| I would be lying if I did not say that I am deeply touched to have been invited by Col. Roy to say a few words in praise of Dr Alexander John Malik this evening. |
| To describe Dr Alexander as a friend is to claim nothing extraordinary, for Dr sahib has more friends than he has parishioners. To describe him as the Bishop of Lahore is similarly to limit the impact that he has had on all our lives, both within his own community and to the wider nation we all live in. Dr Alexander Malik is your bishop, but he is also our Bishop. You do not have to take my word for that: the award of the Sitara–I-Imtiaz by the President of our country says it all. |
| I will not embarrass Dr Alexander Malik with a recital of his numerous qualities and attributes. He is too young, too energetic and too alive to endure such a premature obituary. Tonight is a joyous occasion in his life, and in ours. It is a moment of celebration. Although many Pakistanis receive such awards each year, few merit them so unreservedly. Dr Malik’s commitment to our society and his endeavours as the ex-Officio Chairman of the Lahore Diocesan Board of Education in additional to his pastoral duties as Bishop of Lahore, have been given at a national level the official recognition they so truly deserve. |
| Dr Alexander as you know is the eighth Bishop of Lahore. I wonder whether being the eighth Bishop is any different to being the eight husband of Elizabeth Taylor. I am not sure. But as I will never be the ninth Bishop of Lahore, nor am I ever likely to be the ninth Mr Elizabeth Taylor, I have no way of finding out. Being the eighth or the ninth of any line, though, means that one is inevitably compared with one’s predecessors. |
| I do not know enough about the previous seven Bishops of Lahore before Dr Malik to make an informed comparison, but one whose name does spring naturally to my mind is Thomas Valpy French, the first Bishop of Lahore. Like Dr Malik, he had a passing contact with Calcutta – French landed there first on arrival from the UK in 1851, and was married there a year later. Our Dr Malik obtained his Diploma from Calcutta. |
| Valpy French was a skilled linguist. He was fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, Persian and in Arabic. In fact, he was known amongst his parishioners as ‘the seven-tongued clergyman.’ Similarly, Dr Malik is a linguist. He knows Arabic and has studied the Holy Quran. |
| Since 1980, Dr Malik has administered his diocese from the precincts of the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection, built over a century and a quarter ago by the first Bishop. But more than these surface similarities lies a shared missionary spirit, an evangelical zeal that motivated Bishop French as the first Bishop of Lahore and that drives Dr Alexander Malik as its present bishop today. |
| Bishop Thomas Valpy French built a cathedral. Bishop Dr Alexander Malik builds bridges. His bridges span the gulf that should not exist but does nevertheless between communities within Christianity, between faiths, and between nationals of the same country. Through his actions and his speeches he has reminded us of the absurdity that Muslims and Christians can be brothers of the Book – Ahl-I-kitab - but worship God in separate houses. We can be brothers in arms, fighting on the same side, dying for the same cause, and being buried in the same graveyard. (Go to the Cavalry Ground graveyard on 17th street and you will see evidence of what I have just said.) Yet sadly and to our shame as citizens of a 21st century Republic we cannot be brothers in the same ballot box. |
| It is precisely this sort of inequity that makes Dr Malik’s role as a stone-less bridge between our communities so necessary, so vital and so significant. He reminds us of the advice Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to his own countrymen in the 1930s: ‘It is a good thing to demand liberty for ourselves and for those who agree with us, but it is a better thing and a rarer thing to give liberty to others who do not agree with us.’ |
| If freedom of speech is good, isn’t freedom after the speech even better? |
| If freedom of worship is good, isn’t freedom from persecution afterwards even better? |
| No one is more acutely aware of the predicament faced by all religionists – whether Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or Parsees– than Dr Malik. He knows that every religion is faced by a common predicament: how does one adapt to change without losing one’s moorings? How can one modernize our beliefs without disturbing their foundations? How can we bend in the winds of change without breaking? If the Supreme Pontiff Pope John Paul II can visit a mosque in Damascus without losing faith, why should a muslim feel insecure in a church? And if a muslim can feel secure in Pakistan, why cannot a non-muslim? |
| I would have liked to have dwelt with Dr Malik's principled stand on the onerous, oppressive Blasphemy Laws that weigh down on all of us. They are a blight upon our national identity. Let me say no more than quote someone much wiser than I can ever be. Einstein, who as a German Jew knew a thing or two about discrimination, wrote: ‘Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression: in order for every man to present his views without penalty there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population.’ Until that time, none of us can afford to remain silent, waiting for a dawn that may come when our minds have become too accustomed to the darkness. |
| These are the sort of challenges that Dr Malik has faced every day since he took up his ministry 34 years ago. Many of them may remain even when he hands over to the ninth Bishop of Lahore in due course. |
| Let me end though on a note, as I had said earlier, of celebration, as befits the occasion. We are here to congratulate Dr Malik on his achievements. The Sitara-I-Imitiaz awarded to him is both to him as an individual as much as to your community. The award given to him on 23 March – Pakistan Day – was not just by President Muhammad Rafiq Tarrar as one man but on behalf of the entire population of Pakistan. |
| Dr Alexander Malik – every Pakistani is proud of you. |
