Children attacked, church wrecked for disturbing prayers with carols.
Children attacked, church wrecked for disturbing prayers with carols – The Express Tribune
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The Christian community did not register an FIR for the attack, instead apologised to the attackers, for the fear of consequences. PHOTO: EXPRESS
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KARACHI: A group of people praying in a
mosque were so irked by the voices of
children singing carols at a nearby church
that they decided to silence them—by
attacking their house of worship.
On Saturday evening, four men attacked the
Philadelphia Pentecostal Church in New Mianwali
Colony in Manghopir.
A young boy, Samson, was standing outside the
church as his friends sang carols on the
microphone inside. The children were preparing
for mass to be celebrated the next day which was
a Sunday. The loud cheers became terrified
whimpers when suddenly four men, one of
them with an axe, barged into the church.
The men slapped the children, wrecked the
furniture, smashed the microphone on to the
floor and kicked the altar. "You are disturbing our
prayers. We can't pray properly. How dare you
use the mike and speakers?" Samson quoted, the
men as saying.
The commotion inside the church made Samson
call out for help. Three men ran away but one
was caught by the residents who beat him up
before the police reached the spot.
The incident is now a week old, but the attack
frightened the community so much that all of the
nine churches in the area were locked up.
"The day after the attack people did not come for
mass," said Lubna, the daughter of Pastor Daniel.
"They came to our home to ask about what
happened but did not go to church." The pastor
was away.
"The children are so scared that they don't even
want to talk about the attack," Lubna said as she
made sure that all the windows and doors of the
church were tightly shut.
Inside the church, a Christmas tree stood in the
corner and ribbons and balloons adorned the
wall. But in the middle, the broken chair,
microphone and altar with footprints served as a
grim reminder of the incident.
"The attackers claimed that the sound from the
loudspeakers was disturbing their prayers," said a
former councilor and resident of New Mianwali
Colony, Akram Khokhar.
The residents did not register an FIR. A priest at
another church in the area, Fr Arif M Shera,
explained why. "Though it was our house of
worship which was attacked and our children
who were beaten up, we apologised to the other
party," he said. "For the sake of our lives we said
that it was our fault."
MPA Saleem Khokhar said that he informed the
home minister about the incident. "The people
don't want to register an FIR because they are
scared of the consequences."
Meanwhile, a prayer leader of the mosque,
Muhammad Usman, brought the leaders of both
the communities together to talk to them. If the
worshippers had problems with the church, they
should have talked instead of attacking the
church, he said. But he held the children
responsible for what happened. According to
him, the speakers were put on the roof of the
church and the children sang loudly "on purpose"
to irritate the people who came to the mosque. "It
was their fault," insisted Usman. "A number of
ulema in the area complained that the loud music
and songs were disturbing their prayers. They
did not listen when some boys went to stop
them." However, he evaded the question when
asked about the attack. He admitted this much
that the men who attacked the mosque could
have behaved differently.
Usman said that a similar dispute erupted seven
years ago over the use of a loud speaker. It was
decided then that the churchgoers would use
speakers and the microphone from 8 am to 11
am on Sundays only, when mass is celebrated.
They were not allowed to use the speakers
otherwise because prayers would be disturbed.
Around 400 Christian families live amid Pakhtun
families in New Mianwali Colony. The residents
said that another similar dispute seven years ago
ended up with the desecration of the church. The
attackers torched the cross and abused the
worshippers. "Things seemed to have cooled
down for the time being, but we are being
vigilant now," said Fr Shera. "We won't let this
happen again."
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th,
2012.
