Please support the protest march against Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws - Saturday 2 July

My previous post mentioned the controversial [gay] Pride Mass (a term now removed from the Soho Masses website, but found elsewhere) that will be celebrated at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory's Warwick Street on Sunday 3 July. This event seems to be part of the Soho Masses Pastoral Council's promotion of London Pride (2 July), the annual parade that highlights the capital's so-called "gay culture." But, it seems that another event, this time a Christian one, is also scheduled to take place on Saturday 2 July. On that day, the British Pakistani Christian Association will be leading a protest march through the streets of London in solidarity with the religious minorities of Pakistan who are persecuted against by the nation's blasphemy laws. This event is being fully supported and promoted by Aid to the Church in Need.

The protest march against Pakistan's blasphemy laws will start at 11.00am with an informal prayer service and speeches in front of the Pakistani Embassy on Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge, before heading to Downing Street - arriving there around 2:00pm. ACN reports that, "A key part of the day will be the submission of the names of signatories of a petition against the Blasphemy Laws to the Pakistan Embassy and to 10 Downing Street." Neville Kyrke-Smith, Aid to the Church in Need's UK Director, will be representing the Catholic charity at this presentation.

The Aid to the Church in Need website also mentions that its press officer, John Pontifex, will be addressing the crowd and that day will include a minute's silence in memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minorities, who was assassinated in March 2011 after speaking out against his country's repressive blasphemy laws. Other guests expected at the rally include Bishop Dr Michael Nazir Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, Stuart Windsor of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Lee Scott MP and representatives from Christian, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim organisations.

It would be good if those who run the Soho Masses abandoned any plans to participate in Saturday's London Pride parade, so that they, too, may march in solidarity with their brothers and sisters who are being persecuted in Pakistan for their faith in Jesus Christ and for their desire to promote justice and freedom for other religious minorities. I fear, though, that those who organise the Soho Masses are far more concerned with "gay rights" than the rights of Christians who wish worship their Lord in peace.

[Image: Christians in Pakistan protest against the unjust blasphemy laws; source: Aid to the Church in Need]