Pakistani Christians In Danger

From the Associated Press via the International Herald Tribune:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistani Christians living in a town beset by pro-Taliban militants sought government protection on Wednesday, a day before the expiry of an ultimatum warning them to convert.

About 500 Christians in Charsadda, a town in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, received threatening letters earlier this month telling them to shutter their churches and convert to Islam by May 17 or face "bomb explosions."

Community leaders say several Christians — a tiny minority in predominantly Muslim Pakistan — have fled the town and that others are living in fear.

Chaudhry Salim, a Christian leader in Charsadda, said police had not taken the threat seriously.

"Police say someone is joking with us by writing these letters," Salim said at a news conference in the capital. "They have deployed only two policemen at our churches ... this is the kind of security we are getting now."

Pakistan is our "ally". Is the administration of our self-proclaimed Christian president doing anything to prod the Pakistani government to protect this small number of our Christian brothers and sisters?

Asif Daudzai, a spokesman for the provincial government, asked Christians not to panic, saying authorities were doing all they can to ensure their protection.

"Christians are our brothers and sisters, and we will not allow any one to harm them," he told The Associated Press.

I hope that this is true.

Islamic radicals trying to impose Taliban-style social edicts in northwestern Pakistan are growing bolder, bombing shops selling Western films, threatening barbers for trimming beards and warning hotel operators to remove television sets from guest rooms.

Minorities and secular opposition parties complain that the government is doing too little to counter the "Talibanization" of ever-greater swaths of the country.

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters who suffer persecution for their faith.