{"id":451,"date":"2014-09-01T08:41:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T08:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2014\/09\/01\/in-pakistan-mob-burns-homes-in-anti-christian-violence\/"},"modified":"2014-09-01T08:41:49","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T08:41:49","slug":"in-pakistan-mob-burns-homes-in-anti-christian-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/in-pakistan-mob-burns-homes-in-anti-christian-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"In Pakistan, Mob Burns Homes in Anti-Christian Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

12 March, 2013 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States [Elizabeth Lechleitner\/ANN]<\/span>\u00a0Residents of a Christian community in eastern Pakistan, among them Seventh-day Adventists, are reeling after a mob torched their homes and businesses in response to alleged insults against Muhammad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>The unrest began last week after a report circulated that a young Christian man had committed blasphemy against Islam\u2019s prophet. By March 9, the situation had escalated and thousands of protestors began setting fire to property owned by Christians in a Lahore neighborhood.<\/p>\n

While some residents sustained injuries, there was no loss of life. Most Christians had earlier fled under threats of violence and police warnings to leave, a representative of the Adventist Church in Pakistan said.
Church property and the homes of Adventist members, however, sustained \u201ctremendous damage,\u201d church leaders said. The rented home of local Adventist Pastor Afzal Bhatti and his family was destroyed along with the homes and belongings of at least 40 Adventists.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Songbooks, Bibles and sound equipment at the local Adventist church were burned, but the building itself only withstood minor water damage as firefighters worked to control nearby blazes, an Adventist survey team reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least 170 homes and businesses were torched, according to Associated Press reports.
Bhatti and his family were among residents who left as the mob headed for their community.
\u201cIn his haste, Pastor Bhatti left behind his cell phone and ID card,\u201d a church representative said, adding that a protestor yanked the glasses off his face as he fled.<\/p>\n

Bhatti and his wife, Parveen, returned the morning after the riots to comfort and pray with affected community members. Later, the family began the process of rebuilding their lives by purchasing necessities for work, study and ministry.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Punjab State government pledged to compensate each affected family with the equivalent of US$2,000. Since then, the federal government of Pakistan has promised an additional US$5,000 per family.<\/p>\n

The Adventist Church and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Pakistan are assessing the situation and assisting members of the affected Christian community.<\/p>\n

Less than five percent of Pakistanis are Christian, and blasphemy against the Quran or the prophet Muhammad can carry the death penalty. Religious liberty experts have observed that blasphemy laws are often used to repress religious minorities or settle personal disputes.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Salmaan Taseer, a Pakistani businessman and politician, and Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian in Pakistan\u2019s cabinet, were assassinated for their opposition to legislation against blasphemy. Religious freedom advocates have long urged Pakistan to ease its harsh controls on defamation of religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always strongly opposed Pakistan\u2019s blasphemy laws, which are the source of so much injustice in the country, especially for religious minorities and Muslim dissidents,\u201d said John Graz, secretary-general of the International Religious Liberty Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll religious liberty advocates should express solidarity with the affected families and encourage the government to reform this legislation,\u201d he said. [ted<\/em>NEWS]\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/strong>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.<\/span>
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify <\/span>ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 March, 2013 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States [Elizabeth Lechleitner\/ANN]<\/span>\u00a0Residents of a Christian community in eastern Pakistan, among them Seventh-day Adventists, are reeling after a mob torched their homes and businesses in response to alleged insults against Muhammad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>The unrest began last week after a report circulated that a young Christian man had committed blasphemy against Islam\u2019s prophet. By March 9, the situation had escalated and thousands of protestors began setting fire to property owned by Christians in a Lahore neighborhood.<\/p>\n

While some residents sustained injuries, there was no loss of life. Most Christians had earlier fled under threats of violence and police warnings to leave, a representative of the Adventist Church in Pakistan said.
Church property and the homes of Adventist members, however, sustained \u201ctremendous damage,\u201d church leaders said. The rented home of local Adventist Pastor Afzal Bhatti and his family was destroyed along with the homes and belongings of at least 40 Adventists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}