Says it was to be in revenge for Koran burning in the USA

By Jawad Mazhar

Special Correspondent for ANS, reporting from Pakistan

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Police have booked a Pakistani Muslim man who had allegedly threatened to desecrate the Holy Bible by piercing and torching, the head of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), has told ANS.

We had received several reports that a Muslim man was planning to burn the Bible to avenge the burning of a Koran in the United States.

So we spoke by phone with Joseph Francis, director of CLAAS, who said that a Muslim man from Kasur, had tried to enter a religious bookstore in the office of the Sacred Heart (Catholic) Cathedral, Lahore, on Friday, April 8, 2011.

Mr. Francis said that the watchman of the church and office had “foiled” his bid and managed to prevent him getting inside the bookstore.

He added that the Muslim “got infuriated” and then made derogatory remarks about Jesus Christ, the Church and the Bible, and apparently allegedly said, “If your pastor (in the USA) can desecrate a Koran, then I’ll burn a Bible here and desecrate it.”

Francis said that at this point, the Catholic administration made a complaint to the local police station and the man has been charged at the local Civil Lines Police Station under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.

We have since received reports that the Muslim man was “mentally abnormal” and the Catholic clergy have pardoned him, but the Station House Officer of the police station has still gone ahead and installed the case against him.

Jawad Mazhar is a Pakistani journalist specializing in writing about Christian persecution. He was born on November 28, 1976 at Sargodha's village Chak and raised in Sargodha, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He earned his Bachelors Degree from Allama Iqbal Open University majoring in computer sciences and has taught at various educational institutes in his country. He is also involved with “Rays of Development,” an organization working for minority rights in Pakistan. He says, “My aim is to help eradicate Christian persecution through my writing as I bring the plight of these brave people under the spotlight of the whole world.”

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