Christian-Muslim Coexistence in Peshawar City

Several scholarly works and media reports claim that the Christian minority in Pakistan is mistreated, persecuted, and discriminated against, giving an overall impression as if Christians are alienated from the main social stream everywhere in Pakistan and that the public at large is responsible for their miseries. Noticing that most of the above-mentioned works are theoretical or based on journalistic information, an attempt has been made through this empirical case study of Peshawar city to know the situation of Christian-Muslim coexistence on the ground. For this purpose, a mix method approach was used combining quantitative survey, qualitative interviews, and group discussions. Contrary to the prevailing negative impression, this study reveals that to a large measure Christian and Muslim communities are living together peacefully, at least in Peshawar city. Quantitatively, 68% of respondents, both Christians and Muslims, viewed their mutual social and neighborhood interaction as positive. The results of qualitative interviews also supported these findings. It is, therefore, concluded that apart from some Christian concerns which need to be addressed, overall Christian-Muslim coexistence at the societal level might not be marred by religious differences everywhere in Pakistan. Negative generalizations in this regard need to be revisited, to say the least.