George Bush’s war on terror has had an adverse effect on Pakistan’s Christian community
“HUMAN beings are members of a family God created on this planet. Whatever belief, religion or race we may have, it doesn’t matter to God. He is the Creator of those who believe in Him and of those who don’t. All religions teach love and peace, but if a member of a faith is misbehaving with another that is not the fault of the faith, but a problem with the individual. There should be an open dialogue among the people of different faiths and cultures so that we can feel ourselves under the umbrella of the same God, whom we have given different names.”
I pasted this message on the Internet, soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US and got a tremendous response, especially from the Western Netizens. Some were amazed that Pakistanis can also think like that! On my part, it was an individual effort to calm down the aggressive chat-rooms and start an inter-faith dialogue based on rational. But after the US-lead attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, a big gap between Islam and Christianity (Western World, especially the US) has become obvious.
Today terrorism is a global issue and efforts are being made to deal with this menace. Despite rapid accusations, US President George W. Bush has assured on many occasions that the American actions are not against the Muslim world, but the terrorists who are killing innocent people. The President of Pakistan, Pervaiz Musharraf has also claimed recently that he is trying to bridge the gap between Islam and the Western World. These efforts of bridging the gaps is taking place at the macro or state level by politicians and governments. But, there is a dire need for a people-to-people contact or efforts of peace and harmony at the micro or gross root level, so that religious, social and political misconceptions between the two greatest faiths of the world are minimized, if not removed totally.
Recently I came across two organizations in the Twin-Cities: The Christian Study Centre (CSC) and the Liberal Forum Pakistan (LFP). These two are working for peace and harmony among the Muslim majority and religious minorities in Pakistan, through inter-faith dialogue at the gross-root level. Christian and Muslim intellectuals are running these two organizations. I visited both and it was really encouraging to find that intellectuals, writers, poets and people related to the arts in our society are not silent in these difficult times and are working for the promotion of tolerance and peace.
Mahboob Frances Sada, director of the Christian Study Centre (CSC) in Rawalpindi said, “After 9/11 the (Pakistani) Christians are suffering with hidden-fear which never existed before.”
No doubt, minorities have also played a vital role during the struggle for Pakistan. They are patriotic citizens of this country. However, “Today, some people are thinking that Americans are Christians, but the fact is that the majority of them are non-believers — moreover, America’s agenda is political not religious. If America’s agenda were religious, there would have a Christian majority in Pakistan. Even we are not getting a US-visa easily. Thus we are suffering in both ways,” Mahboob said in an interview with Dawn.
“People need to be educated and properly communicated the realities. Inter-faith harmony is a slow process and it takes time,” he continued.
“I hope this situation of horror and mistrust will finish soon and the brotherhood of the past will return back to our society. Symptoms are already appearing on the scene. Sometime back people were not even willing to sit together. But now they are going to share things once again.
“In July this year, my mother died. On this difficult occasion my Muslim friends came to my aid and shared my grief. I live amongst them. I have five children and my Muslim sisters raised them. We love each other. We should discover the things that separate human beings from each other. We should build a society where at least man should breath freely.
“Some events happened just because of ignorance, there are ignorant people everywhere. It is the need of time to built a society based on justice, love, truth, equality, harmony, peace and human values, so that there is happiness and prosperity for all. Pakistan’s very existence depends on mutual respect. Those who are doing the business of hatred should be accountable.” He concluded.
“I don’t like the word ‘minority’ — it is a discriminatory term which should be avoided,” says Gulmina Bilal, of the Liberal Forum, in Islamabad. “We have a tradition that we start our meetings with the recitations from the Holy Quran, the Bible and Gita. We take the society in the holistic perspective.
“Indeed after 9/11 a big change on the state level has taken place, but on the ground people were peace-loving and even today they want it in our daily lives.”
Gulmina recognizes that today we have more freedom of thought and expression, which was not before. “But still there is hesitation and we can’t express ourselves clearly (as it should be in a democratic society) — anyhow now we are heard at least and the world community is also ready to help those who want to work for social betterment in our society. It is a good sign.”
Dominic John, a Christian social worker and teacher in Rawalpindi said, “Principally we don’t like the army in power, but under President General Pervaiz Musharraf minorities feel safe. The social and political changes brought by him gave strength to the minorities and they feel themselves in the main stream now.
“Before the election reforms, the Christians of the Rawalpindi constituency used to go to Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and he would refer them to J. Salik who would in turn be unavailable. But now Sheikh Sahib hears us carefully because he has to get our vote in the next elections — it is indeed a great change. Now we are valued as citizens of Pakistan, “ he concluded.
“After 9/11, Pakistan’s foreign policy changed. Siding with the US enraged (a lot of) people, thus there is hatred in the society. Our people need to be educated that Christians are not from America or any other country, they belong to this very land and are our own brothers,” says Prof Dr Rukhsana Masood, a social scientist and Chairperson Sociology Department, Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad. In Pakistan some think that the US and other western countries are helping and promoting the Christian community. But according to Dr Rukhsana, “This is not true, if it was so then the hundreds of thousands of Christians, who are sweepers and are in the lowest class in our society, would have reached a good social status.”
There are some 15 million Christians (Catholics and Protestants) in Pakistan. They are mostly in the profession of teaching, health and sweeping.
If efforts to remove the root cause of aggressive behaviour and terrorism are made and at every level efforts to bridge the gaps wherever they happen are continued effectively, only then can it be hoped that in the next five to ten years’ time the world could be entirely different from the one, today we live in.
George Bush’s war on terror has had an adverse effect on Pakistan’s Christian community 
