London Vigil to address religious persecution

London Vigil to address religious persecution

Organizer says event aims to show solidarity with South Asian victims

                    Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi

The plight of Christians in South Asia will be highlighted at a “night of witness” in London this month.

The vigil, at Westminster Cathedral May 17, will feature music and readings “in solidarity with people persecuted in countries including India [and] Pakistan,” says the organiser, Aid to the Church in Need.

Stephen Anjum, a Pakistan Christian who fled to the UK with his family after his wife, Thomesena, was shot at by extremists alleging that their son had insulted the Prophet Mohammed, will attend.

“People in the UK and elsewhere in the West are simply not aware of the scale of the problem we face in my country,” he said.

Also there will be 20 people of Pakistani origin who are travelling from the northern town of Nelson, Lancashire.

“People think persecution is happening a long way away and there is nothing they can do about it. That is not the case,” said one of them, Vincent Masih, whose family fled in the 1960s.

Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi is flying in for the event, which will also be attended by Archbishop Kevin McDonald, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference committee on relations with other religions.