PURIFYING the LAND of the PUREQ Ii

i PURIFYING THE LAND OF THE PUREQ ii ii ii PURIFYING THE LAND OF THE PUREQ A HISTORY OF PAKISTAN’S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES FARAHNAZ ISPAHANI 1 iv iv 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ispahani, Farahnaz, author. Title: Purifying the land of the pure : a history of Pakistan’s religious minorities / Farahnaz Ispahani. Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017. Identifiers: LCCN 2016030376| ISBN 9780190621650 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190621674 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Religious minorities—Pakistan. | Pakistan—Politics and government—1971–1988. | Pakistan—Politics and government—1988– Classification: LCC BL2035.5.R45 I87 2017 | DDC 305.6095491—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030376 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America iv CONTENTSq Introduction 1 1. Demography, State, and Religion 11 2. Ideological State 41 3. Militarism and National Identity 60 4. Balancing Act, 1972– 1977 79 5. Islamization, 1977– 1988 93 6. Global Jihad and Pakistan’s Minorities, 1988– 1999 135 7. Militancy, Terrorism, and Sectarianism, 1999 and Onward 165 Acknowledgments 189 Notes 191 About the Author 207 Index 209 v vi vi vi Introduction On March 27, 2016, several Pakistani Christian families gathered at a park in Lahore to celebrate Easter Sunday when a suicide bomber deto- nated ten kilograms of explosives and metal ball bearings between two children’s rides. The attack, claimed by Jamaat- ul- Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, killed seventy- three people, including twenty- nine children. Of these children, the youngest was merely two years old and the oldest was sixteen.1 A Jamaat- ul- Ahrar spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan, announced that his Islamist militant group had targeted Christians as a message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that they had entered Lahore— the prime minister’s hometown.2 The terrorists wanted the government to halt military operations against their safe havens in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The Easter Sunday attack had been preceded a year earlier by twin suicide bombings at churches in Lahore’s Youhanabad area, which killed at least fifteen people and sparked violent protests across the city by the Christian minority. That terrorists chose to target religious minorities, including their children, to caution the government reflected the vul- nerability of Pakistan’s already embattled religious minorities. Pakistan, a country created in the name of Islam, has witnessed some of the worst persecution and discrimination of religious minorities in a world that is increasingly becoming unsafe for minorities. The Human Rights Watch World Report 2016 cited examples of religion- based violations of human rights from several countries, including those in 1 2 2 Purifying the Land of the Pure Europe and North America that are otherwise known for defending the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “In Europe and the United States, a polarizing us- versus- them rhetoric has moved from the political fringe to the mainstream,” Human Rights Watch warned. In its view, “Blatant Islamophobia and shameless demonizing of refugees” appear to have become “the currency of an increasingly assertive politics of intolerance.”3 Religious freedom, and the right of religious minorities to live in peace, is being threatened by communal majoritarianism, which has been at the heart of Pakistan’s policies over the years. This trend reflects the majority’s insistence that the religious minorities practice their faith and culture within limits prescribed by the majority. It contravenes the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which pro- claimed in 1948 that “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”4 That declaration represented the aspirations of a world that had just gone through the horrors of World War II and did not want further conflict on religious and ideological grounds. Now, however, terrorist organizations acting in the name of faith are destroying religious diversity in significant parts of the Middle East, Sub- Saharan Africa, and Asia. The atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are widely known. These include mass executions and forced conversions alongside the kidnapping, enslave- ment, and rape of thousands of non-Muslim women and children. A United Nations human rights report in March 2015 noted that ISIS had “committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against human- ity in its attacks against ethnic and religious groups in the country.”5 Other factions involved in the Syrian civil war have fared no better. The regime of Bashar al-Assad is accused of targeting Sunni Muslims while Jabhat al- Nusra conducted targeted executions of religious lead- ers, including seven Druze clerics in Dara Province and a Jesuit priest in Homs. Regimes, such as those in Saudi Arabia and Sudan, continue to inflict harsh punishments for “apostasy” and “blasphemy.” In Iran hundreds 3 Introduction 3 of Bahais, Christians, Sufi Muslims, Yarsanis, and Shia Muslims are in prison for professing a doctrine not approved of by the clerical regime. Religious conflict has often driven the politics of Lebanon whereas the Christian Copts in Egypt have come under attack by religious extremists. Boko Haram has targeted non- Muslims in northern Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, forcibly kidnapping, converting, en- slaving, and selling young women and girls. In one such incident on April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped more than two hundred mostly Christian girls from Chibok, Borno State, sold them into slavery, and forcibly converted them to their version of Islam,6 which many mainstream Muslims find offensive. The lack of tolerance in parts of the Muslim world has been ac- companied by a resurgence of hate groups in western countries. A rise in anti- Semitic attacks has been reported across Europe, especially France and Germany, resulting in assaults on institutions, as well as desecration of monuments and cemeteries.7 Although western nations have constitutional and legal mechanisms in place to restrain and even punish perpetrators of religiously motivated attacks, it is not always easy to shut down “hate speech” amidst controversies over freedom of expression. India, the world’s largest democracy, also faces the dilemma of having a secular constitution but a religiously divided public. Sectarian and communal hysteria, aroused to secure votes for Hindu nationalist political groups, is proving difficult to contain after elections. Having taken pride in their country’s secular character for decades, Indians are now having to deal with incidents such as extremist Hindus attacking (and in some cases killing) Muslims and Christians over eating beef. Hindus deem the cow sacred but few believe its protection should in- volve violating the sanctity of human life. Religious minorities in Russia and Central Asia— ruled by ostensibly secular authoritarian regimes—also face threats. For example, in eastern Ukraine, Russian- backed separatists kidnapped, tortured, and threatened Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Russia’s extremism law is open to abuse by allowing prosecution for “inciting religious discord even in the absence of any threat or act of violence.”8 Merely professing beliefs different to those sanctioned by the state could land an individual in 4 4 Purifying the Land of the Pure a Russian prison. In the Central Asian republics, former communist apparatchiks continue to suppress all public manifestations of religion. Burma is also prominent among other major violators of the idea of religious freedom. It refuses to protect the rights of its religious minorities, especially the Rohingya Muslims and Christians. Policies in place in Burma impede land ownership by Muslims in most parts of the country. Radical Buddhist monks have incited violence against the Rohingya Muslims through sermons widely circulated in print media and via videos as well as the Internet.9 In Sri Lanka, mosques and churches have been attacked by Buddhist mobs and local law enforce- ment authorities are often complicit. The Chinese constitution states that all citizens “enjoy freedom of religious belief” but that is not true in practice. The

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