Pakistani protesters call for violence against Christians, worldwide jihad

Antiwar rallies in Pakistan are being used by extremists to stir up violence against the minority Christian community, reports a Christian religious rights group.

Pakistan’s opposition party, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), is publicly calling for jihad against America and non-Muslims, reported Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Calling Pakistan the citadel of Islam, the MMA condemned any attack on Iraq as a Christian crusade against Islam and declared that it was the responsibility of every good Muslim to kill infidels.

The MMA, a coalition of radical Islamic parties, includes the governments of two of four provinces in Pakistan, including one that borders Afghanistan. The coalition is widely believed to have close links with the Al Qaeda terrorist group and the radical Taliban party of Afghanistan.

“Any attack on Iraq would be considered an attack on the Muslim world,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the MMA in Pakistan’s National Assembly, told protestors from a podium during protest gatherings in early March.

Maulana Fazal-ul Rehman, the secretary-general of the MMA, added, “Those who are supporting infidels will face our wrath. Jews and Christians are our enemies; they cannot be our friends. Our jihad is against all these infidels. This is not a war against Iraq but against Islam; and if the war will break, then Muslims will participate in this Holy War.”

CSW reports that Christians in Pakistan are particularly targeted because Islamic militants believe that by killing them, they are striking at Christian America and the West.

Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of CSW, said, “Pakistan is at risk of being torn apart by Islamic militancy. Most of the 2,000 extremists arrested last year have now been released. Outlawed militant groups have reconstituted themselves under new names. These extreme elements are fanning the flame of religious hatred and violence.”

Anti-Christian sentiment in Pakistan is further fueled by hate campaigns from various Islamic militant groups who have openly distributed provocative anti-Christian and pro-jihad literature across the country.

In January, Jesh Ahle-I-Alqiblat Ali Alsari Al Alami, an Islamic militant group based in the capital city of Islamabad, published a pamphlet in Urdu and Arabic demanding Pakistani Christians to convert to Islam or face death.

Calling non-Muslims “enemies of Islam,” the document claimed that jihad becomes obligatory on Muslims if nonbelievers harass them or become a threat to their honor and religion. Published by several national newspapers, the pamphlet directed Muslims to kill infidels wherever and whenever they can be found.

The government of Pakistan has been silent on the subject even though the distribution on such a large scale of hate materials is in breach of Pakistan’s laws.

Christians and other non-Muslim citizens living in Pakistan are extremely fearful that what happens in the Gulf will bring grave repercussions on them. However, the BBC reported that many have come out against the war, joining their Muslim countrymen and women in denouncing American and coalition forces fighting against Saddam Hussein.

Anti-Christian sentiment in other Islamic countries may not be as overt, but Christians elsewhere are feeling alienated. Although a minute amount of Christians in Jordan support the war, one convert told the BBC that his Muslim neighbors are suspicious of Christians.

“The Americans should think about what they say and what they do. They must remember that there are Christians here, and what they do affects us,” the Jordanian Christian said.

— E.P. News