The “Christian friends of Israel” in this predominantly Muslim country want the government of Pakistan to recognise the Jewish state.
The Pentecostal Christians, who claim to be half in number of Pakistan’s over 10 million Christian population, will take to the streets to press their long-standing demand on Wednesday May 14 (today), Israel’s Independence Day.
God’s Peoples Fellowship of Pakistan (Christian Friends of Israel) (GPFP) is all set to lead a “peaceful” protest demonstration at the Karachi Press Club against the consecutive governments’ biased attitude towards “religious sentiments” of the country’s second largest minority.
Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel – a fact that the GPFP deems as a major hindrance for Christian pilgrims to visit their holy sites in the Zionist country.
Jerusalem or Al-Quds is regarded by the followers of three major Abrahamic religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism, as a holy land of prophets.
Situated on a plateau in the Judean mountains between the Mediterranean and Dead Sea, the holy city is controlled by Israel.
“Israel be recognized,” reads a statement President King David Trust International Pastor Akram John handed to this reporter at the Qayumabad office of Church Property Welfare Association (CPWA).
The statement is due to be issued at the KPC today under the umbrella of GPFP which, as the letterhead reads, aims “to express Christian love for the house of Israel”.
Kamran Khan, GPFP’s secretary information, said he supported former military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s flexible, thus much-criticised, stance towards the issue of Israel’s recognition.
The Pentecostal Christians, who according to Chaudry Patras Sardar president Minority Affairs Sindh are the followers of Saint Paul, demanded the PML-N government to allow the country’s largest religious minority group visit Israel on Pakistani passport.
“Jerusalem is a place where Jesus Christ (PBUH) had borne and died. Visiting there for pilgrimage is our religious right,” Pastor John told Pakistan Today.
He demanded of Islamabad to reach a 1974-like pilgrimage agreement with Israel that could allow Christians visit Jerusalem. “Since partition Christians are kept from visiting their holy sites in Israel,” he lamented.
Chaudry Patras of Minority Affairs proposes that Islamabad should sign the bilateral treaty of a sort then prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had inked in 1974 with New Delhi allowing the latter’s Sikh pilgrims visit their holy sites on Pakistani soil.
“Malaysia, also a Muslim country, already is in such an agreement with Israel,” said Patras, a retired navy man who also works as a welfare officer of the ministry of defence.
The GPFP’s secretary information, Khan, wondered if Pakistan could accommodate an arch “enemy” like India for the religious rights of its people why not Israel.
Asked if Vatican City was not enough for Christians pilgrimage, the Punjabi-speaking Khan said the holy city was meant for the pilgrimage of Catholic and Protestant sects of Christians.
The minority leaders also appealed to Chairman Ulema Council Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi and Mufti Naeem of Jamia Binoria to propose a solution for the longstanding issue in the light of Islamic Shariah, specially the “Madina Charter”.
“We also have taken Jamat-e-Islami and other religious parties onboard. They have no problem with (what we demand),” claimed Minority Affairs chief Patras.
Pastor John, however, clarified that his demands must not be misconstrued with the impression that Christians were demanding Pakistan’s “total” diplomatic engagement with Israel. “Unfortunately, our holy sites are located there. Otherwise, we don’t have any special attachment with Israel,” the minority leader added.
The number of Pentecostal Christians, GPFP leaders said, was growing fast across the world with only Pakistan housing hundreds of their small and big worship places. “We have 35 churches only in Qayumabad neighbourhood,” said Khan.