ICC Note:

Following a deadly bombing targeting Christians in Pakistan on Easter, many are left wondering why Christians in Pakistan face so much violence and persecution. Historically, Pakistan’s Christians have faced threats from Pakistan Islamic extremist groups. Often, Christians are punished because they are seen as extensions of the West in Pakistan. In most cases, the majority of Pakistan Muslim population are taught that Christians are not equal citizens and are not true Pakistanis. This ingrained ideology allows for much of Pakistan’s Muslim population to unleash unthinkable violence upon their fellow citizens. 

3/29/2016 Pakistan (New York Times) – The suicide bombing in the city of Lahore on Easter underscores how Pakistan’s Christian minority has become an easy target for the country’s Islamic militants, although Muslims also were among the victims.

There are barely 2.5 million Christians in the mostly Muslim country of 180 million, and they say they worry about sending their children out and rarely feel safe even in church.

“It is very fearful living in your own country … when you are attacked by fanatics in your own home,” said the Rev. Riaz Arif of Lahore, adding that radical Muslim groups seek revenge for perceived aggression against them by predominantly Christian nations in the West.

For centuries, Christians have been a part of the Asian subcontinent in what is now known as Pakistan. There are famous Pakistani Christians, such as A.R. Cornelius, the first non-Muslim chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, but also politicians, educators, health care professionals and fighter pilots.

But Christians often rank among the country’s poorest people, often working at menial jobs and living in poor, slum-like areas. Some of the Christian population has its roots in the Hindu religion. When Pakistan was carved from a larger India in 1947 and given independence as a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims, many Dalats or lower caste Hindus living in what is today Pakistan, converted to Christianity.

While looked upon with suspicion, it worsened for Christians, like many minorities, after dictator Zia-ul Haq, with Western support, nurtured Islamic militancy to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The intolerant views of these militants began to dominate, and minorities became easy targets. In the 1980s and 1990s, Christians sometimes were set upon by mobs of militant Muslims, but it wasn’t until after the 2001 U.S.-led assault on Afghanistan that attacks against Pakistan’s Christians increased both in numbers and ferocity.

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