By: Aneneas Lavinium
ICLA

Our friends at World Vision In Progress News (WVIP News) have informed us of yet another example of how blasphemy laws turn into an excuse for violence, intimidation and persecution. WVIP News reports on the case of Sawan Mashih:

“After Sawan Masih was arrested and charged with blasphemy in Pakistan, an angry Muslim mob – estimated to be 12000 strong – descended on the Christian area of Joseph Colony (near Lahore) and burned down hundreds of buildings, the majority of which were Christian homes. According to reports, police stood down and allowed the rioting to take place as Masih was detained.” (1)

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) wants to impose such laws on the rest of the world and Western Governments acquiesce in such efforts in the name of religious tolerance. The reality of course is that such laws are used, as they have always been used, as tools of religious persecution. In Pakistan people are losing their homes to arson because of the existence of such laws. In Pakistan such laws are used to persecute non-Muslim communities. Undoubtedly the same will happen in the West if governments implement the will of the OIC.

The attitude of the local police who stood idly by while the violence took place perhaps indicates that the Pakistan government is not sufficiently opposed to such persecution.

Thankfully organisations like World Vision In Progress are on hand to provide assistance to Pakistan’s beleaguered Christian minority.

More on these events at Joseph Colony can be found in an article in Pakistan Today. (2)

(1) Exclusive Report From The Ground On Pakistan (WVIP News)

(2) No home for the ‘impure’ in Pakistan (Pakistan Today)