Some people claim that Green Street in Newham is to travellers from South Asia what Oxford Street is to North Americans. It provides a colourful variety of predominantly Asian clothing, foods, confectionery and jewellery usually of high quality and at relatively low prices. At weekends it is usually packed with shoppers looking for bargains, especially at the extraordinary Queens Market which is more of a bazaar or souk than a traditional East End street market.

We live just off Green Street so last night my family and I walked along the road to participate with our neighbours in the lively Pakistan Independence Day celebrations. The police had closed off part of the street to facilitate the event, and crowds of mainly young people bedecked in the national colours of green and white and blowing on hooters promenaded along Green Street enjoying the party. It was good fun.

But I also had a heavy heart. Just two weeks ago some eight of my co-religionists (including children) at Gojra in Punjab, Pakistan, had been brutally butchered (here) by a murderous crowd whipped up to a frenzy by militant leaders of local mosques. Some of the Christians – who form a small vulnerable minority in Punjab and indeed in Pakistan – were burnt to death in their homes while the local police looked on.

At the last count there were some 20,000 Pakistani-background people living in Newham, about 8.5% of the population. They are a minority but a respected one, and I was pleased to see Newham police actively cooperating while they celebrated their national independence from Britain that took place 62 years ago.

The contrast between the treatment of the respective minorities on Green Street and at Gojra was painful, so I wrote today to the Pakistani High Commissioner in London:

Your Excellency,

Atrocities against Christian minority in Gojra
Last night my family and I attended the Pakistan Independence Day celebrations on Green Street here in the heart of Newham in London’s East End where we live. It was a safe and vibrant street party for all and particularly for the large Pakistani minority in our area, thanks in part to the local police who closed off the road in order to protect and promote the event.

On Saturday 1 August a number of Pakistan’s Christian minority in Gojra were butchered by a mob apparently inflamed by leaders of nearby mosques over accusations of ‘blasphemy’ against the Quran. During the massacre the local police stood by, unwilling to intervene while Christians – including children – were burnt to death.

Reports indicate that a senior Gojra police officer has now been suspended. Nonetheless as a Newham councillor and a Christian I felt deeply the tragic contrast between the happy event for Newham’s Pakistani minority on Green Street last night and the gut-wrenching atrocity perpetrated with police collusion against the Pakistan’s Christian minority in Gojra two weeks ago.

The Gojra massacre follows a similar if non-fatal mob attack on minority Christian homes a few weeks earlier in the Kasur district of Punjab, also following accusations of ‘blasphemy’.

I am writing therefore to insist that the Pakistani government urgently:

(a) Ensures that the mosque and Muslim leaders who inflamed the violence together with the actual perpetrators are brought to justice;
(b) Carries out a full investigation into Gojra police collusion with – and inactivity during – the atrocity, makes sure that officers responsible are appropriately and severely punished, and guarantees that in future police attitudes towards all minorities is respectful and in line with Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s inclusive founding vision for Pakistan;
(c) Provides generous compensation for the grieving families and the traumatised Christian community in Gojra; and
(d) Abolishes or drastically amends the notorious Pakistan blasphemy laws that are used abusively against non-Muslim minorities and others, often in pursuit of non-religious petty disputes.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Alan Craig

I’ll update you on his reply and any developments in due course.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am and is filed under Christianity, Crime, Freedom, Islam, Religious/Politics, Two-thirds world, World Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.