Pakistan Threatens to be Consumed by Islamist Extremism
Jun 12 2007
Postings >> Pakistan

Pakistan threatens to be consumed by Islamist extremism unless its president takes a tough stand against the radicals, commentators claim.

The country is said by some to be in meltdown, with almost daily reports suggesting that radical Islam is fast gaining ground. Many blame the crisis on President Musharraf's willingness to court hardline Islamists on the opposition benches to win votes.

Reports of extremist activities are arriving fast and furious. The government is caught in a tense stand-off with radicals at the Lal Masjid mosque in Islamabad who are openly defying the regime and threatening jihad if the police move in. As 7x7 reported on May 30, the first reading of an apostasy bill had gone through the National Assembly unopposed.

Meanwhile, Christians are bearing the brunt of upsurges of extremism. On May 30, a district court condemned Younis Masih to death for allegedly making derogatory comments about the prophet Mohammed and the Koran. Masih, arrested in 2005, is planning to appeal to the high court in Lahore but has already received death threats from extremists.

And Walter Fazal Khan, 84, a Christian from Lahore, is in hiding with his wife after he was charged with blasphemy for 'burning the Koran'. Their house has reportedly been seized and turned into a madrassah or religious school by Muslim clerics. Some reports say the clerics forcibly converted Gladys to Islam before she escaped. RI partners believe charges were brought because Mr Khan had refused to sell land to Muslim businessmen.

Meanwhile, in Rawalpindi, four student nurses and two teachers -- all six of them Christian -- have been suspended from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on suspicion of crossing out a Koranic verse on a noticeboard on May 17.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph (June 3), the Pakistan-born Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali says Pakistan is at a crossroads. 'It can take the path of being a sectarian, fundamentalist state ruled by clerics, or it can become an enlightened, moderate country, informed by the best traditions of Islam (...),' he says. 'Unless the path of enlightened moderation is pursued relentlessly and consistently, Pakistan will not be able to curb the extremism that is giving rise to (...) terrorism.'

• Pray that President Pervez Musharraf will make wise political choices to help pull Pakistan back from the brink of extremism.
• Pray for the many Christians paying a high price for being caught up in recent sectarian tensions, including Younis Masih, Walter and Gladys Khan, and staff and students at the Rawalpindi nursing school.