Black Day Event with black declaration (TS)
August 11 was observed around the world as a “black day,” a day of protest for some 20 million Christians in Pakistan and around the world who want the country’s blasphemy laws repealed for being a virtual “constitutional genocide.”
On August 10, at an event at the National Press Club, Washington, DC, Nazir S Bhatti, president of the Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC), launched an appeal to the US government and the European Union (EU) to press upon the Pakistani government the need to repeal the blasphemy law and ensure the peace and safety of the country’s Christian community.
Bhatti announced that August 11, 2009 would be recognized as “Black Day” in recognition of the religious discrimination, oppression, and murder of Pakistani Christians and other minorities.
Other speakers included International Christian Concern's (ICC) Jeremy Sewall, American Friends (AFB) of Baluchistan's Ahmar Mustikhan, and Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)'s Jeffrey Imm.
JINNAH GOT QUOTED
Bhatti began by quoting the address of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah to the legislative Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State. Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Moslems would cease to be Moslems, not in the religious sense, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”
Bhatti stated that Pakistan “is not a Pakistan you dreamed of but a country of Moslem militants where rights of religious minorities are crushed ... where Moslems are burning Christians alive, killing innocent peaceful Christians, attacking Churches, forcing conversion of Christian women, gang raping teenage Christian girls, and persecuting under Islamic law.”
Bhatti further stated that the "Christians in Pakistan are observing 'Black Day' on August 11, 2009 to revive the declaration of the founder of Pakistan of August 11, 1947, instead of Minority Day announced by the government or Independence Day on August 14, 2009. Today's press conference is a token of solidarity with our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters and to provide a voice for their equal basic democratic rights in Pakistan ... Christians are treated like slaves ...."
RECENT ATTACKS
Regarding recent attacks on Christians, Bhatti stated "I will draw your kind attention on the barbaric act of burning alive of women and children ... this cruel, sad, and horrific incident happened on August 1, 2009, at Gojra city in Punjab when Moslem militants used chemicals to set on fire homes and burned alive, crying for mercy, 4 Christian women and one child in broad daylight in the presence of law enforcement agencies.
“The Moslem extremists attacked and burnt down 110 homes and looted valuables of Christians in the village of Bahamin Wala, district Kasur on July 1, while hundreds of Christian women, children, and men fled to take refuge in the fields. The police registered cases against 9 Christians under blasphemy, but amazingly none was registered against Moslem rioters.
“On July 2, 2009, Imran Masih, a Christian youth shopkeeper in Hajweri Town, Faisalabad city was attacked by Moslems on accusations of burning pages of the Holy Quran but was saved by police and sent to judicial custody.
“On July 31, 2009, Moslems after announcements in a mosque gathered and attacked Christians on allegations of blasphemy by Mukhtar Masih, Talib Masih, and Imran Masih of village Korian in district Toba Tek Singh, and about seven kilometers from Gojra city. The Moslem mob torched 75 homes, two churches, and looted valuables. Three are numerous incidents of attacks on Christian worshipers and desecration of the Holy Bible, but I shall record the burning of the village of Shanti Nagar with chemical fire like Gojra city, Korian, and Bahamin Wala in the province of Punjab.
“The Moslem extremists also used the same chemical fire ingredients to burn churches and schools in Sangla Hill, Bahawalpur, Islamabad, Chianwali, Toba Tek, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and in many other villages. The government also failed to protect Murree School, Taxila Hospital, Bible Society, and Justice and Peace Organization at Karachi from attacks of extremist Moslem groups."
ICC CONCERN
International Christian Concern's (ICC) Jeremy Sewall spoke of the continuing history of oppression of Christians in Pakistan and demanded that Pakistan President Zardari take action.
Sewall outlined the continuing history of "faith-based discrimination" and religious oppression of all religious minorities, and especially Christians in Pakistan.
Like Bhatti, Sewall also pointed to the 62nd anniversary of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's statement that if Pakistan citizens have "equal rights, privileges, and obligations ... there will be no end to the progress that we can make."
Sewall stated that "sadly the people of Pakistan have forgotten this admonition from the founder of their country," pointing to numerous examples of where the ICC was trying to alert the Pakistan government to the oppression of Pakistani Christians, while little was being done to protect them or to protect their human rights.
Sewall stated "the officials from Pakistan constantly tell us when we call the embassy that Christians and Moslems live in harmony with each another and that any violence within them is merely personal. This is a bald-faced lie. Discrimination against Christians is pervasive and debilitating. It began almost as soon as Pakistan gained its independence, when Moslem refugees from India flooded the country and took away Christian homes. It increased in 1970 when Christian institutions were nationalized, and missionaries forced out of the country."
Sewall indicated that this led to the Christians' lack of education and impoverishment in Pakistan, highlighting the need to create Christian ghettos due to the lack of protection of Christians from violence. He stated: "Christian women are raped and no one cares, Christian girls are kidnapped and forced into accepting Islam or prostitution or both."
Regarding the recent attacks on Pakistani Christians, Sewall indicated that these conditions of religious oppression make Pakistani Christians "especially at risk of blasphemy accusations which can create a flash lynch mob as happened in Gojra and Korian."
Pointing out these were not "isolated incidents," but such mob attacks have happened repeatedly in Pakistan, Sewall challenged Pakistan President Zardari, stating "President Zardari, you have no excuse for continuing to allow these atrocities against the Christians living in Pakistan. I urge you to take immediate action to provide assistance to the victims as you promised and prosecute the attackers forcefully so that you will end the atmosphere of impunity that currently rules in Pakistan."
REAL IMM
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)'s Jeffrey Imm called for Pakistanis and other to reject the institutionalized hate of supremacism and accept the universal human rights of Pakistani Christians and other religious minorities, and announced the creation of an online petition to empower people around the world to share their concerns with the Pakistan government.
Imm also pointed out that such blasphemy laws in Pakistan not only oppressed Christians, but also oppressed other religious minorities in Pakistan as well any Moslem who happened to be a target, pointing to the recent cases of the Pakistan plant manager killed for taking down a calendar which had some Quranic verses and setting it on a table, or the recent case of a 60-year-old woman's house being attacked.
Stressing that such religious supremacism is based on the denial of the universal human rights of others, and resulted from institutionalized hate Imm stated that "you can't love your fellow human beings and deny their human rights of equality and liberty," and that challenging such institutionalized hate required a "change in thinking."
Recalling the history of racial supremacism in America and how those states and groups that rationalized and legitimized hatred against those of other races as "inferior" were, in fact, institutionalizing hate, that was used in violence as well as oppression of such racial minorities Imm stated that there was no real difference between the hate in 1960's America that resulted in lynchings, segregation, and other forms of racial violence and oppression -- and the hate in 21st century Pakistan based on religious discrimination that justified such blasphemy laws and such mob violence against others.
He said that all forms of institutionalized hate is wrong, and that we must defy such institutionalized hate by supporting the universal human rights of our fellow human beings, and urging others to choose love, not hate.
PETITION
In the petition calling for the end to Pakistan's blasphemy law, Imm stated:?
-- "We call for an end to the unjust and discriminatory "blasphemy laws" in Pakistan that are used to rationalize religious discrimination, oppression, violence, and murder of others. Such 'blasphemy laws' are used to justify violence against both non-Moslems and Moslems throughout Pakistan today."?
-- "We believe that such institutionalized oppression of our fellow human beings is against our universal human rights and must be rejected by all people who support any religion of peace."?
-- "We call on the government of Pakistan to abandon these 'blasphemy laws' today, review the deep divisions within its nation that has allowed such hate against its own citizens, and defend the universal human rights of all of its citizens."?
-- "We also call on the government of the United States of America, which has given millions of US taxpayer dollars to Pakistan, to demand that the Pakistan government end these 'blasphemy laws' and support the universal human rights of its citizens.
Finally, we call on our fellow human beings on our shared Earth to call upon all organizations and nations of the world that seek to use such unjust forms of religious discrimination to end such practices and recognize our universal human rights."
BALUCHISTAN SUPPORT
AFB's Ahmar Mustikhan spoke in solidarity with the PCC and other Pakistani Christians stating that "I condemn the massacre of Christians in Gojra," demanding that Pakistan "ensure the safety of Christians in the future. Christians in Pakistan live like slaves.
They do the dirtiest jobs and are called bhangees, which literally means dirty. Moslems do not eat in the same plate in which a Christian eats.
“Christians mostly clean gutters for peanuts and live in slums. Their women are routinely raped and they suffer in silence as raising a voice would mean death. They are kidnapped and forcibly married off to Moslems as no court does anything for them. For security, they are forced to adopt Moslem names. They are one of the meekest communities, the proverbial lambs of God.
“According to the premier Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the attacks in Gojra that left eight dead, scores injured, and 100 homes burnt were planned and not spontaneous. On the day of the attack in Gojra, the religious zealots announced Moslems should make mincemeat of the Christians. The scenes were akin to Germany under Hitler."
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