Religious tensions have flared up again in Pakistan, this time in the Jaranwala city in Punjab Province.
A mob of Muslims went on rampage vandalizing churches in the city and targeting Chrisitians as local police charged two Christian men to court for “desecrating the holy Quran and abusing the Prophet Mohammed.”
At least eight churches have been razed so far including a Catholic Church, a Salvation Army Church and another Pentecostal Church in the city.
No casualty has been reported but Bishop for the Church of Pakistan Azad Marshall took to Twitter to call on authorities to act swiftly claiming, “Christians have been tortured and harassed because they were falsely accused of violating the Holy Quran”.
An alarmed assistant commissioner for Faisalabad re-echoed the Bishop’s sense of urgency describing the situation as “sensitive and vulnerable,” and demanding the deployment of the armed forces to stem the violence.
Videos emerged showing angry youths gathered outside at least on church chanting slogans.
Pakistan is essentially an Islamic country with a small Christian minority and is among a handful of countries with Islamic anti-blasphemy laws punishable by death sentence.
In 2013, 100 homes of Christians were set ablaze by Muslims in Lahore Province over similar allegations of blasphemy.
In 2010, a mother of five in Punjab was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to hang but this was later rescinded on appeal.
Similar religious intolerance are common place in Nigeria’s Muslim far northern region as well. Last year a young Chrisitian girl, Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a second-year Christian college student, was killed and set ablaze by a mob of Muslim students in Sokoto State also for blasphemy.
EU’s ambassador to Pakistan, Riina Kionka, in a tweet regarding treatment of minorities, “The degree to which a society’s minorities feel safe, in Pakistan, in the European Union, around the world, is a measure of respect for the rule of law, for tolerance of diversity, a core EU value”.
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