Pakistani religious violence sparks prayers, protests in Hicksville

Congregants of a Hicksville Roman Catholic church prayed and protested Sunday afternoon — striving to be "the voice of the voiceless" — as they decried recent violence in eastern Pakistan touched off by allegations that two Christian men there desecrated a copy of the Quran.

About 50 worshippers gathered inside Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church — many with relatives in Pakistan — for an hourlong prayer service for victims of the violence. They then headed outside, chanting "we want justice" to protest the destruction of homes and religious figures nearly 7,000 miles away.

"We are here to be the voice of the voiceless," said Amir Javed, 38, of Woodbury as he stood with the group outside the church on busy South Oyster Bay Road.

"As a Christian," Javed continued, "we are here to pray for our community and we want justice for them."

According to news reports, the alleged desecration of a Quran led to a violent rampage Wednesday in Jaranwala, a city in eastern Pakistan. Authorities arrested more than 100 Muslims after a mob attacked a dozen churches and nearly two dozen homes of minority Christians, officials said Thursday. The city police chief, Bilal Mehmood, said officers arrested Raja Amir and a friend who were accused by local Muslims of tearing pages from a Quran, writing insulting remarks on other pages and then throwing the book on the ground.

Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, urged Pakistan to conduct a full investigation. "We support peaceful freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion and belief for everybody," he said in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Some of Sunday's demonstrators in Hicksville held up signs with phrases like "Stop burning churches in Pakistan" or "Be a voice for the Voiceless."

For many demonstrators, the events hit close to home as they have family members living near the areas under attack.

Irfan Nayyar, 34, of Plainview, said he's worried about his parents and in-laws, and other Pakistani Christian community members, who are currently living in that region.

"I'm sorry that I cannot do anything for them," Nayyar said as he held back tears. " … I pray something good happens."

The violence also drew condemnation from domestic and international human rights groups.

The two men who were arrested are facing potentially harsh punishment under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. The laws say anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. 

Rights groups say blasphemy allegations have been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.

The protesters in Hicksville also called for the repeal of the laws.

"The blasphemy law has a lot of room for improvement," said Sabir Iqbal, 43, of Levittown. "[They] can open this law to Muslim scholars to do more research, and based off their research they can do the necessary changes in the law. Otherwise, these kind of incidents are not going to have an end."

With AP