Peshawar church bombings show the deadly outcome of religious intolerance

Samira Shackle

On Sunday, around 500 worshippers attended mass at the All Saints church in Peshawar, north-western Pakistan. After the service, they gathered outside the church to receive free food that was being distributed. As they did so, two huge explosions ripped through the crowd; a double suicide attack. The death toll currently stands at 81, with 100 more people injured. It was one of the most devastating attacks on the Christian population in Pakistan's history. It takes a lot to shock Pakistan, a country where small bomb attacks or targeted killings happen on a daily basis somewhere in the country, and often fail to make headlines. Nor are attacks on the country's religious minorities anything out of the ordinary. At the beginning of this year, an enormous attack in a Shia Muslim area of the southern province of Quetta killed more than 80 people, while Sunni militants have carried out numerous execution-style killings of Shias. Such extreme violence against minorities tends to be perpetrated by the country's many and various militant organisations. The group that claimed responsibility for this latest attack has links to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and said it was acting in retaliation for drone strikes. Yet the problem runs far deeper than a few rogue elements. Disturbingly, these extremist groups, which have been allowed to operate by successive governments, do have an impact on the national debate. This has contributed to increasing intolerance across society. In May, an angry mob – ordinary citizens, not terrorists – destroyed Joseph Colony, a Christian area of Lahore, after a resident was accused of blasphemy. The law, which carries a maximum sentence of death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Qur'an, is frequently used to hammer religious minorities. It is a legal mandate for bigotry which politicians are too afraid to amend, after two ministers who spoke out against it were killed several years ago. It is these major incidents that make international news, but a low level of discrimination is a fact of life for many of Pakistan's religious minorities. Christians make up around 1.6% of the population and number around 2.8 million. Generations ago, in pre-partition India, many were Hindus, subsequently converting from the very lowest caste (of dalit, once known as "untouchable"). Pakistan – a largely Muslim state – does not have a caste system, but its shadow can be seen in the treatment of Christians today. Many Christians I have interviewed speak of being refused water; uneducated Muslims do not want to share with them because they are seen to be unclean. Employers of domestic staff keep separate utensils for any Christian employees. Employment opportunities other than traditional, menial work can be hard to come by. A study of Pakistan, Christian Citizens in an Islamic State, by academic Theodore Gabriel, draws attention to school textbooks which say that Christians worship three gods and define citizens of Pakistan as Muslims. Of course, these views are by no means held by everyone. Across the country, Muslims and non-Muslims alike have turned out to protest against Sunday's attack and the government's inadequate response. Yet simultaneously, liberal commentators have drawn attention to the fact that none of the major news networks referred to the dead as shaheed, an Urdu word meaning martyr, commonly used for those who have been killed by terrorist violence. Pakistan was explicitly conceived as a secular state with Islam as its main religion. My grandmother, who left Pakistan 40 years ago, watched the news on Sunday in horror: the country that was formed when she was a young woman had set out to be tolerant and inclusive. In an oft-quoted speech at the country's creation, the founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: "We have many non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, and Parsis – but they are all Pakistanis." Over the years, with military dictator General Zia ul-Haq's programme of Islamisation, and the increasing influence of extremists, this fundamental principle seems to have been lost.