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Local News - August 2002 |
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Religious persecution cited Bishop says Muslims endangered in Kashmir By AL DOZIER, LTN Staff Writer August 5, 2002 - Christians and Muslims face a common, life-threatening experience in the Pakistan region — persecution because of their faith. That’s the message Bishop Javed Albert of the Pakistan Muslim Christian Peace Council brought this past weekend while passing through Lincolnton. Albert, who has successfully fought to protect Christians from persecution, is now trying to get the message out to the media in the U.S. that Muslims are being persecuted as well. Under pressure from radicals, people are being arrested for the crime of blasphemy — speaking or acting out against religious teachings. The enforcement of this law is widely misused by radial sects for their own political purposes, Albert said. The government appears powerless to do anything about it. “If anyone says anything bad about the prophet, he faces a death sentence,” said Albert, who was visiting friends in Charlotte and Lincolnton during the weekend. It’s not just the Christians, but the Muslims who find themselves persecuted at the whims of fanatical extremists who often control the local courts. Albert, along with several Muslim leaders, formed Pakistan’s Muslim Christian Peace Council, an organization that has had some success in helping persecuted Christians in Pakistan. In gratitude, Albert says he now wants to go to the aid of persecuted Muslims, something many Americans do not know about. He is especially interested in seeking out the American media. Albert said that Pakistan has been America’s most reliable friend in Asia, going back to the Cold War. But the presence of nuclear weapons that made the Cold War so grave now threaten the lives of 60 million Muslims, Hundus and Christians of all nationalities, including Americans. “It is an unspeakable horror that, under the present circumstances, almost appears inevitable,” the Pakistan Muslim Christian Peace Council says in a prepared statement dated Aug. 2. The council was referring to the skirmishing and fighting along the India and Pakistan, border which has the people of Kashmir caught up in the middle. The practical solution, according to the peace council, is to provide Kashmir what was promised to them by the United Nations when it was created years ago — a plebiscite in which the people of that state may choose their own national alliance, be it with India, Pakistan, or as an independent. It’s a move that the U.S. is opposing, maintaining the belief that India and Pakistan can settle their differences. Albert, who has witnessed first-hand the reprisal nature of religious extremists, has a pessimistic view of a future more and more marked by terrorism. It will continue, and get worse he predicted, because of the depth of the commitment and the “strike back” mentality of Islamic radicals. The terrorists who are fighting these battles “will have three or four children who will also be terrorists,” he said. ————— Rev. Albert’s e-mail address is faithtraders@yahoo.com His mailing address is PO. Box 1007, Failsalabad, Pakistan.
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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