wfn.org | Christians Attacked

[keith.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

March 1, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.2.4.3]

ENGLAND: CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS DEPLORE ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS IN
PAKISTAN

(CT, see earlier story on ACNS (97.2.2.6.)) Following the rioting and
destruction of three Christian villages in Pakistan earlier this month
by Muslims, leaders of the Christian and Muslim communities in the City
of Bradford  spoke out deploring the violence. In a letter sent to the
Pakistani Acting High Commissioner in the UK they urged Pakistan's new
Government to restore the confidence of religious minorities in the
country and  ensure that their basic rights as citizens are protected,
and to commit itself to helping make good all the losses.  The letter
was signed by leaders of both Christian and Muslim communities including
the Bishop of Bradford and the General Secretary of the Bradford Council
for Mosques.

Christian and Muslim leaders in Manchester also issued a statement 
which deplored the persecution. Neither Islam nor Christianity gives any
encouragement to hostility to those of another religion.  Those who seek
to oppress religious minorities, of whatever belief, are acting against
the true spirit of both Islam and Christianity.