By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News International Correspondent
Islamabad, Pakistan (Worthy News)-- Pakistani Christians are troubled by a Bible ban from radical Muslim clerics whose own prophet had never outlawed it.
Nevertheless, Muslim clerics recently asked the Supreme Court of Pakistan to rule that some scriptures have been added to the Bible and that they violate the Islamic nation's blasphemy laws by depicting biblical figures revered by Muslims as flawed; they allege that these additions were inserted to show the prophets guilty of "a variety of moral crimes, which undermine the sanctity of the holy figures."
Although Muslims accept the Pentateuch, the Psalms and the Gospels, many believe the rest of the Bible is a "corruption" of the original texts.
The clerics claimed their actions were in response to the burning of a Qur'an by Pastor Terry Jones, but local Islamists have become even more vocal after the targeted assasination of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by American troops while he was secretly living in Pakistan.
Naveed Walter, president of Human Rights Focus Pakistan, said Islamist clerics "usually attack individuals, groups, churches and communities of Christians, by falsely accusing them of blasphemy, but this time they are planning to ban even the Bible in Pakistan."
Although the Qu'ran instructs Muslims to respect the "people of the book", it also exhorts Muslims to fight Christians and Jews who don't accept Islam, until they pay a "jizra," or tribute tax as inferior dhimmis.