05 September 2012

Non-Muslims "in terror" in Pakistan, world churches say

Minority religious communities in Pakistan are living in "fear and terror" of Islamic fundamentalists amid abductions and forced conversions that the government is helpless to stop, the World Council of Churches (WCC) said on Wednesday.

A statement from the WCC's ruling Central Committee declared that Pakistan's small Hindu and Christian communities were increasingly subject to "persecution and discrimination", with mounting Islamisation of a formerly more secular nation.

"Today a significant number of young women of religious minorities ... face violence, including sexual assault, rape, threats and persecution," said the WCC - an influential global organisation of all Christian faiths except Roman Catholics. [Reuters] Read more