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Run for your life: Persecution of Shias and Ahmadis in Pakistan

foxbat

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MODS: Request you to change the title to " Religious Intolerance in Pakistan"

Run for your life: Persecution of Shias and Ahmadis in Pakistan – by Pervez Hoodbhoy*|*LUBP

Eighteen bloodied bodies, shot Gestapo-style, lay by the roadside. Men in army uniforms had stopped four buses bound from Rawalpindi to Gilgit, demanding that all 117 persons on board alight.Those with Shia sounding names on their national identification cards were separated out. Minutes later it was all over; the earlier massacres of Hazara Shias in Mastung and Quetta had been repeated.

Having just learned of the fresh killings, I relayed the news on to colleagues and students at the cafeteria table. Some looked glumly at their plates but, a minute or two later, normal cheerful chatter resumed. What to do? With so many killings, taking things too seriously can be bad for one’s mental health.

In Pakistan one’s religious faith, or lack of one, has become sufficient to warrant execution and murder. The killers do their job fearlessly and frequently. The 17th century philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, once observed that “men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it for religious conviction”.

Equipped with just enough religion to hate those with another faith — but not enough to love their coreligionists — Pakistanis have mostly turned their backs on religious atrocities. Exceptionally grotesque ones, such as when 88 Ahmadis quietly praying in Lahore on a Friday were turned into corpses, have also failed to inspire public reaction. Mass executions do not interest Pakistan’s religious parties, or Imran’s Khan’s PTI. For them, only the killings by American drones matter.

The title of this essay deliberately excludes Hindus, Christians, and Parsis. The reason: these communities were never enthused about India’s partition (even though some individual members pretended to be). Indeed, they were soon slapped with the Objectives Resolution of 1949 which termed them “minorities”, hence freaks and outcasts dispatched to the margins. Some accepted their fate, keeping a low profile. Others altered their names to more Muslim sounding ones. The better off or more able ones emigrated, taking valuable skills along with them.

But with Shias and Ahmadis it was different. Whatever they might feel now, they were enthusiastic about Pakistan. Mr Jinnah, born a Gujrati Shia Muslim, believed that Muslims and Hindus could never live together peacefully but that Muslims, of course, could. Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan, an Ahmadi leader, was commended by Jinnah for having eloquently argued the Two-Nation theory, and then appointed by him in 1947 as Pakistan’s first foreign minister. Mr Jinnah died early, but Zafarullah Khan lived long enough to see disillusionment. The inevitable had happened: once the partition was complete, the question of which version of Islam was correct became bitterly contentious.

Until recently, Pakistan’s Shias did not have the self-image of a religious minority. They had joined Sunnis in supporting Mr Bhutto’s 1974 decision to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslim. But now they are worried. The Tribal Areas are convulsed in sectarian warfare: Kurram, Parachinar and Hangu (in the settled districts) are killing grounds for both Sunni and Shia, but with most casualties being Shia. City life has also become increasingly insecure and segregated; Karachi’s Shia neighborhoods are visibly barricaded and fortified.

But while Shias are numerous enough to put up a defence, Ahmadis are not. Last month, a raging 5,000-strong mob descended upon their sole worship place in Satellite Town, Rawalpindi. Organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami, various leaders from Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Sipah-e-Sahaba addressed the rally demanding the worship place’s security cameras and protective barricades be removed. The police agreed with the mob’s demands, advising the Ahmadis to cease praying. The worship place has now been closed down.

Forbidden from calling themselves Muslims, Ahmadi children are expelled from school once their religion is discovered. Just a hint may be enough to destroy a career. Knowing this, the school staff at a high school in Mansehra added the word ‘Qadiani’ to the name of an Ahmadi student, Raheel Ahmad, effectively eliminating the boy’s chances of getting a university education. The same school also held an anti-Ahmadi programme, distributing prizes to winners.

The latest outrage is that new ID cards, issued by the Punjab government, require the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to insert a ‘Qadiani’ entry in the online forms. Ahmadis now do not have the option of declaring themselves non-Muslims. Instead the government demands that they open themselves to public persecution, a method that Nazi Germany used against Jews.

Even dead Ahmadis are not spared: news had reached the Khatm-e-Nabuwat that Nadia Hanif, a 17-year old school teacher who had died of illness ten days ago, was actually an Ahmadi but buried in a Muslim graveyard in Chanda Singh village, Kasur. Her grave was promptly dug up, and the body removed for reburial.

Pakistan’s state apparatus, for all its tanks and guns, offers no protection to those deemed as religious minorities. Is it just weakness? Or, perhaps, complicity? While swarms of intelligence agents can be seen in many places, they fail spectacularly to intercept religious terrorists. More ominously, recent months have seen state-sanctionedDifah-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) rallies across the country, drawing many tens of thousands. Prominent self-proclaimed Shia and Ahmadi killers, prance on stage while holding hands in a show of unity.

At the Multan DPC rally on February 17, Khatm-e-Nabuwat leaders bayed for Ahmadi blood while sharing the stage with the famed Malik Ishaq, a self-acclaimed Shia-killer. Newspaper reports say Ishaq was freed last year after frightened judges treated him like a guest in the courtroom, offering him tea and biscuits. One judge attempted to hide his face with his hands. But after Ishaq read out the names of his children, the judge abandoned the trial.

What does the Pakistan Army think it will gain tolerating — or perhaps encouraging — such violent forces once again? Its jawanspay an enormous price in fighting them, and their offshoots, elsewhere in the country. But perhaps the notion that extremists are Pakistan’s ‘strategic assets’ for use in Kashmir and Afghanistan has captured the military’s mind. Or, post-OBL, perhaps a miffed leadership seeks to show anger at the US through such rallies. Whatever the explanation, Pakistan’s minorities face catastrophe.
 
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Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar (Pioneer of the Khilafat Movement and a dauntless fighter in the struggle of independence) said:

“Qatl-e-Hussain asl main marg-e-Yazid hai,
Islam zindaa hota hai har Karbala ke baad”

(In the murder of Hussain, lies the death of Yazid, for Islam resurrects after every Karbala)


James Corne (Author of History of China)
“Hussain and his companions faced eight kinds of enemies. On the four sides the army of Yezid was their enemy which was ceaselessly raining arrows; the fifth foe was the sun of Arabia that was scorching the bodies; the sixth foe was the desert of Karbala the sands of which were scorching like a heated furnace; the seventh and eighth foes were the overpowering hunger and the unbearable thirst. Thus on those who fought with thousands of infidels in such conditions has ended bravado; on such a people no gallant (hero) can ever have pre-eminence.”

we SHIA's of IMAM ALI A.S , the followers of Imam Hussain A.S are NOT afraid of DEATH .... MR.MUSH !!!

LONG LIVE THE SACRIFICE OF IMAM HUSSAIN A.S ....
 
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Some salient points:

Until recently, Pakistan’s Shias did not have the self-image of a religious minority. They had joined Sunnis in supporting Mr Bhutto’s 1974 decision to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslim. But now they are worried. The Tribal Areas are convulsed in sectarian warfare: Kurram, Parachinar and Hangu (in the settled districts) are killing grounds for both Sunni and Shia, but with most casualties being Shia. City life has also become increasingly insecure and segregated; Karachi’s Shia neighborhoods are visibly barricaded and fortified.

Reminds you of those famous lines:

They came for .....

At the Multan DPC rally on February 17, Khatm-e-Nabuwat leaders bayed for Ahmadi blood while sharing the stage with the famed Malik Ishaq, a self-acclaimed Shia-killer. Newspaper reports say Ishaq was freed last year after frightened judges treated him like a guest in the courtroom, offering him tea and biscuits. One judge attempted to hide his face with his hands. But after Ishaq read out the names of his children, the judge abandoned the trial.

Tells you that the deep state upto the highest levels is more than tolerating this (actually encouraging is a better word).
 
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this is the dozenth "run for your life" thread based on some blog post....
 
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yes, 30% of our population should ''run for their life'' :laugh:

i happen to belong to this group, and i'm staying put.


Only hate groups representing a teeny tiny fraction love to bank on hateful ideology. Majority of Pakistanis care damn less about sectarian differences......Quaid e Azam himself was a Muslim Shiia, remember that.

Muslims are Muslims in the end.
 
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PAKISTAN Life on the margins, discrimination against Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan - Asia News

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Women from Pakistan's minority communities have a lower level of education but a higher level of infant mortality. They suffer discrimination in the workplace and are the victims of constant attempts at forced conversion or false charges of blasphemy, this according to a recent report titled 'Life on the margins' on the status of minority women released by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Church. About a thousand Christian and Hindu women took part in the survey. They are from 8 districts in the Punjab and 18 in Sindh Province, which together represent 95 per cent of the country's religious minorities. More than 90 per cent of Pakistanis are Muslim, predominantly Sunni.

One factor in discrimination is forced conversion. One non-Muslim woman in two experiences pressures to convert to Islam, which often come with violence and coercion. Looming in the background is the blasphemy law, seen by many as the most serious obstacle to social and cultural equality.

Another factor is higher than average infant mortality among minorities with 314 infant deaths out of 3,050 live births for a rate of 10.30 per cent compared to the national average of 8.7 per cent.

Discrimination also affects education. The report found that only 47 per cent of the minority women interviewed have a formal education, which is far lower than the national average of 57 per cent and far behind the urban literacy rate of women of 65 per cent.

The workplace is another area of discrimination. Some 43 per cent of Hindu and Christian women said that they faced discrimination, stress and psychological pressure where they worked.

On International Women's Day, which is celebrated today, 8 March, NCJP activists lament the fact that, in the third millennium, discrimination based on race and religion remains a shameful blot on Pakistan.

One figure stands out. According to the report, 62 per cent of respondents believe that, in the wake of religious disturbances like those in Shatinagar, Gojra, Korian and Sialkot, the majority community would not stand with them.

NCJP executive director Peter Jacob said that a copy of the report would be sent to the provincial governments in Sindh and Punjab as well as the Ministry of Human Rights and Interfaith Harmony
 
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topic was on Shiias and Ahmedis running for their lives, now you bring up Christians and Hindus?


someone sounds a bit desperate....not enough attention in real life?
 
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Double jeopardy: The smaller the minority the bigger its problems in Pakistan – The Express Tribune

Nearly 62 per cent of Hindu and Christian women fear that a majority of Muslims would not come to their aid if they were being discriminated against.
This was one of the findings of the study “Life on the Margins,” which was released by the National Commission for Justice and Peace at the Pakistan Medical Association House on Tuesday. The study is based on interviews of 1,000 women in 26 districts of Punjab and Sindh from 2010 and 2011.
Forty-three per cent of the women surveyed complained that they faced religious discrimination at either their workplace, educational institution or neighbourhood, while 27 per cent of them faced difficulties in gaining admissions to educational institutions. A majority of non-Muslim children polled said that they were forced to study Islamiat in school. Of the working women, 76 per cent said that they had to deal with sexual harassment.
The report points out that the literacy rate of these women is 47 per cent, which is below the 57 per cent national literacy rate. The infant mortality rate among minority communities turned out to be 314 infant deaths for every 3,050 live births, or 10.30 per cent, which is higher when compared with the World Health Organisation’s figure of the 8.7 per cent national infant mortality rate. Nearly 20 per cent of women were earning less than the minimum wage, 15 per cent of them lived in mud houses and 12 per cent in semi-brick ones.
While speaking at the occasion, the newly ordained Archbishop of Karachi, Joseph Coutts, emphasised action and support. “These issues will not be resolved unless the silent majority accepts that they exist in society,” he said. He compared the current state of denial of these issues to the one that once existed about Aids when people would not even talk about it. He called for a documentation of cases of kidnappings, forced marriages and conversions within minority communities.
Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi declined to comment about the controversy surrounding Rinkle Kumari’s conversion as the case was in court. However, she tried to raise the morale of members of the minority communities by saying that most of the people in the country were standing with them. “A majority of our population is not biased. It is just a small population of maulvis who spread hatred.”
Nearly 80 per cent of Pakistanis live on the margin, as they do not have access to justice and resources, and that the problems faced by women of minority communities were similar to those faced by Muslim women in the country. Nearly 66 per cent of non-Muslim women were not allowed to marry of their own free will, according to the report, and Rizvi said that a majority of Muslim women were also forced into marriage.
Mangla Sharma, who is the chairperson of the Pak-Hindu Welfare Association, said that minority women felt alienated from the country’s politics because they are not currently represented in parliament, and called for a quota to be established to resolve the discrepancy. Sharma also claimed that Rinkle Kumari was brainwashed and forcibly converted, and said that when a man claims to convert a woman, his religious background should be checked.
MPA Saleem Khokhar lauded the commission’s efforts for presenting a report on such a topic while extremism and injustice are on the rise. He said that blasphemy laws were being misused in the country, and referred to the deaths of a governor and a federal minister when they sympathised with Aasia Bibi.
The commission’s Peter Jacob called for a body to be set up to look into cases of forced conversions of non-Muslim women. The definition of the word “discrimination” should also be established, to include restrictions on the basis of religion as well.
Nazish Brohi, who contributed to the study, said that that women of minority communities face “double jeopardy,” as they have to face discrimination on two accounts: because of their sex and their religion.

topic was on Shiias and Ahmedis running for their lives, now you bring up Christians and Hindus?


someone sounds a bit desperate....not enough attention in real life?

Sir, its about minorities in Pakistan.. I just posted an article about how different minority groups in Pakistan face discrimination and harrasement from the extremist wings of the society and govt. Shias and Ahmadis are just 2 of the many minority groups in Pakistan
 
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@foxbat stay on tlpic mate..
your posts reported...you are clearly on a trolling mission with some kind of grudge..

the OP posted an article about tratment of shias..not hindus.
 
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well thats not according to the topic you posted....

sounds like youre trying to troll on PDF on a Monday; it's always bizarre anyways when an indian is talking about minority rights when plenty of discrimination against minorities (small and large) takes place there on daily basis!

fix your own problems, we'll deal with ours....

i personally think minorities are still better off in Pakistan than in india
 
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@foxbat stay on tlpic mate..
your posts reported...you are clearly on a trolling mission with some kind of grudge..

the OP posted an article about tratment of shias..not hindus.

mate, the OP is also about religious intolerance.. Just the title of the opening post refers to Shias and Ahmadis..

@foxbat stay on tlpic mate..
your posts reported...you are clearly on a trolling mission with some kind of grudge..

the OP posted an article about tratment of shias..not hindus.

mate, the OP is also about religious intolerance.. Just the title of the opening post refers to Shias and Ahmadis..
 
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well thats not according to the topic you posted....

Happy to change the topic.. The idea was to talk about religious intolerance in Pakistan


sounds like youre trying to troll on PDF on a Monday; it's always bizarre anyways when an indian is talking about minority rights when plenty of discrimination against minorities (small and large) takes place there on daily basis!
Why is it that when an Indian talks about bad things in Pakistan, its trolling and when a Pakistani does that against India, its a valid topic?

fix your own problems, we'll deal with ours....
Deal.. Tell that to people like aryan_b first :)

i personally think minorities are still better off in Pakistan than in india

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.. However wrong it may be
 
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