Christianity in Pakistan
The Christianity in Pakistan , according to the Hindus , the second largest religious minority . The Islam is in Pakistan state religion , and since the coup Zia-ul-Haq's reign in 1977 strict Islamic laws, which often against Christians are applied.
Of around 207 million Pakistanis, 96.1% are Muslim . The 2.4 to 3 million Christians make up just under 2% of the population. About 1 million of them are Catholics.
The largest church in the country, St. Patrick's Cathedral , is in Karachi . The Resurrection Cathedral is located in Lahore . A Christian minority group from Goa lives in Karachi (see Goa Catholics ).
Persecution of Christians
Since the 1990s in particular , Christians have been arrested for alleged blasphemy . Churches have been destroyed in Faisalabad, according to the Daily Telegraph . In 2005 there were bomb threats.
The chairman of the Pakistani Bishops' Conference named the American occupation of Iraq and the " war on terror " proclaimed by the then President of the United States, George W. Bush , as one of the reasons for the intensification of the conflict for the Christian minority in Pakistan . Until the Catholic Church in the country had enjoyed a great reputation for its work in education and health, according to its own information. In the eyes of the Muslims, who were further agitated by Islamists , the Christian Pakistani belonged to the "Western faith" and are now condemned and harassed across the board. "
Pakistani Christians are increasingly persecuted again after Benazir Bhutto's death ; there are repeated massacres of the Christian population. At least eight people were killed on August 1, 2009 in an arson attack by several hundred members of an Islamist group on the Christian community in Punjab province. Over 70 houses and two churches were destroyed. The reason for the attacks by Islamists is the current blasphemy law and the hudud ordinances ( hadd punishment ).
After cancellation of a Koran burning in the US by Terry Jones demonstrators attacked a church in Daska and three churches in Narowal (district of Punjab on) by throwing stones. The day before, a Christian had been shot by a militant Islamist during a Christian demonstration against the planned burning of the Koran.
In November 2010 , for the first time in Pakistan's history, a Christian woman was sentenced to death for blasphemy . The defendant Asia Bibi is said to have said that Jesus and not Mohammed was the true prophet of God, alleged women in her neighborhood. Bibi herself denies this; the court in Sheikhupura sentenced her to death on the gallows .
On March 2, 2011, Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered. He was Minister for Minorities in President Asif Ali Zardari's government . Bhatti was the first Catholic to hold the post of Minister for Minorities in Pakistan and the only Christian in Asif Ali Zardari's cabinet. Bhatti received several death threats after voting for a reform of the 1986 blasphemy law , which includes the death penalty. He also campaigned repeatedly for Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy .
The Pakistani Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference recorded a total of 88 attacks from January 2011 to May 2012. Of these, 64 were directed against Muslims and 17 against Christians.
In a 2013 massacre of Christians in the city of Peshawar, 78 Christians were murdered and 130 wounded. It was the deadliest attack on the Christian minority in Pakistan's history.
At the end of February 2016, it was reported that Christians made up the majority of the 11,500 Pakistani refugees in Thailand.
According to the Christian aid organization Open Doors , a total of 28 Christians were murdered in Pakistan in 2018 and hundreds of churches and Christian houses were destroyed. In addition, several hundred Christian women were again kidnapped and forcibly married to Muslims. According to Open Doors, violence against Christians in no other country in the world was as high as in Pakistan. Open Doors had already reported on the forced marriage of Christian women in Pakistan in 2011 .
Denominations
Individual evidence
- ^ The Catholic Church in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Source: The Catholic Church in Pakistan. Directory 2002) ( Memento of May 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Pontificia Università Urbaniana, accessed on August 4, 2009
- ↑ Ö1 Radio Conference February 26, 2012, Persecution of Christians in Pakistan
- ↑ “Being a Christian in Pakistan” ( memento from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), dr / kna, August 4, 2009
- Jump up ↑ Eight Christians Murdered in Pakistan , Church in Need , Aug. 4, 2009
- ↑ "Islamists burned Christians alive in Punjab" , kathpress, August 3, 2009
- ^ Church in Need: Country Report Pakistan , Church in Need, viewed August 4, 2009
- ↑ Churches attacked and one Christian shot at in wake of Koran Burning protests in Pakistan. In: Pakistan Christian Post. September 11, 2010, archived from the original on September 11, 2010 ; Retrieved on September 11, 2010 : “The demonstrators against Pastor Terry Jones on his announcement to observe“ Burn a Koran Day ”on September 11, 2010, stoned a Church in Daska and three Churches in Narowal district of Punjab province of Pakistan on September 10, 2010, when Pastor Terry have already called off his “International Burn a Koran Day” “
- ↑ Blasphemy in Pakistan: Christian is supposed to die on the gallows Spiegel Online , viewed on November 11, 2010
- ^ Vatican condemns attack on Christian minister. ( Memento from March 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Minister for Religious Minorities shot dead. In: welt.de. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- ↑ Death Sentence in Pakistan: Criticism of Blasphemy Law. Retrieved March 2, 2011 .
- ↑ http://www.livenet.ch/magazin/international/asien/219001-blasphemiegesetz_trifft_nebst_christen_auch_hindus_und_muslime.html (accessed on: July 6, 2012).
- ↑ Pakistan's Christians on the run. Appeal to UNHCR: Massively increase engagement for persecuted Christians (press release) , Society for Threatened Peoples , February 29, 2016.
- ↑ Till-Reimer Stoldt: Pakistan is number one on the list of persecutors of Christians . In: THE WORLD . January 15, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed June 29, 2020]).
- ↑ Open Doors. 03/11, Open Doors Switzerland, Romanel-sur-Lausanne 2011, p. 4 f.