Gujrat Community Seeks to Lessen Harship through Art

The Christian community of Gujrat, Pakistan, is bursting forth with both a dire need for steady income and with creativity. Many people in Gujrat, both men and women, have excellent skills in knitting, sewing and textiles, painting, toy-making, and much more. The community, under the guidance of Nadeem Feroze, a novitiate in the Tertiary lay order of St. Benedict of the Roman Catholic Church, and with the assistance of an American liaison in the United States, Kristen Pantle, are attempting to organize the community into a network of artisans.

"Due to this discrimination," Nadeem explained, "Christians do not have many opportunities to acquire jobs in Pakistan. Most days we struggle to earn a living wage simply to feed our children or care for aging parents. It is very hard."

Nadeem is very involved in his community, and when he isn't doing odd jobs along with the rest of his poor neighborhoods, he spends his time in service to them. Teaching catechism or helping children with homework, making rosaries and bringing the Eucharist to shut-ins, partaking in peace conferences and organizing church events, are just a glimpse into the daily efforts Nadeem exercises in order to uplift his community of faith. "Nadeem wants to live out the Gospel message the best he can," Kristen, student at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, OH, explains. "He is compelled by something deep within to bring hope, dignity, and self-sufficiency to all his persecuted brethren. He wishes so much to help them, but he also has a family of his own to care for." Nadeem has a wife and a daughter with another child on the way, as well as two elderly parents for whom he cares.

Sewing Hope

The pride of the community's artistic work is their tapestries. Taught by the members from the religious order Sisters of the Cross, the community hand-sews tapestries of religious images from strips of fabric. One of the sisters is pictured (left) with their Resurrection Tapestry. "It takes almost twelve hours to make, depending on the skill of the artist," Nadeem explains. "Most of the artists don't have sewing machines and so have to do everything by hand."

They sell religious cards made by the sisters, as well as cards made by the little children in Sunday school. They make animal statues out of jewels and street tar. "Necessity is the mother of invention," Kristen says. There is also an artist who paints pastoral scenes on stretches of velvet (pictured below).

Nadeem and Kristen are hoping to establish a dependable source of income. "This may take awhile," sighs Kristen. "I don't know a lot about these things, but I would love to be able to create a Fair Trade market for this community. For them to be able to produce things that people want to buy will not only give them a sense of pride, it will put food on the table and provide much-needed medical care. It is going to take a lot of work and ingenuity. I hope to find some help with this."

If you wish to purchase one of the items made by the Christians of Gujrat, help with this ministry, or simply would like to donate, please email Kristen at k.louise77@gmail.com.

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.