TAXILLA, Pakistan -- In its daily prayers at the stone
chapel where the windows remain broken from a grenade attack last month, the
nervous staff at Christian Hospital petitions God for protection.
Nurse Zakiya Patrick cannot join them. She is recovering from a broken leg and
shrapnel wounds in the dank hospital ward where she usually works. Four of her
colleagues died and more than two dozen workers were injured when three
grenades were tossed at them as they emerged from Friday morning prayers on
Aug. 9.
"We will pray for our enemies," Patrick said, still wondering why terrorists
would attack a hospital complex where patients are mostly Muslims who come for
corrective eye procedures. "What else can we do? We are helpless."
Christians in Pakistan have long endured harassment, but since Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S. campaign against terrorism a year
ago, churches have been the target of radical Muslims who view Christianity as
the American religion.
At least 67 people have been killed in bombings and assaults at churches,
Christian schools and Western facilities in Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001.
Now, as the Bush administration talks of war against Iraq, members of
Pakistan's largest minority--estimated at nearly 3 million Christians--worry
there might be more violence against them. During the Persian Gulf war,
churches in Pakistan were burned and worshipers stoned in a backlash against
the American-led mission against Iraq.
This time, radicals are turning to a more powerful and deadly strategy: suicide
bombings. And if the United States again battles Iraq, Christians here foresee
little protection coming from the Pakistani government or from American
Christians they accuse of being indifferent.
"We live in constant fear of what can happen next," said Shakil
Sabir, a Christian in charge of the hospital office who no longer goes out at
night. "It's not safe to be a Christian in Pakistan these days."
Pakistani officials said last week that a band of outlawed Sunni extremists is
behind the recent attacks in Taxilla, at a Christian school in Muree and at a
church attended by foreigners in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. In all, 15
people were killed and scores injured.
Investigators are bracing for more assaults by the band, which is made up
mostly of young people and is believed to have financial ties to Al Qaeda.
"They're ready to lose their lives," Interior Minister Moinuddin
Haider said of the suspects, still at large. "We have never had such type
of attacks before. Some have been arrested; some have killed themselves. But
several are still on the run."
Still, Pakistani leaders, in the United States last week as part of Musharraf's
visit, cautioned the Western media against drawing conclusions that Pakistani
Christians are under siege.
Pakistan is "paradise" for minorities, Nisar Menom, the government's
information minister, said in New York. The government has taken steps to
ensure that minorities will have an unprecedented voice in next month's
parliamentary elections, Pakistani officials say.
"For God's sake, stop twisting trivial and internal matters of the country
into a propaganda campaign," Menom said after being confronted by a
protesting Pakistani-American Christian, according to media.
Muslim clashes
Of the 114 people killed in terror incidents in Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001,
47 deaths were the result of long-simmering sectarian clashes among rival
Muslims that have plagued Pakistan for years. Those statistics, according to
some Muslim analysts, indicate that Pakistan's troubles go far beyond its ties
to America's war on terror or the plight of Christian minorities.
"There are many reasons behind violence in Pakistan that have nothing to
do with Sept. 11," said Anis Ahmad, a researcher with the Institute for
Policy Studies in Islamabad, who has written about minority relations. "It
is an illogical analysis and far-fetched to conclude that it is at all related
to that."
Still, Pakistani Christians see the deadly fallout from Sept. 11 as a
continuing campaign against them. Christians suffer from discrimination in work
and in social situations, they say. Muslims often view them skeptically because
their ancestors were converts of Western missionaries.
Christianity began spreading in Pakistan about 150 years ago under British
occupation. Today, less than 2 percent of Pakistan's 140 million people are
Christian, and two in three are Roman Catholic. Many live in isolated slums
scattered throughout the country.
"Christians have never been considered true Pakistanis," said Haroon
Nasir, deputy director of the Christian Study Center outside Islamabad that
promotes Christian-Muslim dialogue. "But even though we are Pakistanis
first and Christians second, we fail to get needed recognition."
Showing `solidarity'
To emphasize the Christians' plight, former legislator Julius Salik in November
imprisoned himself in a makeshift metal cage that was built inside a trailer
home. The Christian traveled across Pakistan for nine months to demonstrate his
"solidarity with oppressed people."
Salik likens the status of Pakistani Christians to Muslims living in America
who have suffered from sporadic incidents of violence and discrimination since
Sept. 11.
"In both the United States and Pakistan, there is great
misunderstanding," said Salik, who was a vocal opponent of the U.S.
bombing of Afghanistan. "We are seen as having the religion of Americans.
But Christians do not belong to one nation.
"America has lost its family values but still calls itself
Christian," he said. "We are not like that. Many Christians don't
agree with the policies of Bush. So why should we be targeted if we do not
agree or follow the Americans?"
Many Muslims, including Musharraf, have expressed outrage over the attacks on
Christians. But plummeting church attendance indicates little faith in the
government to halt terror. Police in Lahore last month reportedly told
Christians to arm themselves in church.
"We're not going to allow that kind of thing," said Rev. John Rooney,
a priest at Our Lady of Fatima, an Islamabad church that has seen the number of
foreign Christians at mass fall by half in recent months as embassy families
leave the country. "We have to hope that our present security guards are
adequate."
The Christian Hospital in Taxilla, founded nearly a century ago, has hired
Muslim security guards to watch over the more than 250 patients a day who come
and go. One Christian office worker keeps clear of any patient with a long
beard for fear he could be a Muslim radical.
"We don't know whom to trust," said office manager Sabir. "So we
can only trust in God."