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RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION in TODAY's PAKISTAN Robert RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN TODAY’S PAKISTAN Robert Weston Ash I. JINNAH’S PAKISTAN Pakistan came into existence on 14 August 1947 under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah had been the leader of the Muslim League who had demanded the division of India into two States. Jinnah had worried about how Muslims would be treated in a Hindu-majority Indian state. Ironically, given his role in demanding a Muslim-majority state, Jinnah had envisionedPakistan as a country tolerant of religious minorities. Jinnah envisioned a Pakistan where all individuals would be treated equally regardless of their caste, creed, or color. Jinnah envisioned that Pakistan would be an inclusive democratic state and that religion would be the “personal faith of an individual”. Jinnah envisioned that every citizen would be afforded the same opportunities in every field including the highest offices in the land without any religion-based discrimination. And finally Jinnah believed that separation between religious practice and state practice was fully compatible with Islam.He laid out his vision before the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan: The first observation that I would like to make is this: You will no doubt agree with me that the first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State...Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make…You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed, that has nothing to do with the business of the State…We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens of one State…Now I think that we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State. Those are wonderful words, wonderful principles. Unfortunately, modern Pakistan is a very different State than the one envisioned by Mr. Jinnah. Corruption, lack of education, and discriminatory laws targeting religious minorities have come to characterize Pakistan during the last three to four decades.According to the current Constitution of Pakistan,and despite Jinnah’s desires, the president must be a Muslim.In addition, the Pakistani Penal Code requires that the presiding judge in a Section 295-C blasphemy case must be a Muslim.These two examples alone clearly demonstrate that today’s Pakistan is not Jinnah’s Pakistan. II. RULE OF LAW AND MINORITIES Today in Pakistan, the rule of law exists in name only.The law is often subverted or ignored.In 2011, Pakistan was ranked by the World Justice Project as having the worst access to civil justice and asthe least orderly and secure of thesixty-six countries considered. At points in the nation’s past, civil unrest and mob violence had become so prevalent that the rule of law hadcollapsed entirely.Often times, individuals seek their own justice when the government either refuses to act or is unable to act for political reasons. Killings and abductions are commonplace. Political instability is rife. For almost two-thirds of its existence, Pakistan has been under military rule. The lack of the rule of law, coupled with the Islamisation of Pakistan, starting in the 1970s and 1980s under the military rule of General Zia-ul-Haq, has affected the religious minorities the most. The Islamisation measures under Zia included such things as Islamic rape and adultery laws, compulsory collection and distribution of religious taxes, establishment of shariah courts, revision of school textbooks to reflect an Islamic slant, and the promulgation of blasphemy laws. Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution expressly established the Federal Shariat Court in order to institute Islamic law and to decide “whether . any law or provision of law is repugnant to the injunctions of Islam”. Thus, the Court has sweeping power to bring “all existing laws” into “conformity with the injunctions of Islam”. Madrassas, Islamic religious schools, are another factor that has played a key role in spreading intolerance among Pakistani Muslims. Today, there are over 45,000 madrassas in Pakistan. The growth of the madrassas can be attributed to both the failure of the state education system and to the fact that many of the madrassas are boarding schools that offer free education to the poor. Significant funding for the madrassas comes from rich individuals and Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. As a result, countries like Saudi Arabia have had a disproportionate influence on school curricula and orientation.” This influence from the Gulf States has led many of the schools to lean heavily towards the more extremist schools of Islam. Contrary to Jinnah’s vision for Pakistan, Pakistan has become a breeding ground for religious hatred, intolerance, and violence. The Sunni majority, which comprises about 85– 90% of the Muslim population, not only suppresses and persecutes non-Muslim minorities, such as Christians and Hindus, but also minority Shias,Ahmadis, and Sufis. Persecution of Shias Shia Muslims make up 10–15% of the Muslim population.The Sunni Muslims consider Shiites to be heretics.Even though the Shia population is larger than the population of all other religious minorities combined, Shia Muslims nonetheless remain targets of religious persecution. For instance, in February 2012, eighteen Shia men were shot and killed solely because of their religious affiliation. The attackers “flagged down buses, climbed on board [and] ask[ed] passengers whether they were Shia or Sunni, then dragged out the Shias and shot them”. Because of ongoing hostilities between them, both sides have formed armed militias, and it is these militias which carry out much of the violence between the groups. Persecution of Ahmadis Ahmadis comprise 3–4 million of the Pakistani population.The founder of the Ahmadimovement, is claimed by Ahmadis to be the Mehdi (the promised prophet in Islam). He founded the Ahmadi movement in 1889, and the movement was initially confined to the Punjab Province in Pakistan.Ahmadis believe in Muhammad as the best and the last law- bearing prophet and that MirzaGhulam Ahmad is a sort of Muslim Christ who was prophesied to come in the latter days to unite the Muslim world. Ahmadisare not considered to be Muslims by the Pakistani government or the majority of Muslims.The Pakistani Government officially declared them to be non-Muslims. In 1984, itbecame a crime for Ahmadis to identify themselves as Muslims, to call their place of worship a mosque (masjid), or to proselytize.They are also prohibited from holding conferences or gatherings, preaching, or selling publications.Because of this officially- sanctioned discrimination against the Ahmadis, the Ahmadi community suffers the most severe legal restrictions and egregious acts of violence. Between 1984 and 2012 authorities sealed twenty-eightAhmadi mosques, barred construction of forty-six mosques, demolished twenty-four mosques, set thirteen mosques on fire, and forcibly occupied sixteen mosques. Persecution of Hindus In addition to the Muslim minority groups, non-Muslim minorities are also subject to severe and ongoing discrimination and persecution. For example, of the approximately three million Hindus who live in Pakistan, many arefleeing Pakistan due to forced conversions, discrimination, and violence.Muslims consider Hindus to be pagans and idol worshipers. Accordingly, Hindus face routine discrimination in both rural and urban settings, with a number of temples having been destroyed by Islamic activists. In April 2012, there were several reported cases of abduction of teenage girls by Muslim men to force them to convert to Islam and marry them. Persecution of Christians In addition to Hindus, Christians are also discriminated against and persecuted in Pakistan. There are about 2.5 million Christians in Pakistan, roughly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants. Because of their small number and despite being considered “People of the Book” by Muslims, Christians are routinely persecuted. For example, in June 2013, three Christian women were attacked and beaten by armed men who worked for the women’s landlord.After beating the women, the men forced the women out into the street where the men then tore off the women’s clothes, stripping them naked. Allegedly the attack occurred because “on two occasions some goats belonging to the Christians had entered the fields of the [Muslim] landlord . who claimed that they had damaged his crops”. In March of this year, “a largely Christian neighborhood was torched by a violent mob”. The incident began with a disagreement between two friends, after which the Muslim friend accused the Christian friend of blasphemy.The disagreement quickly escalated into mob violence,and no police came to protect the Christian neighborhood.Christians were advised to leave their homes, over 200 of which were subsequently set on fire by the Muslim mob.Back in March 2011, the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, the only Christian cabinet member in the Pakistani Government, was assassinated.
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