RICHMOND—It has been 16 years since Father Arnold Heredia fled Pakistan, and it’s still too dangerous for him to go back.
Karachi-born Father Heredia spent 28 years advocating for human rights in Pakistan, including working with refugees and people falsely accused under current blasphemy laws. He fled the country in 2001 fearing for his life and hasn’t returned since.
“They say there is peace in the country. That is true. They used a heavy hand and brought peace, but that’s on the surface. All of the corruption, everything, carries on,” said Father Heredia, who lives in Australia. He sat down with The B.C. Catholic during a visit to the Vancouver area Aug. 14.
“There is a fatwa on me,” he said. Back in Karachi in 1972, the priest founded a justice and peace commission that employed Muslims and Christians alike.
In January 2001, he fired a Muslim employee, a labour lawyer, who had been involved in some shady dealings. The lawyer was paid what he was due, but, seeking an opportunity for more funds, he took the organization to court for unfair dismissal and harassment.
“That’s when I began to fear,” said Father Heredia. “I don’t know at what stage he may turn around and say that I blasphemed the prophet.”
You need no witness. Anyone can say that someone has abused the prophet or desecrated the Quran.
An accusation of blaspheming the Muslim prophet Muhammad or of desecrating the Quran can lead to execution in Pakistan. “You need no witness. Anyone can say that someone has abused the prophet or desecrated the Quran.”
Father Heredia has dealt with such
cases during decades of human rights work. Extremists have tried to coerce
Christian families to convert by planting Muslim texts in their garbage cans,
or accused neighbours of slandering Muhammad to confiscate their property,
money, or jobs.
Australian Father Michael Kelly, SJ, works to resettle Pakistani refugees from an office in Bangkok, Thailand. “Pakistan is in the control of three basic groups: the military, the small part of the country that the government runs, and then the rest of the country that’s basically in the hands of warlords,” he said.
“There are regular atrocities in Pakistan … and the atrocities are the result of one factor: the blasphemy laws. If I wanted to get rid of you, all I have to say is I heard you blaspheming against the holy prophet. I then go to the mosque and tell an imam about it. The imam declares a fatwa on you, and that entitles people to kill in defence of the religion and never be held account under the law. The police can’t charge you, the courts can’t hear the case.”
There are regular atrocities in Pakistan… and the atrocities are the result of one factor: the blasphemy laws.
After Father Heredia fired his labour lawyer in 2001, he was advised to hire two armed guards to protect himself. A few days later, he participated in a 300-person anti-blasphemy law protest organized by an inter-religious group called the All Faiths Spiritual Movement. He was arrested and detained with 17 others.
“My arrest further exasperated my anxiety to leave Pakistan,” he said. “If the Islamic militants had known or eventually got to know that a Catholic priest was among the protesters, it was a sure case of being charged under the blasphemy laws.”
He fled April 3, before seeing the fired lawyer in court. One year later, his old office was attacked and seven Christian employees were dragged into the library, tied to chairs, and shot. Father Heredia watched the reports on television, a world away, in shock.
He has tried to return to his homeland since, but local clergy warn him to stay away, saying strangers still come by the office asking if he has returned. “The job wasn’t complete. They know who they want to shoot,” he said.
Father Heredia now advocates for Pakistani refugees from his home in Australia. He said it’s difficult work because the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not recognize how dire the situation is for people who run afoul of blasphemy laws.
Father Kelly said with the refugee crisis in the Middle East dominating headlines, Pakistanis are being “left out to dry.” Some asylum seekers are told it is safe to go back, or to drop their refugee claims and simply move to a different city in Pakistan.
But “the Islamic network is national.” If extremists are still looking for Father Heredia, they are likely still looking for the 50-odd asylum seekers Father Kelly has tried to resettle in Canada.
“I think the most important thing we should be doing is briefing archbishops and saying that the Catholic Church in Canada needs to get some coordinated and united approach to how they advocate for the placement and settlement of refugees, particularly those that are neglected by others, like the Pakistanis.”
Which is what brought him and Father Heredia to B.C. Five parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver are currently in the process of sponsoring refugee families from Pakistan: Canadian Martyrs, Immaculate Conception, St. Joseph the Worker, St. Luke’s, and St. Patrick’s (Maple Ridge).
“We are looking for more parishes to come forward saying they want to sponsor, the way they did with the Syrians,” said archdiocesan refugee portfolio coordinator Diane Chua. She agrees Pakistanis have suffered from a “lack of exposure” about the violence in their country.
