By Dan Robinson

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-08-voa71.cfm

Nina Shea, of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, says additional events since Gojra have underscored that religious tensions continue. "Since Gojra several reports have been made of Muslims tearing out pages of [a] Koran and leaving them on church property, including [at] the Associated Reform Presbyterian Church in another Punjab village on September. This was an apparent attempt to ignite more religious violence," she said.

Shea and other witnesses support a non-binding resolution introduced in the House of Representatives by Republican Congressman Christopher Smith, who says radicalism poses a threat to Islam. "In the intermediate and long-term, certainly these radical Islamic jihadists and others are the greatest threat to Islam and to believers such as yourselves," Smith said.

The resolution says U.S. non-military assistance, which will triple over the next five years, must support an interfaith dialogue begun by Pakistan's Minister of Minorities Affairs Shabaz Bhatti, and help the government counter religiously-motivated hostility and violence.