By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Out of fear for their lives, at least 20-25 Christians are converting to Islam every week in Pakistan as a result of increasing persecution of religious minorities in that country.
TheStar.com is reporting that many of Pakistan’s three million Christians are taking the brunt of a contentious debate in that country over a blasphemy law that is too often used to falsely accuse them of blaspheming Mohammed. Tensions have been on the rise ever since a Christian woman named Asia Bibi was sentenced to death over a petty argument she had with Muslim women in her neighborhood.
“An allegation of blasphemy shouted in the streets can, in an instant, whip a crowd into a frenzy and lead to assaults and dubious arrests,” writes Rick Westhead of TheStar.
For instance, a doctor was recently dragged out of his office and beaten by a mob just for throwing away the business card of a pharmaceutical salesman whose named was Muhammad.
“No one feels safe right now,” said Nadeem Anthony, a Christian and a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “People are scared. If you want something from your neighbor or you are angry at him, you say blasphemy and that’s it.”
This is precisely what happened in Lahore last week when a Christian woman got into a heated argument with a Muslim in-law who got revenge by running into the street and shouting that the woman had blasphemed Islam. A group of protesters stormed into the home and beat her. The woman and her husband are now living in hiding.
As a result, many are choosing to convert to Islam just to stay alive and protect their families. Azra Mustafa, 45, converted to Islam even though her husband remains a Christian. Every night, a teacher comes into their home and instructs her and her children in Arabic and the Qur’an. Asked if she felt safer in the wake of her conversion, Mustafa replied, “of course.”
Another man, 23 year-old Parvaiz Masih, who works as a rickshaw diver, has already told friends he plans to convert to Islam and will change his name to Muhammad Parvaiz.
“I’ve been thinking about it for two or three years,” he said, wrapped in a heavy blue shawl. “About four days ago, I decided to do it.”
When asked if the widely publicized clashes between Christians and Muslims played a role in his decision, he just shrugged and refused to answer.
Apparently, some imams say they will not proceed with a conversion if someone gives safety as a reason for their decision.
Peter Jacob, executive director of an advocacy organization funded by the Catholic Church, said an average of 400 Christians annually converted to Islam between 2005 and 2010. In 2011, he expects that number to swell. “It’s going to be very different in these hostile conditions,” Jacob told TheStar. “People have no faith in the police or justice system and the kind of fear that exists now was never there before.”
Pope Benedict XVI has been raising the alarm about the increasing persecution of Christians, making religious freedom the subject of his World Day of Peace message in 2011.
And for good reason. The 2010 Report on Religious Liberty in the World, presented every two years by the international charity Aid to the Church in Need, reports that the number of persecuted Christians in the world is not at a staggering 200 million.
Recent attacks have been bloody. An October 31 suicide bombing at a Syrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad kill 50 while a January 1 bombing at a Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt claimed 23 more.
“For a long time [Christians] have been the religious group that must face the greatest number of persecutions because of their faith,” Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops conference, told Zenit News. “A crescendo of bloody incidents that in the course of months has involved India, Pakistan and the Philippines, Sudan and Nigeria, Eritrea and Somalia. However, the most serious events took place in Iraq and finally in Egypt.”
When the Pope denounced the Egyptian killings, the government responded not by promising to provide more protection for Christians, but by withdrawing its ambassador to the Holy See.
Cardinal Bagnasco went on to say that “the Middle East is certainly the region with the highest tension; there, Christianophobia, which is the most current version of religious intolerance, is not far from becoming now a form of ethnic or religious cleansing.”
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