ICC Note:

In the wake of the suicide bombing that targeted Christians in Pakistan, many are now realizing Pakistan’s history of persecuting Christians. For years, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended Pakistan be designated a “Country of Particular Concern” for its treatment of religious minorities, including Christians. Blasphemy laws, forced conversions, and widespread discrimination are daily issues Christians in Pakistan must face. Will the Easter bombing wake up the world the Pakistan’s persecution of Christians?  

3/29/2016 Pakistan (UCAN) – Pakistan is once again in the news over its attack on religious minorities. A terrorist attack targeting Christians killed more than 70 people in Lahore as Pakistani Christian families were celebrating Easter in a public park.

This is not the first time that Christians in the Islamic country have been targeted and observers say that as things stand this won’t be the last time.

This is largely because discriminatory laws, state’s patronage of militants groups, deep-rooted intolerance and chronic ignorance give rise to incidents of persecution in Pakistan, making it a living hell for the minority Shia Muslims who along with Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis became the prime target of Sunni extremists.

While Ahmadis are constitutionally declared non-Muslims, Christians and Hindus were made to suffer from harsh blasphemy laws while Shias were regarded as kafirs (infidels).

Pakistan, carved out from British India was created in 1947 in the name of Islam after Muslims of the Indian subcontinent called for a separate homeland.

Although Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the nation’s founder, addressing the Constituent Assembly stated that citizens may belong to any religion as it has nothing to do with the business of the state, a resolution proclaiming that the future constitution of Pakistan would be modeled on the ideology and principles of Islam was kept as a preamble of the Constitution.

In 1985, when it was made an integral part of the text, Pakistan became an Islamic republic, and the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Shariah (Islamic) court were established.

Many Islamic laws were passed, including blasphemy laws and the Hudood Ordinance (Islamic criminal code).

Christians are the most persecuted religious minority in Pakistan. In recent years, Christians braced continuous deadly terrorist attacks in the country leaving hundreds of them dead.

Two bomb blasts at churches in Lahore in March killed 14. A twin suicide bomb attack at a Peshawar church in 2013 left around 80 dead. In 2009, nearly 40 houses and a church were burnt by a mob in Gojra town in Punjab, with eight people burned alive.

In 2005, hundreds of Christians had to flee their homes in Faisalabad as churches and Christian schools were set on fire by a mob claiming Christians had burned pages of the Quran.

Another attack also took place in Lahore this year, resulting in the deaths of over a dozen people. Lahore is the capital of Punjab province where the majority of Christians in the country reside.

More than 95 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people are Muslims. Less than 2 percent are Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities.

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