Karachi, Pakistan — Pakistan’s flag, a white star and crescent on a green background taken from the flag of the Muslim League, also has a broad white stripe on the left to represent its minority faiths, which include Christians, Hindus, Zoroastrians and others. But for many, a growing trend of violent attacks by religious militants against these groups has made that white stripe begin to feel like a tightrope — or a noose.

The most egregious of these attacks (not that any of them are less than egregious) took place in September, when two suicide bombers detonated their jackets at the gates of the All Saints Church in Peshawar, killing at least 80 worshipers, most of them women and children, as they streamed out the doors after Mass.

After the attack, a young lawyer from Karachi, Mohammad Jibran Nasir, called on citizens in his city to form a human chain around St. Patrick’s Cathedral there during Mass the following Sunday. A Sunni mullah, a Shiite imam and a Catholic priest prayed together during that event, and it was replicated at St. Anthony’s Church in Lahore and Our Lady of Fatima Church in Islamabad. Clerics from different faiths and sects sat together in the pews and made heartfelt speeches about religious tolerance while a small but passionate group of citizens held up placards that read, “One Nation, One Blood.”

In another smart move, the interfaith campaign, called “Pakistan for All,” is being enacted on social media. There it has attracted the attention of moderate and progressive Pakistanis, educated and tech-savvy, who detest seeing their country plunge into violence motivated by Pakistan’s right wing, and are desperate to wrest back their country from the forces of religious intolerance.

But Mr. Nasir recognizes that the work ahead for his burgeoning movement is immense. “We have a long way to go,” he said. “The human shields around the churches are just a symbolic gesture to get people’s attention.” What’s needed after people have been awakened, he says, is a public discourse that will produce policy recommendations to Pakistan’s Parliament for legal reform and heightened punishment for terrorism committed in the name of religion.

According to Akbar S. Ahmed, a professor of Islamic studies at American University in Washington, D.C., Jinnah practiced the interfaith harmony that he preached. Not only was his wife, Ruttie Jinnah, a woman from the Zoroastrian community, but he also spent Christmas Eve of 1947 attending Mass with the Christian community in its church in Karachi. In the tense months surrounding India’s partition, he declared his willingness to take on the role of protector general of the Hindu community. During his lifetime, those highly visible acts and statements assured the minorities of their protection from friends in high places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/opinion/shah-reviving-an-interfaith-legacy.html?ref=opinion