Church Bulldozed

Simple disputes between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan often turn violent because some Muslims view Christians as infidels who do not deserve the same rights as the Muslim majority.

In November of last year, Pastor Sarwar Masih of the King of Kings Church near Lahore was confronted by an angry neighbor. "You cannot build a church building in this area!" Muhammad Habib Bhatti told the pastor. "We have a mosque in this village, and there is no need to build a church."

This is what is left of the church building.

Days later, on Nov. 15, Muhammad Bhatti and eight friends came to the church dressed as police officers and began shouting at the Christians. "They were chanting and threatening us," said a witness, "saying if anybody comes out of his home to stop us, we will kill him." The men then began throwing stones and bricks, one of which struck a 3-year-old on the head. Eventually, a bulldozer moved in and demolished the church building. Irate Muslims also tore pages of a Bible.

Later, a local official offered to pay church members 50,000 rupees, or $582, to forget the incident. The Christians refused and demanded that the attackers be arrested. The Christians said many of their Muslim neighbors had no objection to the church building or their prayer meetings.

(from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, August 2011)

(for additional info, see Gary Lane, Church Bulldozed in Pakistan, CBN News)

(To receive new uMarko posts via a daily email, please click Subscribe)
(On Twitter: FOLLOW uMarko or http://www.twitter.com/uMarko)