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After several years of long-distance cooperation, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council head Sandie Cornish (pictured) finally met her Pakistani colleagues. Chris Hook
reports
What pushes a Bishop to suicide? On May 6, 1998 Pakistani Bishop of Faisalabad John Joseph shot himself in front of a Sahiwal tribunal. He had just visited the family of a young
Christian sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
The former President of Pakistan’s Justice and Peace Commission had long been a fierce critic of the laws, and had declared himself ready to die
in order to change them.
The Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC) has had close contact with their Pakistani counterparts over the past few years. Last month ACSJC head Sandie Cornish and
council member Fr Paul Devitt followed up the dialogue with a field trip.
“They’re looking to the international community for solidarity and support,” explains Sandie. “But they really wanted us to come and
see and taste and touch and feel the situation, their lived reality.”
Bishop Joseph’s selfless sacrifice was not in vain. International attention focussed quickly on the laws and no Christian has yet been
executed. But they have been killed while accused under the laws, after being acquitted and sometimes even while in custody during trial. Even a judge – who acquitted several Christians – has been murdered.
Acting Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Main Nazir Akhtar, insisted last year that the laws did afford protection to those accused of blasphemy, for fear they’d be killed by the masses. International concern,
he said, was “baseless propaganda”.
But as Sandie Cornish points out, the reality is far from the judge’s optimistic assessment.
“If you’re accused of blasphemy, your life is in danger,” Sandie says
simply. “If it gets to the courts, that’s another matter, but most of the problem is before and after that.”
Of the 135 million people that make up Pakistan, only two per cent are Christian, and only 1.7 per
cent Hindu. It is mostly these groups – and a particular group of Muslims called the Ahmadis – who have the blasphemy laws deployed against them.
But ordinary Muslims are also affected, says Sandie Cornish.
“It’s not just the minorities who suffer when minorities are persecuted … One Muslim might accuse another of blasphemy for all the reasons that someone might do it to a Christian, Hindu or someone with no
particular faith.
“There are several real problems with rules of evidence, particularly in blasphemy cases where people cannot even be required to repeat what they saw or heard because to repeat it would be
blasphemy. It’s often used for local disputes, land disputes. It’s a law open to abuse. It can be used for physical threats, blackmail as well.”
But the blasphemy laws are just one part of what has become a
“crisis of democracy”. In 1999, the corrupt Sharif regime was ousted by army chief General Musharraf. For 26 of the 53 years since partition, the army has ruled Pakistan.
Even during periods of democracy, the
electoral system is problematic. Rather than voting for geographic representation, voters choose candidates according to their religion. Christians have four seats in the 217-member parliament.
And the
incorporation of Islamic law into the country’s judicial system makes life tough for women of all religions.
But Sandie Cornish is well accustomed to empathising with those who suffer the impact of unjust
laws, systems and attitudes.
“I think it’s easier for someone like me, because my mother comes from Malaysia, and at the time she migrated here, Asian
people were not allowed to migrate under the White
Australia Policy. She came because she was the spouse of someone in the armed forces.
“So, to move into a society where you really aren’t wanted or accepted, and to see and feel the racism directed towards my
mother, and towards us at times, it’s easier to see things aren’t right in the world,” Sandie explains.
Growing up in Newcastle also helped, Sandie says.
“Unemployment is a major issue, and industrial
relations were very clearly a forum in which there was conflict over power and influence.” Accordingly, Sandie went off to university to study economics with all the enthusiasm of youth. “I was going to learn how
the economy worked and I was going to fix it so no-one would ever be unemployed again.”
She soon learned that things weren’t so simple.
Involvement in social justice activity at university led to work
with the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. It was here Sandie became aware of Catholic Social Teaching, an area she pursued with study in Rome.
“They were saying the kinds of things I felt in my
heart. I felt that this was what was implied by faith. It was very important for me,” Sandie recalls.
After returning from Rome, Sandie worked for various Bishop’s committees and as project officer for
women’s research before joining the ACSJC.
Her work has been varied, but always rewarding, she says.
“It feels more like a vocation. People in this area tend to do it because they’re moved by it.”
And Sandie was struck by the strength of the vocation of her Pakistani colleagues.
“I’m just full of admiration. It’s incredibly courageous work. They’re very clear that they don’t just wish to work only
on the rights of Christians. The issues affect all the minorities and in fact the majority as well,” Sandie says.
“Most ordinary Muslims are not extremists so the nexus between religious extremism and the
crisis of democracy is very worrying for everybody.”
Aside from research and advocacy, the ACSJC also has a range of accessible publications for Catholics, or anyone, concerned with a variety of social
justice issues from the Eucharist and social justice, to the death penalty, to environmental issues and many other pressing concerns.
For more information call 02 9956 5811 or visit http://socialjustice.cathol ic.org.au
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