Pakistan's Dangerous Islamist Intolerance

Police officers walk through the rubble of homes vandalized by an angry Muslim mob in a Christian area in Jaranwala in the Faisalabad district, Pakistan, Aug. 17, 2023.

"Clearly, in Pakistan, evidence is not required where the issue of blasphemy is concerned, and mobs take it upon themselves to dispense 'justice'."

"[Do] the rulers -- politicians and establishment -- as well as clerics and prominent society figures have the courage to confront this madness?"

Pakistan's Dawn editorial 

 

"[I was] gutted [by the images coming out of Faisalabad]."

"Stern action would be taken against those who violate law and target minorities. All law enforcement has been asked to apprehend culprits and bring them to justice."

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar

 

"[I am] deeply pained and distressed."

"We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland that has just celebrated independence and freedom."

Christian leader Bishop Azad Marshall

In this photo provided by district police office, a police officer pours water into a burning house in a Christian neighborhood in Jaranwala, near Faisalabad, Pakistan, Wednesday.  District Police Office via/AP

 

A Muslim mob in Pakistan, enraged over rumours that Christian Pakistanis had desecrated a Koran, went on a violent rampage of burning and looting and destroying Christian churches and the homes of Christians living in the country's east. Miraculously, no deaths took place, nor serious injuries despite the large scale of the rampage. Such mob violence takes place from time to time in Pakistan, one of several Islamic-majority countries with capital punishment laws against blasphemy.

Islamist clerics are known to whip their followers to a frenzy of anger over the very presence of Christians living in their midst. Hostilities between religious sects are not unknown anywhere, but in Pakistan they take in lethal qualities. Even politicians who attempt to support the presumed equal rights of non-Muslims in Pakistan have been assassinated for their efforts in hoping to establish a reasonable aura of civilized conduct toward Christians.

Unpredictable riots are known to break out and allowed to rage on viciously before anyone in authority appears to take notice. In 2010 a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, offended her workmates when she tried to drink from a communal source and her Muslim coworkers became angry that she would make the water unfit for them to drink. They accused her to authorities of taking the name of the Prophet in vain, and she was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. When a Pakistani court finally found her not guilty, mobs roamed the streets demanding her death.

Supporters of Tehrik-e Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a hard-line religious political party, protest a Supreme Court decision overturning Asia Bibi's blasphemy conviction on October 31. Arif Ali/AFP

In the instance of Wednesday's mob actions representing some of the most serious sectarian violence outbreaks in recent years, police response was slow to break up the riots in Jaranwala, giving the mob ample time to deface and destroy a number of Christian churches, to enter people's homes and loot them, driving away with their gains, setting fire to the home interiors, effectively dispossessing the people whose homes they were, including those of priests.

The slow response to re-establish order in Jaranwala described by witnesses, raised questions whether officials in Pakistan are interested in dedicating resources sufficient to protect the country's religious minorities from the rabid hatred of fanatical Islamists. The global intake of breath over this latest manifestation of vicious intolerance obviously gave the government something to think about, and this time the response was a little more forceful, in the arrest of some 130 people who had lead the mobs.

Pakistan is a country of 248 million Sunni Muslims among whom Pakistan's Christians represent a mere two percent of the population. And in that country acts of sectarian violence most frequently target Christians. Police raids on Thursday in Jaranwala finally made an effort to counter this most recent mob violence targeting Christians where false charges of blasphemy often originate from sources interested in 'settling scores' as a method of putting Christians 'in their place'.

Pakistani authorities claim their response was timely, and their intervention served to prevent worse events from occurring. An estimated 6,000 people appear to have taken part in the riots. Before the enraged mob's frenzied attacks most Christians fled temporarily out of their community hoping to find safety elsewhere. Once thousands of paramilitary troops were deployed, authorities declared the situation under control.

A police officer fires in air to disperse angry Muslim mob during clashes in Jaranwala near Faisalabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. Police say a Muslim mob has attacked a Christian area in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, burning a church, damaging four others and demolishing a man's house after accusing him of desecrating Islam’s holy book. (AP Photo/Muhammad Shafqat)