CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE For immediate release March 19 2003 EXTREMISTS INCITE VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS AT ANTI-WAR RALLIES IN PAKISTAN

Anti-war rallies in Pakistan are being used by extremists to stir up violence against the minority Christian community.

Pakistan’s opposition party, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), is publicly calling for jihad (holy war) against America and infidels (non-Muslims) and has announced a third ‘Million Men March’ on Saturday March 23 in Lahore.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims waving the green and white flags of the MMA and holding pictures of Osama bin Laden took to the streets in Karachi on March 2 and in Rawalpindi on March 9 to protest against the impending US-led war against Iraq.

Calling Pakistan the citadel of Islam, the MMA condemned any attack on Iraq as a Christian crusade against Islam and declared that it was the responsibility of every good Muslim to kill infidels.

“Any attack on Iraq would be considered an attack on the Muslim world,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the MMA in Pakistan’s National Assembly, told the protesters from a podium.

Maulana Fazal-ul Rehman, the secretary-general of the MMA added: “Those who are supporting infidels will face our wrath. Jews and Christians are our enemies, they cannot be our friends. Our jihad is against all these infidels. This is not a war against Iraq but against Islam and if the war will break then Muslims will participate in this Holy War.”

Christians in Pakistan are particularly targeted because Islamic militants believe that by killing them, they are striking at Christian America and the West.

Anti-Christian sentiment in Pakistan is further fuelled by hate campaigns from various Islamic militant groups who have openly distributed provocative anti-Christian and pro-jihad literature across the country.

In January, Jesh Ahle-I-Alqiblat Ali Alsari Al Alami, an Islamic militant group based in the capital city of Islamabad, published a pamphlet in Urdu and Arabic demanding Pakistani Christians to convert to Islam or face death.

Calling non-Muslims ‘enemies of Islam’, the document claimed that jihad becomes obligatory on Muslims if non-believers harass them or become a threat to their honour and religion.

Published by several national newspapers, the pamphlet directed Muslims to kill infidels wherever and whenever they can be found.

The Government of Pakistan has been silent on the subject even though the distribution on such a large scale of hate materials is in breach of s.295A and s.298 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Christians and other non-Muslim citizens living in Pakistan are extremely fearful that what happens in the Gulf will bring grave repercussions on them.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: “Pakistan is at risk of being torn apart by Islamic militancy. Most of the 2,000 extremists arrested last year have now been released. Outlawed militant groups have reconstituted themselves under new names. These extreme elements are fanning the flame of religious hatred and violence.”

“We strongly urge President Musharraf to redouble efforts to crack down on militant groups lest these extreme elements put at risk all he has achieved in bringing Pakistan towards being a moderate and progressive society.

“We also call on the Government of Pakistan to formulate a comprehensive strategy in providing sufficient security measures for its Christian and other non-Muslim citizens in these volatile times.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The MMA is a coalition of radical Islamic parties currently holding governments in two of the four provinces in Pakistan (the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan). It is widely believed to have close links with the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.