The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the nation's umbrella group of national, regional, and local Muslim associations, condemns the armed mob attacks on two Christian churches in Jaranwala, Pakistan, and Christian residents based on unverified accusations of Quran desecration.
Videos on social media showed hundreds of people armed with batons and sticks attacking the Salvation Army Church and the Saint Paul Catholic Church, setting them ablaze, while another mob attacked private homes, torching them and breaking windows, according to Al Jazeera.
We call for the authorities to investigate those who exhorted protest after the unverified claim that torn pages of the Quran with blasphemous comment inscribed on them were found near the Christian colony, the USCMO's secretary general said, adding:
"Pakistan's officials must quell lawless mob action and ensure blasphemy laws do not excuse vigilante attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship... Islam forbids all such action as a grave sin and empowers Muslim authorities to punish its instigation."
The Faisalabad district mob violence against the churches and Christian residents, with reports of Bible desecrations, comes in the wake of the recent rash of high-profile, government licensed and police-protected Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark, and spreading in Europe, the USCMO pointed out.
Akmal Bhatti, the head of Minorities Alliance Pakistan, told the Voice of America that the crowd had torched at least five churches and looted valuables from houses their owners had abandoned after Islamist clerics made announcements in mosques inciting the mob. "Despite this, the police officers could not deploy the necessary security for the protection of the colony and the property in time," Bhatti said after visiting the affected community. "Today, we have suffered great pain and sorrow when our churches were desecrated and burnt."
Christians make up about 2% of the population, occupy one of the lowest rungs in Pakistani society and are frequently targeted with spurious and unfounded blasphemy allegations, according to The Guardian.
The Associated Press reported that Father Gulshan Barkat, who teaches church history at the National Catholic Institute of Theology in Karachi, described the blasphemy allegations as a "false accusation" and said the local mosques were also to blame because loudspeakers erected on minarets had earlier in the day called on Muslims to gather and "attack the churches and Christian community." "The emotion of our Muslim brethren flares up very quickly, even at hearsay," he said.
"Words fail me as I write this. We, Bishops, Priests, and lay people, are deeply pained and distressed at the Jaranwala incident," Azad Marshall, moderator bishop of the Church of Pakistan, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Bibles have been desecrated and Christians have been tortured and harassed having been falsely accused of violating the Holy Quran," he added.
The United States was "deeply concerned that churches and homes were targeted," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel was quoted by Reuters as saying. "We urge Pakistani authorities to conduct a full investigation into these allegations and call for calm for all those involved," Patel said.
"Civil society organizations reported judges were reluctant to exonerate individuals accused of blasphemy, fearing vigilante violence," the United States said in its 2022 annual report on the human rights situation in Pakistan.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan and though no one has ever been executed for it, numerous accused people have been lynched by outraged crowds. A former provincial governor and a minister for minorities have also been shot dead because of blasphemy accusations.
Rights groups say accusations of blasphemy are sometimes used to settle scores. Hundreds of people are languishing in prison after being accused because judges often put off trials, fearing retribution if they are seen as being too lenient, they say.
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