Tag: Christians

LAHORE - Minorities Wing of the Pakistan People's Party staged a demonstration on Thursday outside the Lahore Press Club against pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp, who desecrated the Holy Quran in Florida. Addressing the protesters, Christian leaders including central PPP leader Napolean Qayyum denounced the unfortunate incident in the strongest terms and urged the US government and the United Nations to take stern action against the two pastors for hurting the sentiments of people

LAHORE - Different Christian institutes of Lahore under the auspices of National Council for Interfaith Dialogue, URI Pakistan and Justice Peace Commission on Thursday condemned the desecration of the Quran by an American Pastor Terry Jones. Pakistan Massihah Party also held a protest in this connection in front of the Lahore Press Club.
Christian community leaders, Fr Francis Nadeem, Fr Abid Habib, Fr James Channan (OP) and Fr Samson Dilawar held that Jones was not a Christian

Islamabad - Pakistani Muslims and Christians stage a protest beside a burning effigy of US pastor Terry Jones, in Islamabad. Pakistan has strongly condemned the "deliberate desecration" of the Koran by a US evangelical preacher in a church in Florida, calling it a setback for global efforts to promote harmony. The burning was carried out by pastor Wayne Sapp under the supervision of Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to ignite a pile of the Islamic holy

LAHORE - Christian religious and political leaders have condemned the desecration of the holy Quran in Florida by two pastors, urging stern action against the individuals who created disharmony and misunderstanding among followers of the two religions. Church of Pakistan Presiding Bishop Samuel Azriah said the act was an attempt to harm reconciliation between Christians and Muslims, while Joseph Francis from the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) said the act was a

ISLAMABAD - Inspector General of Police Wajid Ali Khan Durrani assured a delegation of Christians that called on him on Tuesday that the assassins of minorities affairs minister Shehbaz Bhatti would be arrested soon. Durrani said the joint investigation team (JIT) comprising police officials was making every effort to catch the culprits.
"The police will leave no stone unturned in protecting the lives and property of Christians as well as all other minorities enjoying equal

WASHINGTON - The assassinated minister for minorities affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was an ardent proponent of Quaid-e-Azam's vision for an egalitarian Pakistan and devoted his efforts to a moderate and united country amid a spate of challenges, Christian leaders and officials said on Sunday.
Paying tribute to the slain leader at a service held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania they said that in Bhatti's death, Pakistan lost a vibrant voice for moderation and a great son of the soil. Deputy

QUETTA - The Christian community on Friday staged a protest demonstration against the killing of Minister for Minorities' Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was killed by unidentified gunmen in Islamabad on Wednesday. Calling the assassination a cruel act, the protesters demanded the government immediately arrest his killers. They also chanted slogans against terrorism and demanded the government give due status to minorities. The rally, led by Pastor Inayat and Pastor Nadeem, started from

ISLAMABAD - Hundreds of people belonging to Christian community took to streets in Federal Capital on Thursday, burning tyres and blocking traffic in protest against the brutal killing of federal minister for minorities' affairs Shahbaz Bhatti.
Two massive protest demonstrations were staged at IJP road and in front of press club, while small protests were also reported around the slum areas of the city.
Tyres were burnt to block the IJP road and slogans were raised against

LAHORE - Hundreds of Indian Christians held a demonstration at the Pak-India border against the death sentence given to Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman, on the charges of committing blasphemy, The Times of India reported on Saturday. The activists of Christian Front Punjab (CFP), who gathered at Attari, demanded the Pakistani government to revoke the orders of capital punishment.
They also urged the world community to pressure Pakistan to scrap the controversial blasphemy law. The

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday said Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.
"We cannot accept and thereby facilitate what looks more and more like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," he said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.
An attack on a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on

BAGHDAD - A wave of apparently coordinated bomb attacks in Iraq's capital has killed two Christians and wounded 16, further stoking fears in a community already terrified after a massacre at a church there two months ago.
Fourteen bombs were placed at different Christian homes late on Thursday, an interior ministry official said on Friday.
"Two Christians were killed and 16 wounded" by the 10 bombs that went off, while security forces carried out controlled detonations of

LAHORE - Load shedding did not even spare Christians on Christmas, as unscheduled power outages continued in the city on Saturday. Electricity was closed for four to seven hours in various areas of Lahore creating difficulties for the masses.
Although all businesses, offices, banks, markets, educational institutions and industries were closed due to a public holiday and power demand was 30 percent less than usual, the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) deprived people of

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged an end Saturday to conflict in the Middle East and support for the region's Christians, saying those living in Iraq needed comfort from their pain after deadly attacks.
In his traditional Christmas Day address delivered at the Vatican, the pope also called for human rights to be respected in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as for an end to the turmoil in African troublespots. And there was a plea for reconciliation on the Korean peninsula

BAGHDAD: Christians in the Middle East prepared Friday to celebrate Christmas, some in fear of attacks against their community, as in Iraq, and others in the most discreet way possible, as in Saudi Arabia.
For Iraq's battered Christian community, threats of attacks from Al-Qaeda and mourning for the victims of an October massacre at a Baghdad church have turned a normally festive season into one of fear and sadness. Many mass gatherings in Iraq were cancelled on Friday, and

LAHORE: We don't share our plates with Christians," says Aasma. She sits on a charpoy, next to her sister Aafia. Their old mother is with them. Together they are waiting for the local cleric who is to meet them in their small home in the village.
The two, in their twenties, are the women who accused Aasia Bibi of making blasphemous remarks against the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), when a group of women was out in the fields picking purple falsa berries for the season. Visually the

CAIRO: One demonstrator was killed and dozens injured on Wednesday as Christian protesters clashed with Egyptian police over the denial of permission for a new church, a security official said.
The clashes came amid mounting sectarian tensions in the Arab world's most populous nation after Muslims set fire to homes owned by the family of a Christian man rumoured to have flirted with a Muslim girl in the south.
A security official told AFP that a young male demonstrator was

BAGHDAD: A string of anti-Christian bombings has cost six more lives in the wake of the Baghdad church bloodbath, sowing panic in Iraq's 2,000-year-old minority on Wednesday, many of whom now want to flee.
"Since Tuesday evening, there have been 13 bombs and two mortar attacks on homes and shops of Christians in which a total of six people were killed and 33 injured," a defence ministry official said. "A church was also damaged."
An interior ministry official earlier gave a