Archbishop criticizes Pakistani president

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver tells Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that he’s the pot calling the kettle black because while Musharraf is calling for tolerance for Muslims, his own country persecutes Christians.

At the United Nations last month, Musharraf said that in order for bonds to form between Islamic and Western nations, “it is imperative to end racial and religious discrimination against Muslims and to prohibit the defamation of Islam.” In other words, the only reason there is trouble and tension between Islamic countries and the West is because of what the West is doing. That he thinks that free speech can be curbed so easily shows just how much of a dictator he is.

Archbishop Chaput, who happens to be a member of the US Commission on Internal Religious Freedom, which advises the State Department on religious persecution around the world, calls Mucharraf on his hypocrisy. In a Denver Post op-ed co-written with he commission’s vice chairman, Elizabeth H. Prodromou, he points out that “Musharraf fails to address the urgent need to bring ‘enlightened moderation’ to his own country, where intolerance and violence is aimed at both Muslims and non-Muslims.”

“Currently, sectarian and religiously motivated violence persists in Pakistan, particularly by Sunni Muslim militants, against Shiite Muslims, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians,” they wrote. “Perpetrators of attacks on religious minorities are seldom brought to justice. Pakistan’s nearly 4 million Ahmadis are prevented by law from fully practicing their faith.”

No justice under the law

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