Mob Burns Christian Slum in Pakistan
"LAHORE, Pakistan — Like so many tragic incidents, it started with two
alcohol-soaked young men getting into an argument. It ended with 250
homeless families.
On March 6, in a northern suburb of Lahore, Pakistan, 28-year-old
Christian sanitation worker Sawan Masih visited Muslim childhood friend
Shahid Imran’s barbershop.
Although Pakistan is officially a dry country, one can easily procure spirits there, and it was liquor that fueled the squabble. It ended with
Imran accusing Masih of blasphemy against Islam.
This is a particularly loaded charge in a nation where no proof is
needed to bring charges, where a guilty verdict brings a death sentence,
and where mere accusations typically lead to egregious violence against
the republic’s Christians, who account for just 1.6% of Pakistan’s
population.
And so it was that three days later, on March 9, the local mosque’s
loudspeakers announced Masih had blasphemed Muhammad. This provoked an
evidently coordinated mob of 3,000 Muslims to march on the Christian
ghetto of Joseph Colony, even though Masih was already in jail.
As the throng grew, police urged residents to leave the slum at once.
Those who could went to relatives’ homes. None who escaped realized they
would never again see their homes or their few personal possessions —
some of which provided their livelihood — for these were either first
looted or burned in the ensuing inferno."