{"id":37421,"date":"2016-06-14T14:26:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T12:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/site\/?p=37421"},"modified":"2016-06-14T14:26:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T12:26:17","slug":"%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%a8%d9%82%d8%a9-%d9%87%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%88%d9%84%d9%89-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%86%d9%88%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%a7-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%83%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%a8%d9%82%d8%a9-%d9%87%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%88%d9%84%d9%89-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%86%d9%88%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%a7-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%83%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%86\/","title":{"rendered":"In Pakistan, Muslim villagers raising funds to build church for Christian neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In Pakistan’s northeastern Punjab province, Muslim villagers are raising funds and contributing labor to help their poor Christian neighbors build a church. The initiative began shortly before Easter by a group of Muslims from a village in Faisalabad, Pakistan\u2019s textile-manufacturing hub.<\/span><\/h2>\n

“There is a tiny Christian population in the village \u2013 only 20 families \u2013 who have no place to worship,” Fr. Aftab James, the local priest, told Anadolu Agency.<\/span><\/h2>\n

According to Fr. James, Christians of the village had to use someone\u2019s home, or some other sites, to perform prayers on holy days.<\/span><\/h2>\n

“Muslim residents of the town, however, offered to build us a chapel as a gift,” he said.<\/span><\/h2>\n

“We are thankful to our Muslim brothers for this wonderful gesture. It makes us feel proud,” the priest said.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Christians, Pakistan\u2019s largest religious minority, account for roughly 3 percent of the country’s total population of some 180 million.<\/span><\/h2>\n

The local community has already raised 150,000 Pakistani rupees (around $1,500) towards the total cost of the church’s construction, estimated at some 700,000 rupees ($7,000).<\/span><\/h2>\n

Mian Ejaz, one of the Muslim fundraisers, said that additional funds would eventually be raised to finish the chapel, which would include a medium-sized prayer hall and another room.<\/span><\/h2>\n

“We have four mosques in the village but no place of worship for Christians, as most of them are poor and lack the funds to build a church on their own,” he added.<\/span><\/h2>\n

“We want to tell the world that Pakistan isn\u2019t a country of extremists, who are only a small minority, but a country of people who believe in religious tolerance and harmony,” Ejaz said.<\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Pakistan’s northeastern Punjab province, Muslim villagers are raising funds and contributing labor to help their poor Christian neighbors build a church. The initiative began shortly before Easter by a group of Muslims from a village in Faisalabad, Pakistan\u2019s textile-manufacturing hub. “There is a tiny Christian population in the village \u2013 only 20 families \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":37422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,74],"tags":[4273,3919,3638,4754,5527,4471,5526,292,1573,5523,340,1771,5525,5524],"class_list":["post-37421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-74","tag-build","tag-christian","tag-church","tag-muslim","tag-neighbors","tag-pakistan","tag-raising-funds","tag-292","tag-1573","tag-5523","tag-340","tag-1771","tag-5525","tag-5524"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37423,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37421\/revisions\/37423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}