wfn.org | Archbishop of Canterbury condemns atrocities in Pakistan

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Archbishop of Canterbury condemns atrocities in Pakistan

Posted On : August 4, 2009 3:51 PM | Posted By : Admin ACO
Related Categories: Lambeth

ACNS: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/8/4/ACNS4643

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today made the
following statement regarding the violence in Pakistan:

The recent atrocities against Christians in Pakistan will sear the
imaginations of countless people of all faiths throughout the world. As
the minister of law in the Punjab has already said, such actions are not
the work of true Muslims: they are an abuse of real faith and an injury
to its reputation as well as an outrage against common humanity, and
deserve forthright condemnation.

Christians in Pakistan are a small and vulnerable minority, generally
with little political or economic power. They are disproportionately
affected by the draconian laws against blasphemy, which in recent years
have frequently been abused in order to settle local and personal
grievances. They need to be assured of their dignity and liberty as
citizens of a just and peaceful society. Their good, their security, is
part of the good of the whole Pakistani nation. Those of us who love
Pakistan and its people, whatever their faith, feel that the whole
country is injured and diminished by the violence that has occurred.

I appeal to the Government of Pakistan to spare no efforts, not only in
seeing that justice is done in the wake of these terrible events, but
also in continuing to build a society in which all faiths are honoured
and in which the most vulnerable can be assured of the protection of the
law and the respect of their fellow-citizens.

> Ends

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