by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Courage Media
Christians are the forgotten victims of Indo-Pak conflict—targeted, silenced, and persecuted while Western media looks the other way.
After Pakistani militants attacked Indian-administered Kashmir in late April, gunning down 26 tourists and escalating a new series of offensives in the ongoing Indo-Pakistani conflict, media has drawn attention to the sectarian perspectives of Pakistani Muslims and Hindu nationalists in India, as well as more ameliorating voices in the region. The perspective of Christians in the region, however, has gone largely ignored. It is worth noting that Christians as well as Hindus were targeted for their ethno-religious status in the Kashmiri attack, and that this was by no means the first time that Christians were caught in the crossfire. Trends indicate that the scope and intensity of the persecution of Christians in the developing world, both by state and non-state actors (and often in tandem), are both worsening. During peacetime, Christians and other religious minorities may enjoy slight respite, but their suffering inevitably escalates with outbursts of sectarian conflict. Why, then, the silence from Western commentators?
About 1.3-1.6% of the Pakistani population is Christian, most of whom live in the province of Punjab. The vast majority of them are Dalit Christians, descended from lower-caste Hindus who converted in order to escape the caste system during the British Raj. Most are rural-dwelling, low-income workers, occupying low-status jobs and enduring associated prejudice and disfavor. Their status is doubly threatened: as both as religious minority and an ethnic identity which is considered low-status, Christians are frequently subjected to violence, with Islamic terror attacks often targeting their communities. Churches have been bombed regularly in the last ten years, and sporadically since Wahhabism began to exert its insidious influence in the region in the 1980s and 1990s; several attacks, like the Taliban’s Easter attack in Lahore, have left dozens dead and wounded at a time. Immolation a recurring feature of the attacks. These atrocities should be indelible in the memories of any humanitarian with an opinion about subcontinental politics – but little thought has been spared for Christians following the recent renewal of violence between India and Pakistan.