Cross of the Martyrs. Credit: Aaron Groote via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
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By Matt
Hadro
Washington
D.C., Apr 23, 2017 - When it comes to religious persecution, Christians are the
most widely targeted community, said a new report released this week.
But
despite oppression and threat of violence, the faithful “should not be afraid,”
said a Pakistani archbishop.
Pakistan’s
Christians have made vital contributions to the country’s history and must not
refrain from professing their faith in the midst of the current persecution,
Archbishop Sebastian Shaw, OFM of Lahore, Pakistan.
“Even
under discrimination or some violent actions,” Christians should take courage,
he said, citing the words of Jesus that “people will hate you on account of My
name.”
“You
are not guilty, but because you are Christians and because you are following
the Gospel values…being honest, being more responsible, being more dutiful,
more charitable,” he said of Pakistan’s Christians, violence and harassment
will follow.
Archbishop
Shaw spoke with CNA at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. at the April
20 release of the new report “Under Caesar’s Sword.” The archbishop leads the
largest Catholic diocese in Pakistan, with around 500,000 members.
“Under
Caesar’s Sword” documents not only the persecution of Christians around the
world, but how they choose to respond to persecution. “Christians are the most
widely targeted religious community,” the report explained, “suffering terrible
persecution globally.”
There
are three common responses of Christian communities to violence or harassment,
the report noted: “survival,” “strategies of association,” and “confrontation,”
which is “the least common response.”
Survival
would entail communities choosing to remain where they are in the face of
persecution, as minorities have in Iraq and Syria, and either gathering
covertly for worship as underground churches do in China, or maintaining a
tenuous relationship with regimes in power.
Communities
utilizing “association” would develop relationships with other non-governmental
organizations or international bodies like the United Nations, or would
strengthen their social ties in their country through social services or
practicing forgiveness.
Examples
of this course of action would be Coptic Christians and Muslims in Egypt, who
acted to protect each other’s churches and mosques from vandalism and violence
in 2011.
Another
example was in 1996 when, “anticipating martyrdom, Christian de Chergé, leader
of the ‘Tibhirine Monks’ of Algeria who were martyred in 1996 during the
uprising, wrote a letter to his would-be killers, forgiving them and inviting
them to a future of living together in freedom.”
“Christian
responses to persecution are almost always nonviolent and, with very few
exceptions, do not involve acts of terrorism,” the report stated.
Christians
in Pakistan, Archbishop Shaw explained, helped build and unify the country when
it was founded in 1947, especially through the health and social sectors and
the educational institutions which formed some of the country’s present-day
leaders, including the prime minister and the speaker of the National Assembly.
However,
following the nationalization of the country’s schools in 1972, Pakistan became
“more Islamized” and Christians were marginalized more and more, the archbishop
said. They currently only make up around two percent of the country’s
population.
Their
marginalization includes infringements upon their rights and mob violence. Acts
of terror against Christians have also increased, with a suicide bomber killing
72 and injuring 340 last year in an attack on a Christian celebration of Easter
Sunday at a park in Lahore.
Additionally,
anti-blasphemy laws have resulted in 40 persons on death row or serving life in
prison, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The laws, which do not require evidence for an accusation and which carry the
harshest of penalties, have been used to harass Christians. Mob violence is
utilized to pressure the government and the courts to issue or uphold harsh
sentences for Christians for alleged crimes.
Asia
Bibi, a Christian mother of five, was convicted in 2010 for alleged blasphemy
but the country’s Supreme Court suspended her death sentence and her case is
still in question, Archbishop Shaw said.
Today,
Christians don’t count as a full person according to the country’s witnessing
law, which requires the testimony of two Christian men to equal that of one
Muslim man when witnessing to a crime. Women are also considered below men, as
four Christian women would have to testify to count as a full witness.
New
textbooks in schools have also circulated which contain “hate material,” the
archbishop said, which prevents a “harmonious society” from growing.
Archbishop
Shaw said he tells Christians “you were born in Pakistan, so God has a special
purpose for you to be born in Pakistan,” saying their presence there is no
accident.
Christians
should not back away from the public square, he insisted, but should be
“assertive enough to profess your faith in a very dignified way.”
He
exhorted them “not to fight,” in response to violence, “but that does not mean
that you let people kill you. You have to be courageous to approach people in a
very assertive way to share your values in being human and being a Christian.”
Christians
should seek to grow in knowledge of their faith and their “religious
traditions,” he said, and should share their faith with others through
interreligious dialogue. This last part is key, he said, because if Christians
and Muslims can have a “roundtable” to learn each other’s religious values,
then they can find common ground.
Some
of the worst persecution of Christians occurs in countries where they are
isolated and which are largely closed off to outside research, the report said,
countries like North Korea, Eritrea, Somalia, and Yemen.
Christians
worldwide should seek to implement these practices of dialogue, bridge-building
with other members of society, and non-violence, the report said.
“The
benefits of these strategies may seem short-term and modest, but from the
standpoint of those persecuted, the strategies reflect a kind of divine logic,
one rooted not only in hope for reward and fulfillment in the life to come but
also in the conviction that should these communities remain true to their
faith, there will come a day when the persecuting regime or militant group may
pass away and the church spring up and branch out with vigor, as it has done so
often in history before,” the report stated, citing the early Christians’ faith
amidst the persecutions by the Roman Empire.
“Those
who wish to act in solidarity with persecuted Christians can imitate their
creative and faithful pragmatism,” the report concluded.
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