PAKISTAN – Non-Muslims told to convert or die
16/08/07
Christians remain fearful after deadline passes
Many Pakistani Christians have been wounded in attacks by Muslim fanatics
Police continued to provide security around churches and temples this week, even as Christians received new deadlines for converting to Islam.
Though the original 10 August deadline for converting has passed, Peshawar's minorities continue to live in fear, cancelling church activities and skipping services.
"Embrace Islam and become Muslims ... otherwise, after next Friday 10 August your colony will be ruined," read more than a dozen identical letters collected by the Church of Pakistan (COP) in Peshawar, 93 miles west of Islamabad.
A spokesman for COP, Pakistan's largest Protestant body, said that on 7 August some of the threatening letters had been thrown into the courtyards of Christian and Hindu homes in Peshawar's Kohati, Interior City and Cantonment districts.
Different letters were mailed to Peshawar's Catholic and Protestant churches.
"All in all, we were able to collect only 15 of the letters from the community," said Ashar Dean, assistant director of communications for COP's Peshawar diocese.
Explaining that they were delivered to neighbourhoods heavily populated by minority families living in small houses around a common courtyard, Mr Dean said the letters probably reached more than 100 Christians and Hindus.
A separate letter mailed to COP diocesan priest Joseph John threatened suicide attacks against churches.
"Our mosques and children are being martyred at American orders," read the letter. "Therefore the churches will also be wiped off the face of the earth."
Christian leaders immediately informed local police about the threats, prompting a meeting on 10 August with City Police Chief Abdul Majeed Marwat.
"The security in their areas has been beefed up around churches and other places of worship," Police Chief Marwat told reporters on 15 August, reiterating promises made to minority leaders last week.
A Christian politician also brought the letter to the national government's attention on 10 August, English-language daily Dawn reported.
Pervaiz Masih, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, read a copy of the threatening letter to the assembly and called on the government to take note of insecurity the letters had created amongst Peshawar's Christians.
But Christians remain uncertain as to how seriously authorities have taken the threat.
"The speaker [of the house] took the matter very lightly and asked [Pervaiz Masih] to remind him about it in the presence of the interior minister," Dawn reported on 11 August.
Whilst some Christian sources told reporters Peshawar police had done a good job providing security, others were hesitant to speak openly on the phone fearing their criticism might draw police anger.
"It's just a hoax, I presume," said Police Chief Marwat, explaining that a similar incident in May had turned out to be a prank pulled by teenagers.
More than 50 Christians fled the village of Charsadda this spring when a local Christian politician received a letter threatening death if the community did not embrace Islam.
A Pakistani Christian lad surveys the remains of his home, burned down by Islamists when they attacked his village
At least five families who fled Charsadda after the original threat have not yet returned however.
When asked why Christians did not pursue a court case against the Muslim youths, Mr Dean said their faith places emphasis on reconciliation and that a court case could have backfired.
"If we had been harsh, things would have escalated and gone against our interests," said Mr Dean.
The cryptic comment reflects years of violent incidents against Christians in Pakistan. In November 2005, a mob of several thousand Muslims destroyed four churches, a convent and Christian schools in the Punjabi town of Sangla Hill after a Muslim accused a Christian of committing blasphemy.
No one was held responsible for the attacks.
"We have experience of our [Christian] neighbourhoods being attacked by Islamists, so we took this very seriously," Mr Dean commented.
Peshawar minister Yousaf Amanat speculated that references to the United States in the letters could reflect anger over recent anti-Islamic comments by USRepresentative Tom Tancredo (Republican from Colorado).
The Republican presidential hopeful said on 31 July that the best way to deter a nuclear attack on the United States by Islamic terrorists would be to threaten to bomb Mecca and Medina in retaliation.
"The letters said we are friends of the American people," said Amanat, explaining that many Pakistani Muslims automatically link Pakistani Christians to the West because of their religion.
New threat
Rev Amanat said he received a letter by post telling him to convert to Islam by 14 August.
"I was away from the parish, and when I came on Monday evening the letter was on my desk," he said. "It said if we don't become Muslims we will be killed."
Ongoing threats have caused many Peshawar Christians to avoid church and other public gatherings. Rev Amanat says he was forced to cancel several church activities planned for the week.
"With this type of threat, there is no kind of security that can stop the suicide attacks," said Mr Dean.
According to the American State Department's latest report on religious freedom, Hindus constitute 2 per cent and Christians 1.5 per cent of Pakistan's population.
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