http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=1752
[Anglican Mainstream] 4 June 2007--Pakistan occupies a unique position in international affairs. It is both at the epicentre of world-wide Islamist extremism and a crucial ally of the West in combating the terrorism that such extremism has produced.
Time and again, President Musharraf has identified the struggle against extremism as his top priority, and promoted his own doctrine of “enlightened moderation”. He has urged Muslims to discover the best in their tradition and to be open to a fast-changing world.
So it is all the more worrying that much of this seems to have been unravelling in the last few weeks. President Musharraf’s sacking of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has caused renewed conflict between secular political parties and the religious opposition.
Once again, Karachi, the country’s main port and industrial city, has become the bloody battlefield for these rival ideologies. Even Imran Khan, the former Test cricketer, has become a casualty of this political vendetta and has been banned from entering the city.
The non-Muslim minorities, Christians, Hindus, Parsis and others, are both helpless onlookers and often victims of this battle. Their treatment is an important barometer of the direction Pakistan may be taking. In recent months, various human rights organisations have reported a surge of arrests of Christians on charges of blasphemy against Mohammed, or of desecrating the Koran.
The penalty for the first is death and, for the second, life imprisonment. Numerous Christians and others have been victimised by the blasphemy law and it has also been widely used to silence opposition, prevent free speech and to settle scores.
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