todaycatholicnews: By Zoey Di Mauro
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Panelists at a religious freedom session on Pakistan called for reform of the nation’s laws, calling the situation for minorities dire.
In June alone, 47 religious minorities were killed in Pakistan, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The victims included an 18-year old Christian man tortured to death by police after he was suspected of kidnapping a Muslim woman, the commission said.
“Basic law enforcement and legal reform are desperately needed,” Knox Thames, director of policy and research at the commission, said July 18 at a hearing about the state of religious freedom in Pakistan.
Panelists echoed Thames’ sentiment that the situation for religious freedom there is dire.
Representatives of the primary minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan — Christians, Hindis, Ahmadiyya Muslims and Shiite Muslims, spoke out about the horrors their peers have suffered.
Peter Bhatti of International Christian Voice told how he was personally affected by religious intolerance in Pakistan — his brother, Shabaz Bhatti, a federal minister, was murdered for his work on behalf of religious minorities.
Peter Bhatti said homes and churches have been vandalized or destroyed, and men and women have been attacked and even burned alive.
Categories: Americas
Can you protect victim by putting victim in jail? Shouldn’t the killers be in jail? What sort of justice is this?
[Qur’an 5:9] “O ye who believe! be steadfast in the cause of Allah, bearing witness in equity; and let not a people’s enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice. Be always just, that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is aware of what you do.”
[Qur’an 4:136] “O ye who believe! be strict in observing justice, and be witnesses for Allah, even though it be against yourselves or against parents and kindred. Whether he be rich or poor, …”