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Letter To Editor
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A Muslim brother comments on Refugee Status for Pakistani Christians |
| Rehan Hussain |
Dear Dr Bhatti,
As a Pakistani Muslim I completely sympathize with the plight of my Pakistani Christian brothers and sisters. No doubt the Christian community faces a lot of prejudice and even persecution in Pakistan. I myself pray for the day when all Pakistanis regardless of faith are treated as equal citizens by state and society. However, when reading your editorial titled “90% Pakistani Christian favour Refugee Status from UN after rising violence” I was slightly disturbed by the following quote:
“The Muslim aggressors migrated to Indian sub-continent from Middle East and Central Asia in 7th century while Christians belonged to this land as son of soil.
It is ironic that now Muslim immigrants are master in Pakistan and Christian sons of soil are living like slaves in their own land.”
What I found completely objectionable was your claim that Christians are ‘sons of the soil’ while Muslims are ‘foreign aggressors’. It is well known that the majority of Muslims in the subcontinent were converted mainly from Hinduism at some point. There are even scientific studies (I can provide you with references if you wish) that show that the DNA of North Indian and Pakistani Muslims is identical to that of the Hindu and other communities. Besides, even if there are some people who are descended from ‘migrants from the 7th century’ surely enough time has passed for them to be considered ‘sons of the soil’? My dear Dr Bhatti, the 7th century was 1300 years ago! Furthermore, the painting of the entire Muslim population as ‘foreign’ and ‘aggressors’ is a well known tactic of Hindu right-wing extremists in India to justify ethnic cleansing of Muslims. These same right-wing ‘Hindutva’ fanatics are equally hostile against Christians (or indeed any religion that they deem as not originating from India). So please Dr Bhatti, I urge you, do not use dishonesty and hate speech, as you already have the truth on your side when it comes to mistreatment of Christians in Pakistan. Using such rhetoric in your articles may be pleasing to your community who feel they have a grievance, but ultimately it does no favours to you or your community and only increases tension and hostility between communities. Rather, I wish you would say that Muslims and Christians in Pakistan are all ‘sons of the soil’ and brothers and thus everyone deserves full rights to practice their faith freely and live without discrimination. May I also remind you that not just Christians, but also minority Muslim sects such as Shias and Ismailis face discrimination in Pakistan too, not to mention other groups such as Ahmedis, Hindus etc. I pray for the day when all Pakistanis are able to practice their faith freely without fear of discrimination.
Your brother in Humanity,
Rehan Hussain |
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