Having fled their homes in the latest wave of religious strife in the country, a few hundred Christians have camped in a forest in Islamabad, cut down trees and are using the branches to build a church. Their ordeal began when a Christian girl from a poor neighbourhood in Islamabad was accused by a neighbour of burning pages of the Quran , blasphemy by Pakistani law, that can merit capital punshment.
A week after the girl’s arrest, much remains in question: her age , 11 to 16 in conflicting reports; mental condition , Down’s syndrome has been mentioned; and what exactly she was burning, there’s little evidence that Quranic pages were involved. But as word spread, hundreds of people gathered outside her house demanding action, and on Aug 20 the police arrested the girl initiating an investigation. Most Christians in the neighbourhood fled , some 600 families according to an interfaith group. Some said that their landlords had evicted them, while a few have returned. One of those who had moved into the forest on Sunday, was Sumera Zahid, who was busy feeding her three children and her parents.“We used to come here to collect wood for fuel so we find it a suitable place for shelter,” she said. “This is nobody’s home, nobody’s land. Let us live here in safety.”
On Monday their pastor, Arif Masih, spoke to them through a frame of branches they were lashing together for their church. “We are thankful to the Lord for this land,” he said. Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in this nation of 190 million people with a 95% Muslim population, and cases often grab huge attention here and abroad. Crowds have been known to beat or kill suspected blasphemers. Last year two prominent politicians who criticised the blasphemy law were murdered, one by his own bodyguard. In July, thousands of people dragged a Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Quran from a police station, beat him to death and set his body alight. So volatile is the issue, that public figures loathe to speak out on the latest episode. The government has made little substantive comment, and no police protection was evident at the forest encampment. On Monday the All Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella organisation of Muslim clerics, held a news conference together with the Pakistan Interfaith League, the group that reported that 600 families had fled, and is now campaigning to return them to their homes.
The two groups called for an investigation into whether the girl was wrongly accused and what role religious extremism had played. League chairman Sajid Ishaq said that the government shuld provide compensation for displaced Christians, as well as protection. Critics say that blasphemy laws have been often used in vendettas and score-settling. Sensitivities are also heightened by Western reactions to such incidents, such as the US State Department statement calling the latest case ‘deeply disturbing’. At the news conference, Head of the clerics’ Council, Maulana Tahir-ul-Ashrafi, told the outside world not to interfere, saying that Pakistan would provide justice for the girl and her community.
Meanwhile, Nooran Bashir, who had fled a few hours after the girl’s arrest, was back in her home on Monday. “I don’t know whether she burned pages of some holy book or not, but we all had to abruptly leave our homes to save our lives,” she said. She said that one of her sons had come back with her, but her other children were too frightened and she had sent them to relatives. She said that Muslims asked the Christians not to worship in their church, and if they did, to refrain from singing. But others were not ready to return. About 200 Christians, mostly men, protested in front of the city administration offices Monday, demanding permission to stay in the clearing. About another 100 people, mostly women and children, were back at the clearing. “We don’t have a big list of demands,” said one Christian resident, Salim Masih.“We have cleared this place with our hands, and we have laid the first foundation of a small church here. Although this is a mere skeleton made of tree branches, this is the holy home of God. This should be respected.” Agencies
Fearful Christians make home in jungle
