It is a sheer misconception to assume that terrorism means making the lives of innocent people miserable through generating an atmosphere of harassment and persecution. Disfigurement of facts and defacement of actualities is also a very heinous form of terrorism. Pope Benedict, in his traditional beginning-of-the-year address to diplomats at the Vatican said referring to the assassination of a Christian Pakistani minister Shahbaz Bhatti that the killing of Bhatti was 'not an isolated case’. In the same address, referring to the recent attacks on churches in Nigeria on Christmas Day, he said, Religious leaders should 'forcefully' condemn intolerance and violence.” Unfortunately while talking about the violence and intolerance against Christians, the honourable Pope cited all examples from the Muslim societies; he uttered not even a single word of condemnation on the maltreatment of Christians at the hands of the Hindu extremists in India. Exploitation and mistreatment on the basis of religious distinction is also a form of terrorism and has become a very serious issue in the world of today. Be it the western or the non-western society the monster of terrorism is engulfing the whole of world in different forms and different shapes. It is a daylight fact that the Christians are also facing the same type of serious threat which the Muslims are facing in various parts of the world where they are in minority but in India the situation is worse off. The New Delhi-based United Christian Forum for Human Rights has recently documented more than 120 attacks against Christian individuals, churches, and schools by Hindu fundamentalists, in the past year. The Compass Direct News published a report on the last day of 2011 with the title ‘Acts of Terror against Christians in India in December 2011’. The report pointed out more than twenty incidents of Hindu atrocities against the Christians in different parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Bangalore Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Nalgonda, Indore, Nagarcoil and so many other areas. The incidents included burning of churches, humiliation of religious books and above all abuse of Christian women. Unfortunately all these details of Hindu atrocities against the innocent Christians never succeeded in winning the attention of the honourable Pope Benedict. It is the responsibility of the western media to highlight the sorry plight of the Christians in India instead of portraying the Muslims as the universal terrorists. If the western media had fulfilled its responsibility honestly without any prejudice, the honourable Pope must have said a few words of denunciation in his traditional beginning-of-the-year address about the Hindu extremism also.
PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER,
Multan, January 18.