Suicide Attack at Church in Pakistan

By EmmaZahn on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 3:12pm |

A suicide attack on a historic Christian church in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 78 people on Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks on the Christian minority in Pakistan in years.

The attack occurred as worshipers left All Saints Church in the old quarter of the regional capital, Peshawar, after a service on Sunday morning. Up to 600 people had attended the service and were leaving to receive free food being distributed on the lawn outside when two explosions ripped through the crowd.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/world/asia/pakistan-church-bombing.html?smid=pl-share

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From L.A. Times' coverage by by Zulfiqar Ali and Mark Magnier in Peshawar,

question at the end sums up the problem since the days of the first intifada:

...Other worshipers, including church coordinator Hayat Bhati, criticized poor government security and the official policy of appeasing militants. Islamabad has released nearly three dozen Taliban from prisons in recent weeks in a bid to bolster Afghan peace talks.

"The government is responsible for this bloodshed,” said John William, a priest with the Church of Pakistan helping wounded in the hospital. “Instead of punishing militants, they are released from jails.”

Asked why police weren’t doing more to protect the public, police chief Ali told reporters his officers are also victims, with about 800 police officers having died in recent militant attacks. "We are doing our best, but how can we stop these suicide bombers,” he added...

Civil libertarians please answer.

Cavaet: Not that I believe that all the Pakistani police are doing their best.

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 4:06pm

About the only place I have seen reports of stepped up violence against churches throughout the world is on The American Interest blogs. What they had to say about today's bombing:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been trying to open talks with the Pakistani Taliban, but his offers to negotiate have thus far been spurned. At first, the Taliban made sweeping, unmeetable demands of the government. And then as if to underline their contempt, they killed a senior Pakistani general near the Afghan border last week. And now this. The FT is reporting that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group aligned to the Taliban, is thought to be responsible.

It’s hard to imagine how negotiations could continue after such a series of violent slaps in the face. That sound you hear may very well be the dirge playing for Nawaz Sharif’s ill-fated Taliban outreach efforts.

by EmmaZahn on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 4:26pm

Dawn.com points to an extensive article on its home page right now that addresses the specifics of Pakistan, how non-Muslims are living in an increased state of fear, and how authorities pressure to cover up incidents:

Herald Exclusive: State of fear
By Maham Javaid

[....] According to the Human Rights Watch, an international organisation that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, living condition for Pakistan’s non-Muslims have drastically deteriorated. Moreover, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in its 2012 report that Pakistan has been a “country of particular concern” since 2002 as far as the state of its non-Muslim citizens is concerned. Many in Pakistan, including some members of the non-Muslim communities, still want to believe that the situation is not as bad as it is made out to be.

A large part of this denial stems from the efforts of the state and the elected politicians to hide, rather than improve, the situation. This is exactly what is happening as far as the abduction and conversion of Hindu girls in different parts of Sindh is concerned. In the last half a decade, the incidents of abduction and conversion have risen alarmingly. Official data shows that the number of these incidents has decreased recently though Ravi Davani, the secretary general of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, claims that the lower incidence is because there is pressure to stop their reporting.

“Firstly, families of the girls now hardly approach the police. Even if they do, the policemen promise help only if the family remains silent,” he says. “The policemen in turn are pressurised by the locally influential landlords to keep the incident under wraps; the landlords are told to do the same by the elected representative of the area,” he adds.

“No one wants these incidents to get out anymore. They are too embarrassing for the country.” [.....]

We have been seeing the flip side of this in Egypt, where the military state and many urbanites are eager to blame the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters with inciting to violence against minority religions and to publicize any examples.

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 4:50pm

"what is happening as far as the abduction and conversion of Hindu girls in different parts of Sindh is concerned. In the last half a decade, the incidents of abduction and conversion have risen alarmingly. Official data shows that the number of these incidents has decreased recently though Ravi Davani, the secretary general of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, claims that the lower incidence is because there is pressure to stop their reporting."

Understandable given the tensions in relationships between Pakistan and India as well as between Muslims and Hindus, but probably futile as the ratio of men to women will likely get much worse in the next few decades. See:

“Pent-up Demand” for Sex-Selective Abortions Could Soon Be Unleashed | dagblog

by EmmaZahn on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 6:56pm

Peshawar blasts: a timeline
DAWN.COM, Published 2013-09-22 18:02:31

Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhthunkhwa, has faced and increase in suicide and bomb attacks over the past nine months [....]

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 4:33pm

Not that there is any rational explanation for this inhumane and cowardly and just plain evil act, but I do not even understand the irrational explanation for this. What has the tiny Christian community in Pakistan done to even invite even a hint of displeasure, other than intolerance -- besides the fact these folks are Christian. Seven children are among the dead.

by Bruce Levine on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 5:19pm

It's the same old ignorance of olden days pogroms, Bruce. Because Allah supposedly tells them so. They've got to cleanse the non-believers and then they will be blessed. Right now they believe they are cursed by their presence. (You could even switch in ancient Aztec human sacrifice.)

This is why I despise Taliban equally or more so than Al Qaeda. Pre-emptive: that does not mean I think that U.S.A. needs to militarily save nations from their types. But Mullah Omar types deserve worldwide scorn, always and forever. And those who recruit and brainwash the suicide bomber boys are beyond evil. I don't know why so many have lost outrage about the latter, but I still find it a much more ugly crime than pedophilia, which gets all the outrage these days.

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 5:59pm

The leader of Boko Haram (whose name means "western education is sacrilege,") in Nigeria stresses how important it is:

"Teachers who teach western education? We will kill them. We will kill them in front of their students, and tell the students to henceforth study the Quran," Shekau said. “We are going to burn down the schools, if they are not Islamic religious schools for Allah.”

There had been talk of a ceasefire deal, with reports suggesting that last week the government signed an agreement with Boko Haram's second-in-command, but Shekau dismissed the idea.

“We will not enter into any agreement with non-believers or the Nigerian government,” he said

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 6:12pm

I think we focus sometimes on our numerous, ongoing, and often indefensible failures as the world's most powerful nation. . .to the point where we just lose perspective on what really is evil. I mean even as I'm writing this I'm feeling guilty because I'm reacting more viscerally to this than I did say yesterday or two days ago when Shia and Sunni traded suicide attacks in Iraq. But this isn't about having anything against Islam by any stretch of the imagination--heaven forbid I should ever find myself in the same mindset of the haters in our own country who focus on anything foreign and distinct from our "Judeo-Christian" heritage. And, yes, those animals--I see them on FB already--will use this to foment hate against muslims in our own country-- and shame on them because those bigots have no idea what this country is supposed to be all about.

That said, no drone attack justifies this horror.

Heaven help us.

by Bruce Levine on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 6:11pm

This attack has nothing to do with drone attacks, just like the attacks on churches in Egypt have nothing to do with drone attacks. It is about cleansing of kafir. Politics enter secondarily, when conspiracy theories about what the kafir are up to with political enemies are used to further demonize them. But it starts with the demonization of them by radical imams on a purely religious level.

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 6:16pm

And this thinking is present in the Al-Shabaab attackers in Nairobi too:

Then an Indian man came forward and they said, 'What is the name of Muhammad's mother?' When he couldn't answer they just shot him."

where all Muslims are worth saving, and all non Muslims worth killing. It did not matter that some of those Muslims they let go might be supporters of Kenyan troops in Somalia, and some of the non-Muslims they killed might be against that! All that mattered was their religion, not whether they agree politically.

by artappraiser on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 6:25pm

Completely agree with:

And those who recruit and brainwash the suicide bomber boys are beyond evil.

Gathering a consensus upon such a matter is why I think more of an effort should be made to develop international institutions to oppose this.

It is not easy. There are many influences that corrupt the idea. But if we cannot build upon this very clear concept of inhumanity, who can argue against those who say that our spasmodic displays of concern about such behavior are only cover for actions driven by other motives?

by moat on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 7:18pm

Christians make up a mere 4 percent of the population in Pakistan. From Reuters:

The Taliban-linked militant group TTP Jundullah claimed responsibility within hours of the attack.

"They are the enemies of Islam, therefore we target them," said the group's spokesman, Ahmed Marwat. "We will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistani land."

by Bruce Levine on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 5:32pm

We've killed innocents, but the jihadists are definitely perpetrating greater horrors. Jeez, two congregations massacred almost at the same time.

by Aaron Carine on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 7:57pm

Of course, the massacre at Nairobi was at a mall, not a church, my bad.

by Aaron Carine on Mon, 09/23/2013 - 8:35am

I agree with everything above...

I just wish I felt we really understood what was going on and why.

I'm not sure we can do that sufficiently from this remove (geographically and culturally).

A few weeks back (eons ago it now seems) Steven Clemons said we, the US, should condemn the military coup in Egypt in clear terms.

His point was this: Religious Muslims (not only, but in particular) need to experience the efficacy of the democratic process and the peaceful transfer of power.

The lesson can't be that even if you win fair and square, you can be pushed out of office by people who don't agree with you who have more power than you, i.e., the army or anyone else.

I understand there was more to the Morsi ouster than "disagreement," and I also understand, though I'm not sure it's true, that the election wasn't as fair as portrayed.

But still, the other groups should have been allowed (required) to protest the Morsi government without having the democratic process short circuited by a coup. Without having their work done for them by the army.

Clemons's point was that Morsi's followers--read, fundamentalist Muslims--were being taught that the only way to exercise power is by armed force, and they will increasingly resort to what we see in this article.

Of course, they've been resorting to this for some time, but the election in Egypt was an opportunity to prove to them that there was a better way--democracy, politics, and the peaceful transfer of power.

Of course, they've had some kind of democracy in Pakistan for some time, so maybe what I'm saying isn't really applicable. But that's why I'd like to understand the dynamics at a more granular level.

by Peter Schwartz on Sun, 09/22/2013 - 10:02pm

Suicide Attack at Church in Pakistan

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