Friday 22 August 2008

By John Newton and Eva-Maria Kolmann
 
Changes in political power in Pakistan will not alter the situation of Christians in the country, according to a senior priest.

Fr Miguel Ruiz, director of the Don Bosco Technical Centre in Lahore, said most people will not be affected by the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf.

In an interview with the charity Aid to the Church in Need, which helps persecuted and other suffering Christians, he said: "It makes no difference who is in power. The situation of the Christians has rarely improved as a result of a change of government."

Fr Ruiz said that even though pressure on Christians had eased under Mr Musharraf, the threat of unrest from fundamentalists had prevented the president from overturning Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws, which create huge problems for non-Muslims.

Under the laws, which were passed in the 1980s, desecrating the Qur‘an or insulting the prophet Mohammed is punishable by execution or life-imprisonment.

The laws are often used to pursue personal vendettas, especially against Christians. 
According to Fr Ruiz, poverty – and not politics – is the underlying reason for the oppression of Christians.

In Pakistan, Christians are regarded as the lowest section of society, a hang-over from the old Hindu caste system, and their lower social status makes them vulnerable to persecution.

He stressed that this is not the fault of Islam, and that many Muslims are ashamed of the segregation of society.

Lack of access to education means that Christian children remain in poverty and cannot acquire the qualifications they need for better jobs and improved social status.

Because of state entrance criteria, which require students to have a working knowledge of English, many of them are debarred from entering Church-run further educational establishments.

Fr Ruiz said: "The Church must consider how to give her faithful better access to the educational system."

Many parents cannot afford to send their children to school, or else have to send them to one of the Qur‘anic schools, more than half of which are unregulated by the state.

Often delinquents of 12 or 13 are sent to these Qur‘anic schools, where, according to Fr Ruiz, “all their passion, their energy and their frustration in regard to society is channelled into hatred”.

He told ACN that his personal dream was to work with young offenders, “who will otherwise be educated in unregulated Qur‘anic schools”.

Christians in Pakistan are a tiny minority of about 1.5 percent in an overwhelmingly Muslim country.

[ACN]