Muslims make up about 96 percent of the population in Pakistan. Christians, on the other hand, struggle to fill even two percent of the total. They are the usual targets of persecution and discrimination.
JEFF KING
President, International Christian Concern
“In Pakistan, Christians kind of live on the bottom rung of society, and that's because of the long-term, built-in problems associated with persecution. You think about sewer workers in Pakistan, the guys who go down in the sewers, or sweep the streets. Now guess what. When those jobs come open, Muslims aren't even allowed to apply for them. They're only for Christians.”
Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, explains the impact of the lockdown imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He says day laborers in Pakistan who were already barely surviving, are now facing especially dire situations of starvation because they can no longer work.
JEFF KING
President, International Christian Concern
“In other places in Pakistan, Christians are not receiving food aid. So the government's putting out food aid, and yet they deny it to the Christians. This is not a new dynamic. This kind of thing happens all the time. So we're raising funds and doing fund-raising to get food out there right now. We have food packages that go to families, to feed them for a month, and we're going to do a couple months of that.”
King says Pakistani Christians meet these unimaginable challenges with faith, because it's the only way for them to keep moving forward.
JEFF KING
President, International Christian Concern
“It's not that fear's not a part of it. It is. It absolutely is, but really they're called to a higher level of faith, and to trust, going through that. If you think about that, that's what we're living through with COVID-19.”
It's precisely during the ongoing pandemic, which has revealed in many people a new capacity for compassion and solidarity, that special efforts can be made to help persecuted Christians overcome the suffering they've been experiencing since long before the coronavirus went on its rampage.
CT
