed, I should have been the first. I shall shed my blood but will not allow the blood of my people to spill in the country.'"

Mendes says that the bishop's last public address, which he faxed to a seminar to be held in Rome in conjunction with the Synod of Bishops for Asia in March 1998, is significant. The last two paragraphs read:

"I shall count myself fortunate if in this mission of breaking the barriers, Our Lord accepts the sacrifice of my blood for the benefit of his people. As St. Paul wrote, `It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the church' (Colossians 1:24).

"This is the only effective response to the ever-growing phenomena of violence around us. Are we ready to take up the challenge and follow him, carrying this cross on our own shoulder? Are we ready to drink the cup of suffering to the bitter end as Jesus did? Each one of us has to formulate his or her personal response. May the crucified and risen Lord give us the courage to do so. Amen."