wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Pakistan: Protect Christian minority, WCC calls on government]

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 03/08/2009 16:38:25

WCC CALLS ON PAKISTAN TO PROTECT CHRISTIAN MINORITY UNDER ATTACK

The World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia  appealed to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari to "ensure the safety  and security" of Christians in the Punjab province, where three attacks  against Christian communities were carried by militant Islamic groups in  the last two months. He demanded that the government "take necessary  actions against the perpetrators".

The killing of seven Christians on 1 August in Gojra "reconfirms the fear  that the government is constantly failing to protect its citizens", Kobia  wrote in a letter to President Zardari on 3 August. He also expressed the  concern that "blasphemy laws in Pakistan are being used as an excuse to  victimize the minority Christians".

According to reports, seven people were burned alive and some forty houses  belonging to Christians were torched in Gojra on 1 August. Gojra is a city  located some 160 kilometres from the country's capital Lahore. The  majority of Pakistan's population of 167 million is Muslim, with Christians  making up only 3 percent of the population.

Full text of the letter to the president of Pakistan
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7025

WCC project "Accompanying churches in situations of conflict"
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3147

WCC member churches in Pakistan

http://www.oikoumene.org/gr/member-churches/regions/asia/pakistan.html

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363media@wcc -coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.