With due respect to Muslims, multiculturalism is a failure in
Pakistan. That being one of the reasons for creation of Pakistan, it is very
unfortunate where things stand today. It is quite ironical when Muslims migrate
to western nations, and expect them to accept them, and when they do not on any
level, Muslim label them as racists. Do Christians migrate to Muslims nations?
Do Muslims accept Christians with open arms in their countries? The answer is
sadly no. The fact is that Muslims do not let religious minorities to live in
their countries with freedom to practise their religion as they wish. I am by
birth a Pakistani, not an immigrant; even before the partition my forefathers
used to live in the same area called the Punjab province. In the early 2000, we
moved to Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and settled in rented houses, owned by
Muslims.
Pakistan has become a Sunni Muslim-dominated country, and a
narrow-minded mindset has changed the concept of the creation of Pakistan. The
founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, struggled for a country where people
of all ethnicities and religions would be allowed to live peacefully, and as
per their faith. He clearly announced that every person was free to live in
accordance to his faith. On March 12, 1949, the second constituent assembly of
Pakistan passed the Objectives Resolution, which was proposed by the first
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. The Objectives Resolution proclaimed that the
future constitution of Pakistan would not be modelled entirely on a European pattern,
but on the ideology and democratic faith of Islam. The legislative election in
1954 saw the Awami League come to power, and its leader, Huseyn Suhrawardy,
became the country’s first Bengali prime minister. The declaration of
constitution in 1956 led Pakistan to pronounce itself as the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan (official name), with the adoption of parliamentary democratic
system of government.
Since then a strict version of Islam that is against the very
essence of Islam has prevailed in Pakistan, in which a large segment of
religious clergy took it upon itself to spread hate against other religions.
Thousands of people have either been killed or sent to prisons in an effort to
‘save’ Islam. Many Muslims believe that theirs is the only sacred religion,
ignoring the importance of Christianity as another divine religion, and they
are committed in a self-avowed mission to ‘protect’ it by killing others. There
are clerics all over Pakistan who give fatwas, and thus end up creating
self-professed vigilantes of faith.
Good Friday is a Christian ritual, and it is a common practice
in which Christians gather for mass to pray to God. Honestly speaking, I am not
too religious and do not attend church on a regular basis, and on such
occasions I usually pray at home as I feel every man has his personal
affiliation with his creator. There is more than one reason behind my
reluctance to attend church regularly: I have certain issues with some
so-called pastors whom I think of as religious businessmen. Therefore, my
family members and I gather for the Good Friday service and pray in our house.
Once, while the service was on someone knocked at the door; I went out to
check, and found my landlord there. He said to me that the house was not a
church, and that we are not allowed to say our prayer at home. If we wish to
continue, we better leave the house. I explained him that we did not invite any
outsider, and it was only other the family members who had gathered to pray on
our religious event. However, the landlord did not listen to any reasoning, and
ordered us to vacate the house. It was not the first time that he had told us
in no uncertain terms to stop praying in our house; in June last year when we
gathered for my mother’s death anniversary, he disturbed our gathering, and
said the same thing.
Was this country only made for Muslims? Do we, Christians, have
no right to live our lives? Will justice be done? Is this a safe place for our
children? I am familiar with government-issued statements that minorities have been
given equal rights; some minority parliamentarians are doing the same.
Moreover, some so-called patriots try to show their loyalty by criticising and
alienating others. But my question is: where does a common Christian person
stand? A major portion of the Pakistani Christians lives below the poverty
line, and it is this same segment that faces problems in everyday life.
Pakistan is a Muslim-dominated country, and Muslims have
completely changed the landscape by building mosques and madrassas on every corner;
this is something that we, Christians, have no issue with. However, we ask: why
are Christians not allowed to build churches? In the capital, Islamabad, there
are dozens of mosques and madrassas that have been constructed illegally, but
there is no action that is taken. Illegalities are hidden in the guise of piety
and religion. The founder of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, created this
country, and gave all its citizens equal rights, but his successors have
changed the ideology of Pakistan. And the biggest victim is the Christian
community of Pakistan.
