Forced conversion to Islam in Pakistan

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File:Dargah pir sarhandi.jpg
Dargah pir sarhandi, a frequent crime scene of forced conversion and marriage of kidnapped underage Hindu girls.

Forced conversion to Islam in Pakistan are incidents whereby Hindu and Christian girls in Pakistan are kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men[1].These girls are generally 12 to 18 years old.[2]

A Pakistan Muslim League politician has stated that abduction and conversion of Hindus and Sikhs is a business in Pakistan[3] Many Islamic extremists believe that it is an achievement to convert a Hindu into Islam, and to do so can earn one a blessing.[4]

Abdul Haq (Mitthu Mian), politician and caretaker of Bharachundi Sharif Dargah is infamous for doing forced conversions and is known to have supported and protected the ruling political parties of Sindh.[5][6]He conducts forced conversion mainly in the Ghotki District.Pir Ayub Jan Sirhindi,the caretaker of dargah in Samaro village, is another person infamous for forced conversion.He conducts forced conversion mainly in the Umerkot District adjacent to Tharparkar.He claims that he have converted more than 1,000 Hindus– both men and women-to Islam in one year alone.[7]

Forced conversions are one of the major reason for Pakistan Hindu's to migrate to India.[8]

In Pakistan, forced conversion of non-Muslims to Islam has been reported. The Human Rights Council of Pakistan has reported that cases of forced conversion continue to increase in the country.[9]

Process

Firstly underage girls are abducted from her home or where they work, later reappearing after having been and married off to a Muslim.[4]They are often raped and then forcibly converted to Islam. To prevent her from going back home or reporting the rape to the police, she is forcibly married to the perpetrator.[4] Reports obtained by the NGO Global Human Rights Defence indicate that the perpetrators will often put a fake age of the girl on the marriage certificate to hide that she is underage.[4] When the family of the girl try to report this to the police, they are often met by biased officers who refuse to file an FIR (First Information Report). The conversions are backed by powerful religious instititutions and leaders who also offer incentives to people to convert.[4] The perpetrators will often force the victim to sign a report saying that she converted and married on her own free will, hindering the attempts of the family to have their girl returned to them. Additionally, the perpetrators will often file counter-suits against the victim's family for harassment and for attempting to convert the girl back to her former religion.[10]

Conversion Statistics

According to the Aurat Foundation,about 1,000 non-muslim girls are forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan every year.[11]

According to the Movement for Solidarity and Peace, about 1000 Christian, Hindu girls forced to convert to Islam every year in Pakistan.[12]

Sadiq Bhanbhro of Sheffield Hallam University found that from 2012 to 2017 forced conversion cases of about 286 girls were reported in English-language dailies,though the actual number is very higher as they are not reported.[13]

In 2019, Sindh-based activist Duo Kalhoro stated that "Current statistics estimate that every month, 20 Hindu girls are abducted and converted to Islam" in her province. She added that "Most of the victims are under the age of 18. Some as young as 11 years old. Once the girls have been married off and converted, they are prohibited from contacting their families, leaving them even more vulnerable to exploitation."[14].

Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported that in 2014 alone, 265 legal cases of forced conversion were reported mostly involving Hindu girls.[15]

Conversion cases

  • In 2017, Ravita Meghawar was abducted by the Muslims of influential Syed community of Wanharo village in Sindh province.She was kidnapped after giving sleeping pills to her family family members.[16][17]
  • In 2017, Arti Kumari, a hindu teacher in Khairpur district was abducted at gunpoint by a Muslim feudal lord and converted.[18]
  • In 2016,Wadia Bai Meghwar,a married Hindu woman was taken from her home by an influential muslim family of the area and was forcibly married off to a 56-year-old man.[19]
  • In 2014 ,Neelam Kohli of Bheel Colony in Mirpur Khas District was kidnapped while her peasant parents were tilling the land.She was only 11 years when she was kidnapped.She was taken to a local madressah, where she was converted.[20]
  • In 2012,Rinkel Kumari, a 19 year old Hindu girl from Mirpur Mathelo, in Sindh and was forcefully converted and married to a Muslim man by Mian Mitto.Hindu leaders said that she was abducted at gunpoint and was forced to convert to Islam.However, to the media interviews Rinkel Kumari said that she converted of her free will.[21]But following the complaints of her parents, she was kept under women’s shelter in Karachi on court orders. Later,in the supreme court,it was found that Rinkel Kumari was actually kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam and was forced to marry an influential Muslim landlord's son backed by a group of religious leaders.[22]
  • In 2009,a Christian man was raped and killed for refusing to convert to Islam[23]

Proposal of law against Forced Conversions

In 2019,a bill against the forced conversion was proposed by Hindu politicians in the Sindh assembly,but was turned down by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party lawmakers.[24]

Overview

Forced conversion to Islam has been observed in Pakistan since the creation of the country when violence following the 1947 partition took place in the country in which many Hindu and Sikh men and women were forced to convert to Islam.[25][26] In 1948, an Indian government's spokesman in Delhi had announced that they were negotiating with the Pakistan Government for early transfer of some 70,000 Hindus and 3,000 Sikhs in Bahawalpur State, due to the reports of murders and forced conversions.[27]

Leaders of religious minority groups have raised concern over increasing cases in which members of non-Muslim communities, generally young girls, were forced to convert to Islam. [28] Forced conversions of Christians to Islam has been reported in Pakistan and hundreds of girls were kidnapped from their Christian families and were forced to marry Muslim men.[29] The Catholic Church in Pakistan has reported that at least 700 Christians are kidnapped annually and many are then forced to convert and marry the kidnapper.[30]

The Asian Human Rights Commission report in 2011 noted that the forced conversion to Islam of women from minority religious groups through rape and abduction has reached an alarming stage and the offenders who are involved in these activities are sided by the officials and Muslim fundamentalist groups who see them as providing their service to the cause of rising Muslim population.[31] The commission has claimed that 1,800 cases involve kidnapping and forced conversions of Christians every year.[30]

Hindus have subjected to persecution and forced conversions to Islam in the country. Pakistan Hindu Council says Hindu daughters are kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam is a reason why they are forced to seek refuge in neighbor country India. In March 2012, an Indian official at ministry of external affairs in Delhi informed about 8 - 10 Hindu families migrated to India from Pakistan.[32]

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also condemned increasing cases of forced conversions of Hindus.[33] The police have been uninterested in general when it comes to arresting alleged culprits.[34]

Historian Hendrik Neubauer attributes forced conversion to Islam and persecution as the reason behind the low population (3,000) of Kalash tribe in Northern Pakistan.[35] The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also indicated that Muslim clerics are involved in forced conversions of the Kalash tribe.[36]

Response

Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) called forced conversions to Islam as "un-Islamic".[37]

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan objected to a bill aimed at stopping forced conversions of minorities because the bill would not recognize conversions by those under the age of 18.[38] Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan referred stopping conversions of minorities as "un-Islamic".[39]

In 2019, the lawmakers of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) turned down bill against forced conversions.[40]

Further reading

  • Imtiaz, Saba. "Hindu Today, Muslim Tomorrow" [archive]. The Atlantic. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  • "Stories of forced conversion in Pakistan" [archive]. BBC News. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  • "Christian girl forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan - Times of India" [archive]. The Times of India. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  • "1,000 Christian, Hindu girls forced to convert to Islam every year in Pakistan: report" [archive]. pakistantoday.com.pk. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  • Javaid, Maham. "Forced conversions torment Pakistan's Hindus" [archive]. aljazeera.com. Retrieved 14 June 2020. Feature

References

  1. ↑ Javaid, Maham. "Forced conversions torment Pakistan's Hindus" [archive]. www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  2. ↑ https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/new-law-may-help-forced-conversions-pakistani-hindu-girls [archive]
  3. ↑ Abduction of Hindus, Sikhs have become a business in Pak: PML MP [archive] Times of India – 28 August 2011
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :1
  5. ↑ "Forced conversions of Pakistani Hindu girls" [archive]. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  6. ↑ Who Is Mian Mithu? [archive], Naya Daur, September 16, 2019
  7. ↑ https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153061/state-of-fear [archive]
  8. ↑ "'Forced conversions' compel 5,000 Hindu families to leave Pakistan per year" [archive]. June 21, 2017 – via Business Standard.
  9. ↑ "Pakistan" [archive] (PDF). United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. p. 8.
  10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :2
  11. ↑ https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/51401-1000-girls-forcibly-converted-to-islam-in-pakistan-every-year [archive]
  12. ↑ https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2014/04/08/1000-christian-hindu-girls-forced-to-convert-to-islam-report/ [archive]
  13. ↑ Forced conversions of Hindu girls in Pakistan make a mockery of its constitution [archive] The Conversation
  14. ↑ "Hindus in Pakistan not free to exercise religious freedom, says Sindhi activist Duo Kalhoro" [archive]. Aninews.in. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  15. ↑ Ilyas, Faiza (20 March 2015). "265 cases of forced conversion reported last year, moot told" [archive]. DAWN.COM. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  16. ↑ "Pakistani feudal lords prey on Hindu girls | Latest News & Updates at DNAIndia.com" [archive]. DNA India.
  17. ↑ DelhiJune 21, India Today Web Desk New; August 16, 2017UPDATED:; Ist, 2017 07:48. "Sindh: Pakistani Hindus protest against abduction, forced religious conversion of minor girls" [archive]. India Today. {{cite web}}: |first3= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ September 12, India Today Web Desk; September 12, 2017UPDATED:; Ist, 2017 18:44. "Pakistani Hindu girl allegedly abducted, converted and married off against her will in Sindh" [archive]. India Today. {{cite web}}: |first3= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ↑ DelhiJune 17, India Today Web Desk New; June 17, 2016UPDATED:; Ist, 2016 20:15. "Another case of forced conversion in Pakistan, this time married Hindu girl forcibly remarried by jirga" [archive]. India Today. {{cite web}}: |first3= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Mansoor, Amar Guriro | Aslam Khwaja | Mansoor Raza | Hasan (March 13, 2016). "Caste and captivity: Dalit suffering in Sindh" [archive]. DAWN.COM.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/world/asia/pakistani-hindus-say-womans-conversion-to-islam-was-coerced.html?mtrref=en.m.wikipedia.org&gwh=4133807D397A9981BFC4DBB0ED94AFF6&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL [archive]
  22. ↑ https://www.deccanherald.com/content/237575/hindus-pak-happy-girls-statement.html [archive]
  23. ↑ Nora Zimmett (June 13, 2009). "Christian Man Raped, Murdered for Refusing to Convert to Islam, Family Says" [archive]. FOX News. Archived from the original [archive] on May 14, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
  24. ↑ https://tribune.com.pk/story/2075311/1-ppp-lawmakers-turn-bill-forced-conversions/?amp=1 [archive]
  25. ↑ Bina D'Costa (2011). Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia [archive]. Routledge. pp. 57–. ISBN 978-0-415-56566-0.
  26. ↑ Verinder Grover; Ranjana Arora (1998). 50 Years of Indo-Pak Relations [archive]. Deep & Deep Publications. p. 11. ISBN 978-81-7629-057-9.
  27. ↑ Joseph B. Schechtman (1949). Population Transfers in Asia [archive]. Hallsby Press. p. 18.
  28. ↑ State of Human Rights in Pakistan [archive]. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. 2006. p. 142.
  29. ↑ Raphael Israeli (28 June 2016). Christianophobia: The Persecution of Christians under Islam [archive]. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-4982-9201-6.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Daniel Philpott; Timothy Samuel Shah (15 March 2018). Under Caesar's Sword: How Christians Respond to Persecution [archive]. Cambridge University Press. pp. 241–. ISBN 978-1-108-42530-8.
  31. ↑ Raymond Ibrahim (29 April 2013). Crucified Again: Exposing IslamÕs New War on Christians [archive]. Regnery Publishing. pp. 193–. ISBN 978-1-62157-025-7.
  32. ↑ Edmund Kee-Fook Chia (15 September 2016). Interfaith Dialogue: Global Perspectives [archive]. Springer. pp. 82–. ISBN 978-1-137-59698-7.
  33. ↑ State of Human Rights in Pakistan [archive]. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. 2006. p. 47.
  34. ↑ Indian Journal of Secularism: IJS : a Journal of Centre for Study of Society & Secularism [archive]. The Centre. 2002. p. 21.
  35. ↑ Hendrik Neubauer (15 December 2008). The Survivors: Tribes Around the World [archive]. American Map Corporation. p. 96.
  36. ↑ Connecticut journal of international law [archive]. 1994. p. 43.
  37. ↑ "Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology terms forced conversion 'un-Islamic'" [archive]. The Hindu. 9 January 2020.
  38. ↑ https://tribune.com.pk/story/1246214/stopping-conversions-minorities-un-islamic-claims-jamiat-ulema-e-pakistan/?amp=1 [archive]
  39. ↑ https://tribune.com.pk/story/1246214/stopping-conversions-minorities-un-islamic-claims-jamiat-ulema-e-pakistan/?amp=1 [archive]
  40. ↑ https://tribune.com.pk/story/2075311/1-ppp-lawmakers-turn-bill-forced-conversions/ [archive]

External links

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/12/pakistan-1000-hindu-and-christian-women-forcibly-converted-to-islam-every-year [archive]

Category:Forced religious conversion Category:Religious discrimination in Pakistan Category:Persecution of Christians in Pakistan Category:Persecution of Hindus https://hindupost.in/dharma-religion/70-of-all-forcible-conversion-victims-are-underage-girls-pakistan/ [archive]

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