Minority Part Two
 
Last year I wrote about my experience as a minority in my country. I felt terrible live as minority but when I read a writing by a young Indonesian Muslim guy, Agustinus Wibowo, I feel Christians in my country are more fortunate than minority in Pakistan, a country near India. The minority especially Christian in Pakistan are living in the shadow of extinction. I can only hope and pray thing will get better there.

Sunday, 28 October 2001 morning, it was almost nine o’clock; a flock of Christians just ended a church service. The pastor stood in the main gate, ready to greet by shaking hands with the congregations and bless them
Suddenly two unfamiliar men entered the gate. They shot the congregation with automatic pistols. Next second, the bodies were everywhere. The blood was splashed to everywhere. Sixteen people died in the accident.
 
That accident happened in Bahawalpur the centre of Punjab province. Agustinus wrote that this accident is the first bloody terror that was shown to Christians, the minority that country. And that was not the last. Until today, the Christians are still trapped with fear and trauma.
 
Agustinus, the adventurer, then visited a Catholic church, Santo Dominic that was located in the middle of Bahawalpur. In the past Protestant congregation also held service in the same place. After the tragedy, they use their own church. Till now every service that is held in Santo Dominic church is guarded by police with complete weapons, to avoid another attack.
 
Agustinus was stunned seeing Santo Dominic church’s interior. Is it a church? It was a very simple condition. There were only three desks for men in the right side, and another three desks for women in the left side. And there was a large carpet. It was used by congregation to kneel and pray to God in humble.
 
Agustinus had a chance to see the room of Pastor Nadeem Joseph. Beside a pastor, Nadeem Joseph was also a head master of a school. In his room, there was pictures of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, Jesus Christ and Mother Mary. The old fan was made a creaking sound, drove away the hot weather.
 
“All because of Americans”, said Pastor Nadeem starting his story. American’s attack to Afghanistan to revenge the accident at World Trade Centre, 11 September 2001 has raised anger in Pakistan. Perhaps Pakistanis could not do anything to Americans. The Pakistan Christians are the target of their anger. In the ill-omened day, eight people were gathered and planned to slaughter the church. Some of them guarded outside, some of them were in the yard and the rest of them entered the church. They said the wanted to give lesson to President Bush by attacking churches.

The Christians are always threaded as foreigners in Pakistan, although they are citizens of the country. Not only this accident, there are many discriminative law because of religion differences. The Christians do not have any freedom. The government is hoped to protect them. Till today the churches are always silent, with only small numbers of visitors.

There are about two millions Christians in Pakistan, with almost a balance number of Protestant and Catholic. Since the accident, Bahawalpur has become the centre of world’s attention. The frequency of attacks towards Christians has increased. Most of them are triggered by provocation. The latest riot happened in Sangla Hill, involved thousand of people who broke some churches, was triggered by a rumour that somebody torn Qur’an.
 
Although Agustinus was a Muslim, he felt the traumatic and despair atmosphere when visiting the dirty village Bhatta 2, where Christians live. In this country, Christians are identical with poverty and the low class society with profession as street cleaners.
 
There is something wrong. Why are the Christians very poor although commonly the education in Christian schools is good? The Pakistanis knows that it is because the Pakistan Christian likes to drink alcoholic beverages. Not only drinking habit, the Pakistan Christians also produce and trade the alcoholic drinks. A little pocket of it cost one hundred Rupee, made secretly in a simple dirty house in the dirty complex. The trash is everywhere, cause unpleasant smell.

Not far from the dirty complex, there is a graveyard. There are many ancient graves. This was including the graves of European missionaries who brought the Christianity to Pakistan more than 200 years ago.
 
More than 200 years a go that place was a forest without any man live in it. Because of European missionaries, people live in that place and become Christians. But now many churches are empty. Even there was no desk in one of the churches. People are fear to attend the service. They choose to sell the alcoholic drinks to continue their lives.

“Let’s drink,” a Christian offered Agustinus a glass of alcohol without any hesitation. They are minority who live with discrimination, trauma, terror, poverty and alcohol. They were sinking in uncertainty. When will they raise again, to reach the good idea and hope once sowed by the missionaries?