A ‘bulletproof’ cross rises in Karachi



KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Pakistani businessman Parvez Henry Gill says he was sleeping when God crashed into one of his dreams and gave him a job: find a way to protect Christians in Pakistan from violence and abuse. “I want you to do something different,” God told him.

That was four years ago, and Gill, a lifelong devout Christian, struggled for months with how to respond. Eventually, after more restless nights and more prayers, he awoke one morning with his answer: He would build one of the world’s largest crosses in one of the world’s most unlikely places.

“I said, ‘I am going to build a big cross, higher than any in the world, in a Muslim country,’ ” said Gill, 58. “It will be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry-free.”

Now, in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, in the heart of a city where Islamist extremists control pockets of some neighborhoods, the 14-story cross is nearly complete.

It is being built at the entrance to Karachi’s largest Christian cemetery, towering over thousands of tombstones that are often vandalized. Once his cross looms over such acts of disrespect, Gill said, he hopes it can convince the members of Pakistan’s persecuted Christian minority that someday their lives will get better.

“I want Christian people to see it and decide to stay here,” said Gill, who started the project about a year ago.

The cross, in southern Karachi, is 140 feet tall — higher than most office buildings in downtown Washington — and includes a 42-foot crosspiece. It isn’t the world’s tallest; that distinction is claimed by the Great Cross in St. Augustine, Fla., which is about 208 feet tall, although the Millennium Cross in Macedonia is said to tower 217 feet above ground. Crosses approaching 200 feet also have been constructed in Illinois, Louisiana and Texas.

But Gill says his cross at the Gora Qabristan Cemetery, which dates to the British colonial era, will be the largest in Asia.

The structure certainly will stand out in Pakistan, where Muslims account for more than 90 percent of the population. Christians make up just 1.5 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people, according to the country’s last census. Christian leaders, who accuse the government of a deliberate undercount, say a more accurate figure is about 5.5 percent.

Whatever the number, Christians have been fleeing Pakistan in droves in recent years amid a wave of horrific attacks against them.

In 2013, more than 100 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a church in Peshawar. In November, a mob burned alive a Christian couple in a brick oven after the two were wrongly accused of burning a Koran. In March, suicide bombers killed some 15 people at two church services in ­Lahore. Last month, also in ­Lahore, a 14-year-old Christian boy was attacked and set on fire, according to local media reports.

Christians are also often targets of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy law. The law forbids insults of any form — even by “innuendo” — against the Muslim prophet Muhammad and makes the crime punishable by death.

The challenges facing Christians in Pakistan, many of whom live in slums and are relegated to working menial jobs, are particularly acute in rural areas. That has driven more of them to seek security and support in Karachi, said Bishop Sadiq Daniel, the leader of the Church of Pakistan in surrounding Sindh province. About 1 million of Karachi’s estimated 22 million inhabitants are Christian, the Protestant leader said.

But Gill said that “every few weeks” he hears from Christians who plan to move out of Karachi because of threats. The signs of that abuse are obvious at the cemetery.

Although thousands of headstones have been neatly aligned over the past 150 years, a settlement has encroached on the cemetery, covering dozens of graves. Its residents toss garbage into the graveyard, and crosses and statues are frequently desecrated.

“Look, someone just came and broke this statue of the Virgin Mary,” Gill said recently, as he bent over a shattered statue marking the grave of someone who died in 1959.

He said he hopes the cross encourages more Christians to remain in Pakistan, perhaps even achieving the same success that his family found.

Gill’s 97-year-old father, Henry, owned wheat and cotton fields in Punjab. The Gill family has a long history of generosity, including helping thousands of poor children pay for education and covering the costs of more than 100 eye operations for the blind, Parvez Gill and Daniel said.

Initially, Gill wanted to be a pilot, but he had to drop out of flight school because of a medical condition. After he moved to Karachi in the mid-1980s, he began dabbling in real estate, the start of his lucrative career.

Gill said that he has not kept track of how much it’s costing to build the cross, and that he, his two adult sons and his father “all chip in” whenever a bill arrives.

Building the cross hasn’t been easy.

When 100 workers started construction last year, Gill didn’t tell them what they were building. As the outlines of the cross became apparent, about 20 Muslim workers quit in protest, he said.



But today, Gill noted, Muslims and Christians are working together to complete the project.

One Muslim man, Mohammad Ali, works on the cross 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Ali referred to the cross as a “work of God” and said he is volunteering out of loyalty to the Gill family.

“Henry has supported me well over the years, helping with the birth of my [seven] children, with medicine, their education, so I don’t need a daily wage,” said Ali, 40.

Some Karachi Christians worry that such a massive symbol of their faith will make the cemetery and their community even more vulnerable. Gill said his friends have expressed concern about his safety, urging him to frequently change his vehicles and travel routes.

Gill said he leaves questions about his personal safety to Psalm 91 of the Bible, which promises protection to believers.

As for the cross, Gill called it “bulletproof,” noting that it sits on a 20-foot underground base. “Tons and tons of steel, iron and cement,” he said as he looked up toward the top of the structure. “If anyone tries to hit this cross, they will not succeed.”

Sometime later this year, after the cross is polished and a lighting system is installed, Gill plans to hold a large celebration to inaugurate it. He said he wants to invite Pope Francis, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Queen Elizabeth II of England and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“But I don’t know if they will come,” he added.

He said he is confident, however, that Pakistan’s beleaguered Christians will show up.

“Upon seeing it, they are going to appreciate this job,” Gill said.

Sjajno, nadam se da je ovo početak evangelizacije Pakistana.

Ko kaže da ja govorim o toleranciji, ja govorim o duplim standardima.
Vidiš kakvi su Pakistanci pa mi Bošnjaci se moramo boriti za obraz na Zlatištu.

Islam vs. Chess: Saudi players face toughest opponent after top cleric's condemnation
Published time: 21 Jan, 2016 22:01

Saudi Arabia has become the latest Muslim country to declare the board game a vice, after the country’s Grand Mufti condemned it on his TV show. Despite the censure, local players say they will carry on staging chess tournaments inside the country.

“The game of chess is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money. It causes enmity and hatred between people,” Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah, the most powerful Sunni cleric in Saudi Arabia, said on his weekly call-in show, With His Eminence the Mufti, after being asked a question about chess by one of the viewers. As well as implying that chess encourages gambling, Bin Abdullah said that lengthy games may encroach on the five prayer times devout Muslims are expected to keep throughout the day.

While the words came as a piece of personal advice, the Grand Mufti has the authority to issue fatwas – religious edicts that can be legally enforced within the conservative Islamic state – and the head of Saudi Arabia’s nascent chess federation was unsure about whether it would lead to repercussions.

“The fatwa may or may not restrict the chess events, after all, many things are said to be illegal and religiously banned in Saudi Arabia,” Musa Bin Thaily, an engineer, who also leads the country’s chess association, said through his Twitter.

Bin Thaily went on to give the example of music festivals, another activity frowned upon by religious conservatives, yet allowed to happen freely, but admitted that officials would have a “justification” to ban chess “based on the urgency of the issue.”


Bin Thaily went on to post dozens of photos from recent events in Saudi Arabia, insisting that chess in the country is flourishing, held back only by the fact that the local federation cannot join the international chess body FIDE, due to a previous fatwa, issued in 1976.


“The Saudi Chess Association has put great efforts into chess popularity, and will continue holding events everywhere unless forced otherwise,” said Bin Thaily, defiantly wishing players luck ahead of a tournament that begins in Islam’s holiest city Mecca on Friday.

Nonetheless, chess players all over the world joined in to decry the decision, with British Grandmaster Nigel Short, calling the edict a “great tragedy” on the BBC.

Despite adopting chess from India in the 7th century, and subsequently exporting it to Europe, Islam has always enjoyed a thorny relationship with the board game. Clerical arguments condemning chess date back to over a millennium ago, many using the same expressions resurrected by the Grand Mufti, others denouncing chess for being an empty obsession that does not help develop military skills.

Chess was banned by Iran following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but legalized again nine years later. The Taliban has also outlawed the ancient board game in its controlled territories in Afghanistan.

‘Islam Can’t Be Modernised’ Says World’s ‘Greatest Arabic Poet’

by CHRIS TOMLINSON19 Feb 20162,950
The writer regarded as the greatest Arabic language poet alive today has said Islam cannot be modernised.

Adunis Asbar, known by his pen name Adonis, is a Syrian-born writer often considered one of the greatest living poets of the Arabic language. He has come under criticism for comments he made recently about Islam before receiving the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize, named after the famous pacifist and author of the classic World War One novel ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’.

In an interview with Die Welt he talked about one of the most pressing issues in Germany since the migrant crisis began, the idea of being able to integrate migrants from predominately Muslim countries into European societies.

Being raised a Muslim himself and having one of the greatest understandings of the language of the Quran, Adonis said: “You can not reform a religion. If they are reformed, [the original meaning] is separated from it. Therefore, modern Muslims and a modern Islam is already impossible. If there is no separation between religion and state, there will be no democracy especially without equality for women. Then we will keep a theocratic system. So it will end.”

Laying down a heavy critique of the Islamic world, he added: “Arabs have no more creative force. Islam does not contribute to intellectual life, it suggests no discussion. It is no longer thought. It produces no thinking, no art, no science, no vision that could change the world. This repetition is the sign of its end. The Arabs will continue to exist, but they will not make the world better.”

The remarks are in reference to the broader questions of how he sees the Middle East, and specifically his native Syria which has been in a state of civil war for years. Adonis describes the totality of Islam in the life of people in the Islamic world saying Muslim society is “based on a totalitarian system. The religion dictates everything: How to run, how to go to the toilet, who one has to love…”

Initially seemingly reluctant to condemn the Assad regime, he did write an open letter to Bashar Assad asking him to step down. However, this also angered rebel sympathisers when he referred to Assad as the elected President of Syria. Adonis said: “But I’ve also written a second letter, which was addressed to the revolutionaries. I have asked for their vision. But they would not read it, because they are not independent.”

He went on to say the rebels were controlled by interests in America, Saudi Arabia and certain sections of Europe, and stessed:

“I have long been an opponent of Assad. The Assad regime has transformed the country into a prison. But his opponents, the so-called revolutionaries, commit mass murder, cut people’s heads off, sell women in cages as goods and trample human dignity underfoot.”

Adonis was referring to the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra front (an Al Qaeda affiliate) who have become the largest opposition force to Assad over the course of the civil war.

Breitbart London has already reported that attempts to house and integrate Muslim migrants will cost Germans and other European countries billions of euros, and according to Adonis’ opinion it could be a useless endeavour.

When asked if he receives death threats from radical Islamists Adonis said: “Of course, but I do not care. For certain convictions people should risk their lives.”

An elderly Buddhist monk was found hacked to death in Bangladesh today, police have said.

It's the latest in a spate of murders of religious minorities and secular activists.

No group has yet claimed responsibility, although the killing appeared to bear a resemblance to several recent murders by suspected Islamist militants.

Today's murder adds to a grim toll in recent weeks, with an atheist student, two gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor and a Sufi Muslim leader hacked to death since last month.

The Islamic State group and a Bangladeshi branch of Al-Qaeda have said that they carried out several of the killings.

However, the secular government in Dhaka denies that IS and Al-Qaeda are behind the attacks, saying they have no known presence in Bangladesh, and blames the killings on homegrown militants.