OPINION – FAITH MATTERS

We rarely take a position as an organisation, to suggest that a country is no longer safe for Christians. However, repeated attacks against Christians in Pakistan and the recent attacks on churches and Christians in Jaranwala, have one thing in common. They are based on Christians simply being accused of blasphemy.

Repeated governments of Pakistan have failed to stop such attacks. They have failed to challenge and implement educational measures in schools to defend the rights of minorities, yet Pakistan has relied on western aid and arms for decades. It is time that Pakistan be told that such attacks against Christians cannot be tolerated without serious impacts on exports to the country. 

Many Pakistani politicians have played a dual approach in their relations with the West. They have talked about challenging extremism and terrorism, whilst quietly allowing Islamist extremists to operate from Pakistan. Let us not forget that Bin Laden was finally found to be resident in Abbottabad and it beggars belief that Government politicians and officials played the feigned ignorance approach to his residence in the country even though he was living in Pakistan for years.

We are at a point where Christians in Pakistan feel unsafe and liable to attack. This is not felt in a small section of Pakistani Christians but throughout the community. No doubt, they will be blamed for further ills and each attack is growing more violent and widespread against this vulnerable community.

Pakistan is no longer safe for Christians. We need to be clear that their lives are not cheap and that any further attacks will see sanctions and trade embargoes on the country.

The Times reports today that the lawyer for persecuted Christian, Asia Bibi, has lambasted the Prime Minister and asked that she stand up for persecuted Christians.

The lawyer, Saif ul-Malook, questioned why the Government had not provided asylum for Asia Bib and stated that the Christian world campaigned for Asia and has now turned its back on her.

The Asia Bibi case has already demonstrated that Pakistan is teetering on the verge of being held ransom to religious Islamist zealots. Yet, for Britain to deny asylum to a woman who has spent 8 years in jail because of trumped up charges of blasphemy, shows that there is a drift in this country towards ‘risk management’ whilst at the expense of the lives of the most vulnerable.

The Asia Bibi possibly shows how weak our own country has become in the face of ‘risk’ and in going out of its way to ensure that other communities and cohesion are not blighted. What it seems to many people, is that a beleaguered woman, persecuted for being a Christian, is being thrown under the bus by a majority Christian nation in the hope that her presence does not affect the status quo.

Asia Bibi deserves asylum in the United Kingdom and any individuals or groups who dislike that notion should consider what their values are based on and their space in our country. Anything short of asylum for Asia Bibi means that we no longer care about the sick and the weak. Also, if it turns out that advice has been given to the Prime Minister that Asia’s presence in the UK would be a security risk, this should be exposed and challenged all the way. There is no reason why Asia Bibi should not be with us.

We have today, signed a letter with numerous organisations and individuals, asking the Home Secretary to provide the option of sanctuary and refuge to Asia Bibi, who was released after 8 years of false imprisonment in Pakistan.

Faith Matters has consistently highlighted the extremism of groups like Tehreek-e-Labaik and its leader, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who has inflamed tensions in Pakistan by rousing extremist mobs to attack the Government. Faith Matters also managed to work with Twitter to close down all of Rizvi’s Twitter accounts. Rizvi, on the other hand, has consistently tried to terrorise the Government of Pakistan into doing his bidding by pushing them to crack down on minorities such as Ahmadi Muslims.

We believe that the United Kingdom has had a history of providing shelter to those who are persecuted, from Kinder Transport children through to East African Asians and to those persecuted in developing countries throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Asia Bibi’s case shows how fragile and insecure Islamist extremists are when they are frightened of a woman who is of another faith. They have taken away her freedom for 8 years and then chased her away from her own country. However, it is not Asia Bibi who has been weakened. She has shown how spiritually defunct and imbecilic Islamist extremists are.

Asia Bibi should be offered sanctuary in the United Kingdom. Her presence in the United Kingdom will send out the right message that people who are persecuted because of their faith are welcome in our country. It will also send out a strong message to Islamist extremists in the UK. If you cannot respect the rights and presence of Asia Bibi, maybe it is you who should not be in this country.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik promoted in Birmingham

In an exclusive to Faith Matters, we can today highlight how an Islamist extremist group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik, was being promoted in Birmingham in the run-up to the Pakistani elections, the results of which are expected tomorrow.

After a tip-off from a concerned member of the public, we came across mobile phone footage which clearly shows two clerics promoting Tehreek-e-Labbaik at an electioneering meeting in Birmingham, which also incorporates religious incantations in order to whip up interest from the crowd.

We have highlighted the extremist nature of this group before, and we have also pointed out the failure of Twitter to remove the social media account of the spiritual leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi

Rizvi has repeatedly inflamed tensions in Pakistan since November 2017 when he rallied his Islamist followers, in the tens of thousands, against perceived changes to a piece of statute law, Ordinance XX or Ordinance Twenty (introduced by the military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, it stripped Ahmadis of their right to call themselves Muslims). Rizvi mobilised his Islamist followers in an attempt to stop any perceived changes to this ordinance, which culminated in a humiliating set of pleas by the Pakistani military for demonstrators to leave, whilst simultaneously handing out money to them. Rizvi’s call to maintain the status quo and thereby to retain the isolation of the Ahmadis literally shut down Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.

Furthermore, the primary campaigning theme of Tehreek-e-Labbaik is ‘Death to Blasphemers’. Rizvi has repeatedly praised the murderers of the late Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer, and the Glasgow-based Ahmadi shopkeeper, Asad Shah, who was brutally murdered on a Glasgow street in March 2016. Rizvi moreover has referred to the killers, Mumtaz Qadri and Tanveer Ahmed, as ‘ghazis’ or Islamic warriors, even highlighting in graphic detail, in one mosque-based sermon, the number of times Ahmed stabbed the defenceless Shah. Rizvi is adept at using the concept of blasphemy to whip up his audience into a frenzy, demonstrating the dangerous rhetoric of the man and his political party in Pakistan.

Facebook and Tehreek-e-Labbaik

Faith Matters has been at the vanguard of ensuring that the Facebook pages of Tehreek-e-Labbaik were taken down, although recently a whole host of Facebook pages supporting and promoting the extremist cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, have gone up again. This demonstrates the weakness of social media platforms, which cannot stop new accounts from being opened by extremist individuals or groups.

The following Facebook post by ‘Rivi Media’ clearly shows two clerics speaking at what seems to be a meeting of Barelwi Muslims in Birmingham. The first cleric commences by saying that he has been with and has served Rizvi for eight years and that Rizvi has worked tirelessly for the ‘deen’ – the faith of Islam. This is followed by cries of “SubhanAllah” (‘God is perfect’) by the young audience. It is clearly a sales pitch aimed at the youth who have come to listen, and who may well be eligible to vote in the Pakistani elections.

The young preacher then asks the audience to come to Pakistan to learn more about Tehreek-e-Labbaik and engage with them. What he neglects to tell the audience is that the whole basis of the political party is to lionise the murderers of ‘blasphemers’, meaning that anyone deemed to be a blasphemer effectively has a target on their head.

Worse still, the second preacher then breaks out into an anti-Hindu rant, stating that a vote for Tehreek-e-Labbaik is a vote for ‘martyrs’ in heaven such as the aforementioned Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard of Salman Taseer who murdered the latter for having defended a young Christian woman, Asia Bibi, from the nebulous charge of blasphemy. The preacher is heard to say that a vote for Tehreek-e-Labbaik blesses and honours individuals such as Qadri. He clearly is pushing for support both for Imran Khan and Tehreek-e-Labbaik.

Deep concerns

We are therefore deeply concerned as the extremism of Tehreek-e-Labbaik is bleeding into Muslim communities of Pakistani heritage here in the UK. We have seen how some British imams have cross-posted propaganda from this Islamist extremist cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, and we now have tangible evidence of campaigning by representatives of Tehreek-e-Labbaik in places like Birmingham.

After the killing of Asad Shah, and open calls by Tehreek-e-Labbaik for murder, we strongly urge the Home Office to consider proscription of this group. The group has past form in promoting violent extremism from a highly tenuous fundament: they alone deem someone to have blasphemed Islam. This is not politics – it is the behaviour and rhetoric of extremists. It really is as simple as that.

Pope Francis condemned a deadly blast at a church in Egypt and said at a Palm Sunday Mass that the world was suffering from wars, terrorism and “interests that are armed and ready to strike”.

Francis, who has not made any direct public comment on the current Middle East crisis, said the Mass as international tensions increased following the U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base, which the Pentagon says was involved in a chemical weapons attack that killed 87 people.

While the pope, who is due to visit Egypt April 28-29, was celebrating the Mass for tens of thousands of people, the Vatican received word of the blast that killed at least 21 people and injured 50 in a Coptic church in the Nile Delta.

“I pray for the dead and the victims. May the Lord convert the hearts of people who sow terror, violence and death and even the hearts of those who produce and traffic in weapons,” he said in hastily prepared comments at the end. The blast was the latest assault on a religious minority that has increasingly been targeted by Islamist militants, and there have been deep security concerns over the pope’s trip.

Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week that culminates on Easter Sunday, commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus entered Jerusalem and was welcomed as the messiah, only to be crucified five days later.

Francis, marking the fifth Easter season of his pontificate, blessed palm and olive branches in the centre of St. Peter’s Square before saying Mass.

“He (Jesus) is present in our many brothers and sisters who today endure sufferings like his own: they suffer from slave labour, from family tragedies, from diseases,” he said.

“They suffer from wars and terrorism, from interests that are armed and ready to strike. Women and men who are cheated, violated in their dignity, discarded,” he added.

Before the U.S. missile strike, Francis said he was horrified by the suspected chemical weapons attack, calling it an “unacceptable massacre” of innocent civilians.

Allies of the United States have expressed support for Washington’s actions, calling them a proportionate response to Syrian forces’ suspected use of chemical weapons. But they were denounced as illegal by Syria and its allies Russia and Iran.

Palm Sunday marks the start of a hectic week for the Pope, who on Thursday he visits a prison south of Rome to wash and kiss the feet of 12 inmates, commemorating Jesus’ gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.

Previous popes held the service either at the Vatican or a Rome basilica but Francis changed the tradition to stress the importance of going to the poor, the sick and the imprisoned.

He has drawn ultra-traditionalist ire for including Muslims and women in a service previously limited to Catholic men.

The Paris concert venue where Islamist militants killed 90 people in November 2015 has enrolled rock star Sting for a concert to mark its reopening a year after the tragedy.

Sting, who headed up hit pop music band The Police before a long solo career, announced the news, saying on his website that the show would seek to honor those killed and the historic venue that is reopening after a year of renovation.

“In doing so we hope to respect the memory as well as the life affirming spirit of those who fell. We shall not forget them,” said the 65-year-old singer.

Proceeds from the Nov. 12 concert will go to two charities catering to victims of the attacks of Nov 13, 2015, with some of those who were hurt in the attack being invited back to see the Sting reopener.

The head of the firm that owns the Bataclan, a landmark for rock fans and partygoers of all ages, said the venue had been totally renovated, but kept largely as it was before.

“This is not a ceremony, it’s a concert,” Jerome Langlet, head of Lagardere Unlimited Live Entertainment, said.

“It’s the one and the same Bataclan. We chose to change it all without changing anything – to change it all so that nothing remains of the night of absolute horror, but to change nothing of the soul and history of the Bataclan,” he told reporters.

Roofing, tiling and seating were replaced but with material much like before, with better entrance hall lighting, he said.

In all, 130 people died a year ago when several groups of gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the perimeter of the Stade de France sports stadium, a string of Paris cafes and the Bataclan.

Responsibility for the killings was claimed by the Islamic State group, which has called on its followers to attack France, which is bombing IS bases in Iraq and Syria.