Why was this Christian boy beaten for drinking water from a mosque?

Many employers prefer Christians for sanitation jobs, and advertise for those jobs as open only to non-Muslims.

Purniya Awan December 02, 2016
News and images of Pakistani Christians being beaten up or being wrongly prosecuted are not surprising for the Pakistani public, especially since Pakistan ranks number six on the Open Doors World Watch List for Christian prosecution. Verily, one cannot turn a blind eye to such violence when it takes place so often.

With the growing intolerance rate in Pakistan, many members belonging to minority groups continue to pay the price for acts they don’t even know constitute as crimes. And, realistically, they aren’t.

A couple of days ago, a Christian boy was shown to be brutally beaten up in a video for allegedly drinking water from a fountain located inside a mosque. Are these the consequences of him accessing a public facility which provides the most basic utility for survival? Is being physically assaulted in public by self-proclaimed Muslim men who took it upon themselves to punish an innocent person for stepping into a Muslim place of worship and sharing their water justified?

The video shows the boy yelling and screaming from pain after being whipped with wooden sticks and being beaten with shoes.

Evidently, in the Christian context, the root causes of the anxieties of the community owe it to the actions of common Pakistanis. However, there are many other non-violent forms of discrimination Christians have to tolerate on a daily basis, such as poor or no access to education, lack of employment opportunities, and hurdles in social mobility. Many employers prefer Christians for sanitation jobs, and advertise for those jobs as open only to non-Muslims (read: Christians wanted). For instance, the derogatory term “churha” (sweepers) is commonly used to describe Christians.

In fact, it’s important to take into account the impacts of both class and religion in order to understand the discrimination the Christian community faces. Caste-based discrimination has existed in this part of the world for years, so to say that religious intolerance is the only factor contributing to their discrimination is very limiting.

These negative perceptions have created a dangerous situation for the peace and security of Pakistan’s Christian community. The suffering they face and how they are viewed by the mainstream Muslim population can be measured by the horrendous conditions with which they must compete on a daily basis. Forced marriage and conversion to Islam are some of the worst kinds of challenges they encounter.

The mistreatment of minorities is a stain on the wider Pakistani society. Even though terrorists are the most violent troublemakers, it is the public attitude that indicates minorities as targets for militants. Perhaps, Pakistan can be made a safer country by killing militants but ultimately this move will not really change the lives of those who have to live with dehumanising stereotypes every day. Until their fundamental rights are not widely recognised and granted, and such tensions are not resolved, Pakistan will continue to be at the frontline for violating, assaulting and prosecuting Christians.

This video shows one of the many violations that take place against the Christian community in Pakistan. However, other such countless incidents are not reported, filmed, nor made viral on social media platforms.

Therefore, as Pakistan persists to fight extremism, it needs to comprehend that military interventions are not enough.

In regards to the hoopla surrounding the authenticity of the said incident (video), the matter of fact is that the young boy was beaten up by a mob. Whether it was because he drank water from a mosque or stole a car battery, mob justice is not justice. Instead of questioning the reason behind his bruises, a little empathy towards our minorities could go a long way.
WRITTEN BY:
Purniya Awan

The writer is a Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies graduate from York University. She has been nominated as a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, is a Founding Member of a Pakistani legal blog, Courting The Law, and is also the Co-Founder of The Gender Stories (TGS). She identifies as a feminist, and is currently working in Pakistan as the GM at MINT PR. She tweets https://twitter.com/PurniyaA?lang=en">@purniyaA.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (48)

salman | 6 years ago | Reply Don't get me wrong, I fully support the author's message and agenda. However I believe the article lacks a little neutrality. Take for example, the mention of derogatory words 'Chura' or 'Bhangi'. Chura is a Hindu caste which traditionally occupied the role of sweepers. The caste belongs to the offensively named 'untouchables' category. In Pakistani Punjab 90-95% of its Christian population are from the Chura caste. [Phan, P.C. (2011). Christianities in Asia. John Wiley & Sons. p. 25. ISBN 1405160896.] To claim that such discrimination in Pakistan against Christians or the caste system itself has any roots in Islam is absolutely incorrect. From my personal experience unsurprisingly, a lot of Pakistani Hindus do not know much about this either. A tradition blindly inherited from ancient times. More importantly, a lot of people are unaware just as I once was too, that the term 'Chura' is derogatory. I was late made aware of this by my parents when the hear me using it to refer to some of the local kids. Similarly, I once set out to complain to our cantonment that the 'Bhangis' hadn't sweeped the streets for a week. Imagine my surprise when I was informed by our local cantonment that the correct term to use is 'kachra uthanay wala' since Bhangi is a offensive term. In favor of neutrality, it should have also been mentioned that such extremism is the the norm but the exception. One of the caretakers of my local mosque for example, is a Christian and maintains the mosque's drinking water dispenser and filters. Most residents share drinking glasses with him and no one bats an eye about the ancient Hindu concept of 'jhoota'. A lot of, or dare I say most Christian missionary schools in my city (Karachi) are quite popular amongst our Muslim majority population, making it quite obvious that not all minorities are openly persecuted our cities. While these issues often seem Black and White, i believe that the solution lies first in recognizing that this problem in actuality lies in a grey are.
LS | 7 years ago | Reply They will only worry if some muslim is beaten in India.. else everything is routine. I still remember the Christian couple who were burn alive under the pretext of blasphemy laws by the locals themselves where the local mosque played a major role. In Sindh mosques have targets every year to convert local hindu population forcibly, they kidnap them, rape them and convert them, kill them routinely. According to Sindhi Hindu law minister 5000 Hindu girls go through this kidnap/rape/conversion cycle and sometimes they are sold to brothels. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/08/forced-conversions-torment-pakistan-hindus-201481795524630505.html http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/30248/my-journey-as-a-pakistani-hindu/ Yet their heart only aches if a muslim is mistreated in west or faces slight injustice in India or gets killed somewhere (even if they were KNOWN terrorists - like Burhan wani, they will eulogize terrorists like OBL, the turk who shot the ambassador) Yet they want all facilities, equal treatment, Sharia law, Hijab, niqab, ban pork in schools, prayer halls in the name of democracy, equal rights. pathetic just pathetic.
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