by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Pakistani Christians have been credibly threatened that “no Church and no Christian will remain safe in Pakistan” from Islamic terrorists enraged that the government of Sweden allowed a copy of the Quran to be burned outside Stockholm’s central mosque last month, sources told Worthy News.
Pages of the Islamic religious book were burned on June 28 as part of a permitted protest by a 37-year-old Iraqi Christian refugee who wants the Quran to be banned.
Immediately after this incident, the prominent Pakistani Islamic militant group LASHKAR-e-JHANGAVI issued a public letter of threatening intent against Christians in Pakistan. Worthy News received an English copy of that letter from Pakistani Christians in Lahore.
“By desecrating the Holy Quran in Sweden yesterday, Christianity has challenged the honor of Muslims,” Naseer Raeesani, Central Representative of Lashkar-e-Jhangavi, Pakistan, wrote in a letter on July 1. “If any Christians desecrate the Holy Quran in other countries, the fanatic zealots of Jhangavi Rehmatullah (The Organization’s late Leader) will make Pakistan a hell for Christians. No Church and no Christian will remain safe in Pakistan after this incident. If God willing, the Sunni zealots will take revenge for the desecration of the Holy Quran by wreaking religiously charged attacks on Christians in Pakistan.”
Understanding the Lashkar-e-Jhangavi as a credible threat, Pakistani Christians living in Canada have called upon the Canadian government for help. In a letter dated July 6, Canadian Christians of Pakistani Origin and the entire Christian community in Pakistan, the Charismatic Social Integration of Canada (CSIOC) pleaded with the Prime Minister and lawmakers to take immediate action. “[The Lashkar-e-Jhangavi] declaration explicitly threatens the lives of Christians in Pakistan and their places of worship in response to the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden,” the CSIOC letter explains. “Christians in Pakistan, as a marginalized minority group both economically and politically, are facing a perilous situation. Security agencies have shown alarming weakness in addressing violence committed by religious extremists and fanatical zealots who seek to eradicate "infidels" and secure an honorable position in paradise,” the letter said.
In a text message received by Worthy News on Sunday, a Christian leader in Lahore who is not identified for security reasons said: “We have beefed up security in churches today because of this letter by the banned terrorist outfit.”