"The country's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, wanted religious minorities to be treated as equal citizens. But some Muslims consider Christians second class citizens."
Source/Credit: Deutsche Welle
By Shah Meer Baloch | May 22, 2018
Pope Francis announced Sunday that he had chosen 14 men to become cardinals at a ceremony on June 29. Among those he named were Louis Raphael I Sako, the Baghdad-based patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans, as well as Archbishop of Karachi Joseph Coutts. In both Iraq and Pakistan, Christians are a vulnerable minority.
Also notable was Pope Francis' choice of Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, a Pole who is known for helping Rome's homeless and poor.
Pakistan's Christians and other religious minorities complain of legal and social discrimination in their country. In the past few years, many Christians and Hindus have been brutally murdered over unproven blasphemy allegations.
One of Pakistan's most high profile blasphemy cases is that of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was found guilty of committing blasphemy while working in the fields in 2009 and was sentenced to death. In 2014, her death sentence was upheld by the Lahore High Court. Amnesty International called the verdict a "grave injustice."
In one case, a young Christian girl with Down syndrome was accused in August 2012 of of burning pages upon which verses of the Koran were inscribed. Rimsha Masih was taken into police custody and only released months later, when charges were dropped. The case caused an uproar in her home town and beyond and sparked riots and violence against Christians in the region. In 2013, she and her family relocated to Canada.
In 2014, a Christian couple was beaten to death for allegedly desecrating a copy of the Koran. Their bodies were subsequently burned in a brick kiln.
In September last year, a Christian man in Pakistan was sentenced to death for sharing "blasphemous" material on WhatsApp.
In an interview with DW, Archbishop of Karachi Joseph Coutts talked about the plight of Christians in Pakistan, and how his elevation to the position of cardinal could help alleviate it.
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Read original post here: Pakistan: Amid Christian persecution, Pope Francis nominates Karachi archbishop as cardinal
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