Faith Conversions in Pakistan: Projections and Interpretations

Notes

1. See, Mariam Faruqi, A Question of Faith: A Report on the Status of Religious Minorities in Pakistan (Islamabad: Jinnah Institute, 2011), https://xts-asi-lji.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Jinnah_Minority_Report20511-PDF.pdf; Nathaniel Roberts, “Is Conversion a ‘Colonization of Consciousness‘?” Anthropological Theory 12, no. 3 (2012): 271-294, https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499612469583; John O'Brien, The Unconquered People: The Liberation Journey of an Oppressed Caste (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012); Pirbhu Lal Satyani, “Persecution of Religious Minorities in Pakistan” (paper, American University Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, DC, 2014); Sara Singha, “Dalit Christians and Caste Consciousness in Pakistan” (PhD diss., Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2015), https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/761014/Singha_georgetown_0076D_13011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y; Yameena Mitha, Aliya Bano and Zainab Ali, Living in Fear - Pakistan's Unequal Citizens: A Report on Faith Based Prejudices and Discrimination 2014-15 (Islamabad: Asia Foundation Pakistan, 2015), https://pattan.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/living_in_fear.pdf; Saeed Ahmed Rid, “The Cultural Stigma Attached with Inter-Tribal Marriages Encourages Forced Marriages: Four Selected Studies from Rural Sindh,” Pakistan Journal of Applied Social Sciences 4, no. 1 (2016): 75-95, https://doi.org/10.46568/pjass.v4i1.297; and Asif Aqeel, The Index of Religious Diversity and Inclusion in Pakistan: An Exploratory Study with Initial Recommendations, report (Lahore: Centre for Law and Justice, 2020), http://www.clj.org.pk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-Index-of-Religious-Diversity-and-Inclusion-in-Pakistan.pdf.

2. Satyani, “Persecution of Religious Minorities in Pakistan,” 14. For instance, Pirbhu Satyani, a rights activist, noted that Article 2 (Islam shall be the State religion), Article 41 (president of the State will be a Muslim, and that prime minister will also be a Muslim) as given in the Constitution of Pakistan are discriminatory against non-Muslims He notified that Anti-Blasphemy Laws, Hudood Ordinance and Law of Evidence (Qanoon-e Shahadat), and establishment of Shariat Court and Council of Islamic Ideology as discriminatory against non-Muslims. Nazir S. Bhatti, The Trial of Pakistani Christian Nation (New York: Pakistan Christian Post, 2008), 90, https://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/ebook/The-Trial-of-Pakistani-Christian-Nation.pdf. The Islamization of Pakistan is understood by Nazir S. Bhatti, a veteran Christian rights activist, as betrayal by the State. In the context of court decisions related to forced conversions of Christian girls, he writes, ‘the Muslim judges are declaring marriages null and void of abducted, gang raped and enforced converted Christian married women, in accordance with Islamic laws. The Islamic laws are forcibly implemented on Christians to prosecute and punish. Is it time for peaceful movement to launch civil disobedience to the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, if the government denied formation of Minority Commission, Christian Ideology Council and Christian Law Board, according to Liaquat-Nehru Pact.‘

3. Roberts, “Is Conversion a ‘Colonization of Consciousness‘?”

4. Ghulam Hussain, Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and Reality, report (Islamabad: Institute of Policy Studies, 2020), https://www.ips.org.pk/forced-conversions-or-faith-conversions-rhetoric-and-reality/. To see how the actual NGO reports were prepared and presented see for instance, Rabia Ali, “25 Hindu Girls Abducted Every Month, Claims HRCP Official in Sindh,” Pakistan Hindu Post, March 30, 2010, http://pakistanhindupost.blogspot.com/2010/03/25-hindu-girls-abducted-every-month.html; HRCP, Life at Risk: Report of HRCP Working Group on Communities Vulnerable because of their Beliefs (Lahore: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 2011), 22, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/5.pdf; HRCP, Perils of Faith: Report of HRCP Working Group on Communities Vulnerable because of their Beliefs (Lahore: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 2011), 27, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/4.pdf; Shahina Hanif, ed., Women's Rights in Pakistan: Status and Challenges (Lahore: Shirkat Gah- Women's Resource Centre, 2012), http://shirkatgah.org/shirkat/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/UPR-book-Women-Rights-in-Pakistan-English.pdf; Shikha Dilawri, Ahmad Salim, Humera Ishfaq, Mome Saleem, Searching for Security: The Rising Marginalization of Religious Communities in Pakistan, report (London: Minority Rights Group International, 2014), https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/old-site-downloads/mrg-searching-for-security-pakistan-report.pdf; MSP, Forced Marriages & Forced Conversions in the Christian Community of Pakistan, report (Karachi: Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan, 2014), https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/msp/pages/162/attachments/original/1396724215/MSP_Report_Forced_Marriages_and_Conversions_of_Christian_Women_in_Pakistan.pdf?1396724215; Sarah Zaman, Forced Marriages and Inheritance Deprivation in Pakistan: A Research Study Exploring Substantive and Structural Gaps in the Implementation of Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Act, 2011, in Six Select Districts of Pakistan (Lahore: Aurat Publication and Information Service Foundation, 2014), www.af.org.pk/pub_files/1416847483.pdf; Rebecca Seiler, “Christian Persecution in Pakistan: An Examination of Life in the Midst of Violence” (senior diss., Honors Program, Liberty University, Lynchburg, 2014), 10, https://digitalcommons. liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1492&context=honor s; Zulqarnain Tahir, trans., “Forced Conversion of Religion,” eds. Sadaf Tanveer and Rana Kashif (paper, South Asia Partnership-Pakistan, Lahore, 2015), 7, Pakistan, http://sappk.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/eng_publications/Forced_Conversion_of_Religious_Minorities.pdf; Cecil S. Chaudhry, ed., “Forced Conversion of Religious Minorities in Pakistan: A Socio-Cultural Perspective” (paper, Catholic Commission for Justice & Peace, Lahore, 2017), 26, http://www.ncjp-pk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/forced%20conversion%20of%20religious%20in%20pakista n.pdf; Reuben Ackerman, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages in Pakistan, report (Birmingham: CIFORB, University of Birmingham, 2018), 12, https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/ptr/ciforb/Forced-Conversionsand-Forced-Marriages-in-Sindh.pdf; CSW, Pakistan: Religious Freedom Under Attack, report (New Malden: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 2019), 32, https://www.sadf.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2019/12/2019-12-pakistan-religious-freedom-under-attack-final-compressed-single-pages-1.pdf; HRCP, Forced Conversions in Ghotki? Field Investigation Report (Lahore: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 2019), 119, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ghotki-investigation-report-20190807-EN.pdf.

5. Hussain, Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and Reality.

6. Ibid.

7. Gyanendra Pandey, “The Time of the Dalit Conversion,” Economic and Political Weekly 41, no. 18 (2006): 1779-1788, https://www.epw.in/journal/2006/18/special-articles/time-dalit-conversion.html.

8. The personal names of activists were anonymized and replaced with the brief sociological description in the ‘search entry’ column.

9. See Brian J. Zinnbauer and Kenneth I. Pargament, “Religiousness and Spirituality,” in Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, eds. Raymond F. Paloutzian and Crystal L. Park (New York: Guilford Press, 2005), 21-42; —, “Spiritual Conversion: A Study of Religious Change Among College Students,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37, no. 1 (1998): 161-180, https://doi.org/10.2307/1388035; Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000).

10. Daniel W. Snook, Michael J. Williams and John G. Horgan, “Issues in the Sociology and Psychology of Religious Conversion,” Pastoral Psychology 68 (2019): 223-240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-018-0841-1.

11. Lewis R. Rambo, “Understanding Religious Conversion” (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).

12. Ibid., 16-17; Lewis R. Rambo, and Charles E. Farhadian, “Converting: Stages of Religious Change,” in Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies eds. Christopher Lamb and M. Darrol Bryant (London: Cassell, 1999), 22-34.

13. See Aqeel, The Index of Religious Diversity and Inclusion in Pakistan: An Exploratory Study with Initial Recommendations, 9.

14. HRCP, Forced Conversions in Ghotki? Field Investigation Report (Lahore: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 2019), 6.

15. Chaudhry, ed., “Forced Conversion of Religious Minorities in Pakistan: A Socio-Cultural Perspective.”

16. Ibid., 23.

17. Hussain, Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and Reality.

18. Ibid.

19. Sohail Akbar Warraich, “‘Honour Killings’ and the Law in Pakistan” in Honour: Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women, eds. Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain (London: Zed Books, 2005).

20. Aqeel, The Index of Religious Diversity and Inclusion in Pakistan: An Exploratory Study with Initial Recommendations, 65.

21. Tahir, “Forced Conversion of Religion,” 7.

22. Ibid., 5.

23. Roberts, “Is Conversion a ‘Colonization of Consciousness‘?” 272; Swami Dayananda Saraswati, “Conversion is an Act of Violence,” Swamij.com, October 29, 1999, http://www.swamij.com/conversion-violence.htm.

24. Ibid.

25. Roberts, “Is Conversion a ‘Colonization of Consciousness‘?” 279.

26. FIDH stands for the French name of the organization i.e., Fédération Internationale Pour Les Droit Humains.

27. FIDH, Minorities under Attack: Faith-Based Discrimination and Violence in Pakistan, report (Paris: International Federation for Human Rights, 2015), 16, https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/20150224_pakistan_religious_minorities_report_en_w eb.pdf.

28. Muhammad Farooq, “Walayah (Guardianship) and Kafa'a (Equality) in Muslim Marriage verses the Woman's Consent” (paper, The School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, 2019), http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3497607.

29. Tahir, “Forced Conversion of Religion,” 5.

30. See Sara Hossain and Suzanne Turner, “Abduction for Forced Marriage - Rights and Remedies in Bangladesh and Pakistan,” International Family Law 1, no. 64 (2001): 15-24, https://www.soas.ac.uk/honourcrimes/resources/file55687.pdf; Sofia Naveed and Khalid Manzoor Butt, “Causes and Consequences of Child Marriages in South Asia: Pakistan's Perspective,” South Asian Studies 30, no. 2 (2015): 161-175, http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/csas/PDF/10%20Khalid%20Manzoor%20Butt_30_2. pdf; Sherene H. Razack, “Imperilled Muslim Women, Dangerous Muslim Men and Civilised Europeans: Legal and Social Responses to Forced Marriages,” Feminist Legal Studies 12, no. 2 (2004): 129-174, https://doi.org/10.1023/B:FEST.0000043305.66172.92; Muhammad Munir, “Rights of the Child: An Islamic Perspective on Preventing Violence, Abuse, and Exploitation of Children and Pakistani Law,” Hamdard Islamicus 38, no. 4 (2015): 33-58; and Rid, “The Cultural Stigma Attached with Inter-Tribal Marriages Encourages Forced Marriages: Four Selected Studies from Rural Sindh.”

31. MSP, Forced Marriages & Forced Conversions in the Christian Community of Pakistan.

32. Ibid., 2.

33. Chaudhry, “Forced Conversion of Religious Minorities in Pakistan: A Socio-Cultural Perspective,” 23.

34. See, Asian Human Rights Commission, “Pakistan: Jihad to Convert Hindu Girls to Islam Rages On,” statement, July 19, 2013, http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-136-2013;—, “Pakistan: A Hindu Girl Was Forced to Convert to Islam and is Now Missing - The Judge and Police Have Sided With the Perpetrators,” June 29, 2012, http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-115-2012; “Pakistan: Jihad to Convert Hindu Girls to Islam Rages On,” Ahmadiyya Times, July 19, 2013, http://ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.com/2013/07/pakistan-jihad-to-convert-hindu-girls.html; and Ashfaq Yusufzai, “Minorities in Pakistan Fear ‘Forced Conversion’ to Islam,” Inter Press Service, May 19, 2014, http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/05/minorities-pakistan-fear-forced-conversion-islam/.

35. Chaudhry, “Forced Conversion of Religious Minorities in Pakistan: A Socio-Cultural Perspective,” 21.

36. Ibid., 28-29.

37. Naumana Suleman, “Beyond Commissions: Institutionalizing Minority Rights in Pakistan” (London: Minority Rights Group International, 2020), https://minorityrights.org/2020/06/02/minority-commission-pakistan/#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20of%20Pakistan%20on%2019%20 June, to%20the%20minorities%20under%20the%20Constitution%20and%20law.

38. [2014] PLD, Supreme Court 699 (Pak.).

39. The Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill of 2015, Private (Proposed) Bill (2015); and Protection of Persons against Forced Religious Conversion Bill of 2019, Proposed Bill (2019).

40. “Lawmaker Tables Bills, Resolution Against Forced Conversions, Child Marriages,” Express Tribune, March 26, 2019, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1937885/lawmaker-tables-bills-resolution-forced-conversions-child-marriages.

41. The Pakistan Minority Rights Commission Act of 2016 (2016).

42. Meghan G. Fischer, “Anti-Conversion Laws and the International Response,” Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs 6, no. 1 (2018): 1-69 (68), https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/jlia/vol6/iss1/5.

43. Talal Asad, “Comments on Conversion,” in Conversion to Modernities: The Globalization of Christianity, ed. Peter van der Veer, Zones of Religion (New York: Routledge, 1996), 263-273 (263).

44. Ibid.

45. Roberts, “Is Conversion a ‘Colonization of Consciousness‘?” 287.

46. Ganpat Rai Bheel, quoted in Hussain, Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and Reality.

47. Roberts, “Is Conversion a ‘Colonization of Consciousness‘?” 285.

48. Ibid., 281.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.