The sentiments of Pakistani Christians have been deeply hurt by the publication of baseless and unfounded reports in a few Urdu language newspapers during the month of June. Following the appearance of these reports, a bookshop run by the Daughters of Saint Paul nuns in Saddar, Karachi, was raided by Preedy Station Police and some of the CDs and videos they sell within the confines of their shop were confiscated.
A male worker at the bookshop was held for questioning for more than 24 hours and the nuns were harassed and intimidated.
The daily Nawa-i-Waqt, ran a front-page report in its June 12 edition alleging that Pakistani Christians were selling in the open market CDs and videotapes about the lives of the Prophets. The paper claimed that the video and CD material amounted to character assassination of the Prophets.
The Nawa-i-Waqt report also carried the comments of Muslim religious scholars, who not only issued a Fatwa (edict) about the films but also demanded that a blasphemy case be registered.
The writer of the report drew erroneous conclusions about the main logo of the Daughters of St. Paul and offered his own interpretation of the title of the film, "The Ten Commandments".
The Roman Catholic Church deplores these inaccurate, biased and unfounded press reports. The allegations made by the Urdu paper have deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the Pakistani Christians and have done a disservice to the cause of Christian-Muslim unity and solidarity in the country.
The report contains some serious distortions and attempts have been made to portray Christianity in a negative light. We feel it necessary to state the facts and clarify our position about the various issues raised in the reports.
The bookshop offers faith-enriching material for Christians. This includes books and films about religious and moral teaching. The contents of the audio, video and text-based material sold at the bookshop are in complete conformity with Christian teachings.
It is absolutely wrong to claim that the films have been prepared by a Jewish firm. Also without foundation is the allegation that there was a conspiracy afoot to screen the films across the country.
We would like to clarify that some of the films in question have been available in the country for the past few decades, if not longer than that.
People who have some knowledge about Christianity cannot deny that the films are based on the Holy Bible.
Films available at the bookshop are intended to enrich and supplement the faith of local Christians.
We remain unaware of any such film screening purportedly made by cable operators. We wish to state that if such a screening was even made, the Catholic Church cannot bear responsibility for the action of the cable operators and certainly did not encourage them to do so.
The Daughters of Saint Paul is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church and to become a member of the congregation one has to be a professed nun. There are objectionable comments made about Saint Paul in the report. As anyone familiar with Christianity would know that Saint Paul is a revered figure and one who played a principal role in promoting the faith in the early years of the Church.
It was stated in the report that St. Paul was a staunch Jew who opposed and persecuted Christ and his followers. But that was before he became a Christian. The fact is that a great many of those who became Christians were former Jews and opponents of Jesus Christ. Another important fact is that Jesus Christ was born into a staunch family of Jews.
All segments of the Roman Catholic Church appeal to journalistic circles and the news media to check and verify the facts before publishing any news item about the Church, Christian religious congregations and lay persons.
We appeal to Muslim religious scholars also to hold consultations with Christian clerics and religious scholars on these mailers.
We urge the press and the news media to be mindful of the religious sensibilities of their Christian brothers and sisters and gather facts from the relevant Christian institutions and organisations so that their reportage is seen as being fair, accurate and impartial.
(Archdiocese of Karachi, Archbishop's House Karachi)
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