Full transcript of my interview with Paul Bhatti, ex-minister of Minorities in Pakistan and brother of Shahbaz Bhatti, who was killed for opposing the country's blasphemy law. See news story here (in Portuguese).
Transcrição integral da minha entrevista a Paul Bhatti, ex-ministro das minorias no Paquistão e irmão de Shahbaz Bhatti, morto em 2011 por se opor às leis da blasfémia. Ver reportagem aqui.
We
hear a lot about the anti-blasphemy law in Pakistan. What is the situation at
the moment?
The blasphemy law in Pakistan is one of the laws which
has capital punishment. Anybody who violates this law is sentenced either to
death or to a very long time in prison.
Unfortunately this law is often misused to settle personal
scores. There are also many Muslims who have been victims of this persecution
and these false accusations.
The general situation in Pakistan is very bad. We have
political crisis, economic crisis, the country is unstable. This instability
creates a fertile environment for those who want to impose their radical
philosophy and who take advantage of these things, like false accusations to
settle personal scores.
Unfortunately the religious minorities, in particular
the Christians communities, belong to the most oppressed and marginalized
sector of society, so they are easy victims of this. Doing that, it gives the
message to entire world that they don't like Christians, they don't like
minorities, they can do whatever they want, and they are in the media.
This creates the kind of problems we are fighting, and
my late brother Shahbaz's main objective was to promote religious freedom,
bring in the mainstream of the society, the poor and marginalized sectors of
the community. After his death I am carrying on his legacy, and we have a lot
to do, but I think that there is hope, if we continue to follow this path. Our
conviction is that we are right, we want to honour human dignity, we want to
promote social justice, we are working for human equality.
But whereas there are false accusations and innocent
victims, on the other hand there are hopes too. A lot of Muslim people support
us, they share our feelings, they want to share the contribution to promote
religious freedom and peace in the society.
Do you believe that the
anti-blasphemy laws might be abolished in the near future?
Surely. First of all, I am convinced that evil has its
end, and this is evil. These things are evil.
The second thing is that a lot of people of good faith
want it to end. Now the sensibility of the international community, of a lot of
good people in Pakistan, a lot of people who believe in religion... If these
people come together, the opposition is rather small. I think sooner or later
we will prevail.
The only thing is that the people who believe in
justice, who believe in religious freedom, including the international
community, have to unite. They should unite behind one platform and fight
against the law, and that way it will end. But if they don't unite behind one
platform, then they cannot get the advantage.
Could it be
counterproductive for the international community and NGOs to criticize the
law? Could that not make it more difficult to end the law as it makes it seem
like the government is folding to Western pressure?
You are very right. I agree.
Raising one's voice for those who cannot raise their voice
is good. But on the other hand we have to take concrete steps. These are, you
have to enforce, support the local community to stand by themselves, to make
them strong so that they can defend themselves and raise their voice. The basic
problem is illiteracy, poverty and political representation of the religious
minorities, including Christians, in the highest forum of society.
We have to work along those lines so that people can
come into the mainstream of society and do all these things.
