Muslims and Christians. (Muslims).

We continue our watch on areas of the world where Muslim persecution of Christians is continuing. See the November 2001 issue of C.I. for an in-depth account.

Pakistan has Islam as a state religion and makes distinctions between Muslim citizens and "infidels", granting privileges to the former that are not granted to religious minorities (2001 Report, the pontifical association, Aid to the Church in Need). The most troubling issue is the blasphemy law, according to which anyone can be arrested and condemned to death. President Musharraf, in an interview with the Financial Times last March 6, stated that "no one can change the blasphemy law."

On October 28, gunmen believed to belong to an outlawed Islamic group opened fire on Protestant worshippers who were using St. Dominic's Catholic Church in Bahawalpur, for their service. Women and children were not spared as sixteen people, including their pastor, died. Five were seriously injured. Pakistani police arrested a dozen men (Star, Nov. 5).

Catholic Bishop Andrew Francis of the diocese of Multan, after viewing the bloodshed and bullet-riddled bodies, stated that it was "an act of terrorism...the fact that the victims were not Catholic does not change the matter at all--the objective was persons of Christian faith" (Zenit, Oct. 30).

Sudan, which provides a safe haven for numerous Islamic terrorist groups, harboured Osama bin Laden between 1991 and 1996. It also actively pursues and tortures Christians and those who convert to Christianity, and accepts slavery as being "deeply rooted in Arab and Muslim supremacy."

In the Philippines, Italian missionary priest Father Giuseppe Pierantoni was the latest person to be kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists in mid-October, following celebration of the Mass in his parish on the island of Mindanao.

As for Malaysia, Catholic churches have been targetted by arson since the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan, according to Church sources. Vandals could not break into the locked Christ the King Church in the northern state of Kedah, so had to be content with burning some furniture. But at St. Philip's Catholic Church in Segamat, bombs were thrown at the door and the tabernacle. Malaysia has 22 million people, mostly Muslim. Catholics number 712,000.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, where the Catholic Church has made notable efforts in recent times to dialogue with Muslim leaders, an Islamic court has sentenced a pregnant woman accused of premarital relations to death by stoning. The man accused in the affair was released by the same court for "insufficient evidence."