Church says biased report led to police raid on Catholic bookstore

Published: 2005-06-29

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNS) -- Archbishop Evarist Pinto of Karachi presided over the reopening of a Catholic bookshop 12 days after police raided it and confiscated 150 compact discs and videotapes of biblical films. Archbishop Pinto, speaking with UCA News at the June 25 reopening, called the police raid on the bookshop "a single, stray incident" based on a misunderstanding that took root in a prejudiced mindset. The archdiocese owns the store, which the Daughters of St. Paul operate, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The raid was conducted June 13, a day after the Urdu-language newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt ran a story alleging that Christians were selling CDs and videotapes about the lives of the prophets. The newspaper report claimed the films contained blasphemous material. Muslim religious scholars, whose opinion the paper sought, reportedly issued a "fatwa," or religious edict, calling the material offensive to Muslims by depicting the prophets and defaming their character. Islam does not allow visual portrayals of God or the prophets.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .