Reverend Azad Marshall, President Bishop of the Synod of the Church of Pakistan, recently expressed his concern with President Asif Ali Zardari about some comments made by the incendiary Islamic preacher Zakir Naik while he visited Pakistan recently as a state guest. Naik's visit that ended last week included a series of public speeches and private discussions.
In his letter, Marshall said that "Zakir Naik's public addresses have caused great anguish within our (Christian) community because he was very blatant to pose questions regarding the validity of our faith; discredited our holy scriptures and even addressed some statements that challenge the doctrine of Christian pastors and scholars."
The letter said Naik's remarks caused "religious offence" but also hurt the national pride of all Pakistanis, irrespective of religion. The letter also indicted the Pakistani government for its inability to issue any formal apology concerning Naik's statements. "And that is what has further intensified the sense of marginalisation of the Christian community, which has consistently been promised by the government to be a testament of religious harmony and mutual respect," it said.
Marshall urged the government to take swift and effective action so that such "divisive and harmful" incidents could not recur in the future, especially under state patronage. Marshall referred to the speech given by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1947, stating that Naik "desecrated" Jinnah's vision as a guest of the state at his public congregations, which is unfortunate.
"Zakir Naik's statements were made in public forums where our pastors and scholars were not given an opportunity to appropriately respond or address the misinformation sown by his misinformed opinion," Marshall said.
Pakistan's Christian leaders have approached President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seeking action against Zakir Naik who they claim discredits their religion during his three-week visit. Zakir Naik, who was invited by the government, conducted "controversial" lectures for a month in major cities Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore. Zakir Naik is making his first visit to Pakistan after thirty years, his last being in 1992.
Zakir Naik, who left India in 2016 and is wanted there for alleged money laundering and inciting extremism through hate speech, was granted permanent residency by the previous government under Mahathir Mohamad.
Marshall and other Christian leaders have even condemned Naik for adverse remarks made during his visit regarding Christians and their faith. Further, they also regret that no concern about Naik's "anti-Christian" comments was voiced by the government of Pakistan.
Minorities in Pakistan are facing tough times over past years, and some statistics in recent reports indicate severe issues like religious violence. There, in most cases, accusations of blasphemy trigger violent consequences.
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