இஸ்லாமிய கலாச்சாரத்தை மதிக்க தெரியாத கத்தோலிக்க கிறிஸ்துவர்கள்

பாகிஸ்தானில் சீக்கியர்கள், இந்துக்கள், கிறிஸ்துவர்கள் எல்லோரும் தாலிபானுக்கு ஜிஸியா வரி கொடுக்க வேண்டும் என்று தாலிபான் கோரியிருக்கிறது. சீக்கியர்களும் இந்துக்களும் ஜிஸியா வரி கொடுக்க தயார் என்று அறிவித்துள்ளார்கள்.

ஆனால் கத்தோலிக்க கிறிஸ்துவர்கள் மட்டும், மேன்மையான இஸ்லாமிய கலாச்சாரத்தை மதிக்காமல், ஜிஸியா கொடுக்க முடியாது என்று அறிவித்திருக்கிறார்கள்.

அப்புறம் ஜிஸியா கொடுக்கவில்லை என்று எங்களை தாலிபான் கொன்றுவிட்டார்கள் என்று புலம்பினால், ஒத்துக்கொள்ளமுடியாது.

Pakistani Catholic leaders come out against the Taliban and the imposition of the jizya
by Qaiser Felix

Tax on non-Muslims is a threat that violates basic human rights. In tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan more than 700 non-Muslim families are persecuted and forced to pay. Federal Religious Minorities minister strongly condemns the tax, pledges help for the victims.

Lahore (AsiaNews) – The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) has condemned the imposition of the Jizya, the poll tax for non-Muslims, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan because of its discriminatory nature and because it constitutes a direct threat to basic human rights.
Mgr John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore, and Peter Jacob, NCJP executive secretary, have urged the federal and provincial governments in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to do something to alleviate the plight of non-Muslim families forced to “hand over their hard earned bread and butter to the extremists.”

Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant Islamist organisation based in Bara, about 10 kilometres south-west of Peshawar, is responsible for applying the tax.

Local sources said that more than 700 non-Muslim families have had to pay the tax.

NCJP leaders have complained about the lack of security among religious minorities in Orkazai and Khyber agency areas and that they are victims of harassment, religious taxation and expulsion.

The tax also is a threat to the country’s “democratic credentials and political system”. For this reason the government “should make it clear that Pakistan is a democratic country that cannot allow religious minorities to be subjected to such discrimination and economic injustice because they are equal citizens and not a conquered people.” These principles, the NCJP statement said, “are still part of the Constitution and the political system.”

Religious Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti reacted to the appeals of Catholic leaders by strongly condemning the demand on non-Muslims to pay the jizya.

Speaking to AsiaNews, the minister, who is Catholic, said that the tax “is illegal, unethical and against the Constitution of Pakistan.”

Moreover, in condemning those who perpetrate violence in the name of religion, he insisted that the protection of non-Muslims “is our constitutional obligation and moral duty”. The government, he reiterated, “will not let the Taliban threat and harm the minorities.”