Summary

• At least 1000 Christians and Hindus women in Pakistan were forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men every year.
• Constitution of Pakistan is discriminatory towards minorities.
• Highest number of Christians killed in world between 2015 and 2016 with 76 deaths.
• 600 Church attacks of total 1329 Church attacks in world.
• So called blasphemies of Quran resulted in death sentences to at least 12.
• Terror attacks on Churches and Christians go unabated.

From 1947 to the mid-1970s, the governments of Pakistan were largely secular in policy and judgment. After 1971, Pakistan became a culturally monolithic, increasingly Islamic state, thus marginalizing minorities.

With the governments of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Zia ul-Haq, more stringently Islamic laws transformed Pakistan. Conversion to other faiths than Islam is not prohibited by law, but culture and social pressures do not favour such conversions. Muslims who change their faith to Christianity, are subject to societal pressure. Extremely controversial were the blasphemy laws, which made it treacherous for non-Muslims to express themselves without being accused of being un-Islamic. Zia also introduced the Sharia as a basis for lawmaking, reinforced by Nawaz Sharif in 1991. Coerced conversions to Islam from Christianity are a major source of concern for Pakistani Christians, and the minority faces threats, harassment and intimidation tactics from extremists.

Christians make up one of the two largest (non-Muslim) religious minorities in Pakistan, along with Hindus. The total number of Christians in Pakistan was estimated at 4.0 million in 2020, or 2% of the population. Of these, approximately half are Catholic and half Protestant. They are subjected to many forms of discriminations in multiple spheres of life since 1947.

Discrimination in the Constitution

Christians, along with other non-Muslim minorities, are discriminated against in the Constitution of Pakistan. Non-Muslims are barred from becoming President or Prime Minister. Furthermore, they are barred from being judges in the Federal Shariat Court, which has the power to strike down any law deemed un-Islamic.

Report by Movement for Solidarity and Peace- in Pakistan:

Around 1,000 Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan are forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men every year.

The report states the estimates of the incidence of forced marriage and conversion from 100 to 700 victim Christian girls and 300 Hindu girls per year, adding that the true scale of the problem is likely to be much greater, as a number of cases are never reported or do not progress through the law-enforcement and legal systems.

Report by Open Doors, USA:

According to an Open Doors (a charitable, non-profit organization focused on serving persecuted Christians) claim in November 2017 that Pakistan had the highest number of Christians killed in the world during the 12-month time period of 1 November 2015 to 31 October 2016, with 76 Christians being killed in the country. Pakistan also topped the list of most number of documented church attacks, accounting for 600 of the total 1329 churches attacked worldwide during the same time period.

According to Open Doors Report,top countries where extreme persecution of Christians is taking place:

1. North Korea
2. Somalia
3. Afghanistan
4. Pakistan
5. Sudan

From Nov. 1, 2015, to Oct. 31, 2016, Open Doors documented as many as 1,207 Christians who were killed around the globe due to inter-faith tensions. This is a conservative estimate since it only includes documented. Top countries where Christian deaths occurred for faith-related reasons during the same time period:

1. Pakistan: 76
2. Syria: 24
3. Somalia: 12

Open Doors also documented a total of 1,329 churches attacked worldwide for faith-related reasons. These are the Muslim-dominated countries where those attacks happened between Nov. 1, 2015, and Oct. 31, 2016:

1. Pakistan: 600
2. Iran: 11
3. Iraq: 8

Impact of Blasphemy Law in Pakistan:

In Pakistan, 1.5% of the population are Christian. Pakistani law mandates that “blasphemies” of the Qur’an are to be met with punishment. At least a dozen Christians have been given death sentences, and half a dozen murdered after being accused of violating blasphemy laws. In 2005, 80 Christians were behind bars due to these laws. The Pakistani-American author FarahnazIspahani has called treatment of Christians in Pakistan a “drip-drip genocide“. Below mentioned are the few important cases:

1. Aasia Bibi Case:

Aasia Bibi is a Pakistani Christian woman from Punjab province who was convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court, receiving a sentence of death by hanging. In June 2009, Bibi was involved in an argument with a group of Muslim women with whom she had been harvesting berries after the other women grew angry with her for drinking the same water as them. She was subsequently accused of insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a charge she denies, and was arrested and imprisoned. In November 2010, a Sheikhupura judge sentenced her to death.

In October 2018, Pakistan’s Supreme Court quashed the conviction and ordered the release of 47-year-old Aasia Bibi, who had been on death row for eight years. Groups supporting the blasphemy law took to the streets to protest the decision of Aasia’s release, damaged public and private property, and threatened judges of the Supreme Court, government officials, and military leadership with violent reprisals.

2. Rimsha Masih Case:

In August 2012, Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl, reportedly 11 or 14 years old, and an illiterate with mental disabilities was accused of blasphemy for burning pages from a book containing Quranic verses. The allegation came from a Muslim cleric who himself has subsequently been accused by the police of framing the girl. The girl, and later the cleric, were both arrested and released on bail.

3. Ayub Masih Case:

Ayub Masih, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in 1998. He was accused by a neighbor of stating that he supported British writer Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Lower appeals courts upheld the conviction. However, before the Pakistan Supreme Court, his lawyer was able to prove that the accuser had used the conviction to force Masih’s family off their land and then acquired control of the property. Masih has been released.

4. Report by USCIRF:

In 2011 the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a report on the public schools and Madrassas in Pakistan. The study concluded that teachers often expressed very negative views about Ahmadis, Christians, and Jews, and successfully transmitted these biases to their students.

Violence against Christians in Pakistan in 21^st century:

• In October 2001, gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a Protestant congregation in the Punjab, killing 18 people. The identities of the gunmen are unknown. Officials think it might be a banned Islamic group.
• In March 2002, 5 people were killed in an attack on a church in Islamabad, including an American schoolgirl and her mother
• In August 2002, masked gunmen stormed a Christian missionary school for foreigners in Islamabad; 6 people were killed and 3 injured. None of those killed were children of foreign missionaries.
• In August 2002, grenades were thrown at a church in the grounds of a Christian hospital in north-west Pakistan, near Islamabad, killing 3 nurses.
• On 25 September 2002, two terrorists entered the “Peace and Justice Institute”, Karachi, where they separated Muslims from the Christians, and then murdered 7 Christians by shooting them in the head. All of the victims were Pakistani Christians. Karachi Police Chief Tariq Jamil said the victims had their hands tied and their mouths had been covered with tape.
• In December 2002, 3 young girls were killed when a hand grenade was thrown into a church near Lahore on Christmas Day.
• In 2005, a mob set churches and Christian schools on fire in Faisalabad, forcing Christians to flee from their homes.
• In November 2005, 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians in Sangla Hill in Pakistan and destroyed Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and United Presbyterian churches. The attack was over allegations of violation of blasphemy laws by a Pakistani Christian named YousafMasih. The attacks were widely condemned by some political parties in Pakistan.
• On 5 June 2006, a Pakistani Christian, Nasir Ashraf, was assaulted for the “sin” of using public drinking water facilities near Lahore.
• One year later, in August 2007, a Christian missionary couple, Rev. Arif and Kathleen Khan, were gunned down by Muslim terrorists in Islamabad. Pakistani police believed that the murders was committed by a member of Khan’s parish over alleged sexual harassment by Khan. This assertion is widely doubted by Khan’s family as well as by Pakistani Christians.
• In August 2009, 6 Christians, including four women and a child, were burnt alive by Muslim militants and a church set ablaze in Gojra, Pakistan when violence broke out after alleged desecration of a Qur’an in a wedding ceremony by Christians.
• On 8 November 2010, a Christian woman from Punjab Province, Asia Noreen Bibi, was sentenced to death by hanging for violating Pakistan’s blasphemy law. The accusation stemmed from a 2009 incident in which Bibi became involved in a religious argument after offering water to thirsty Muslim farm workers. The workers later claimed that she had blasphemed the Muhammed. Until 2019, Bibi was in solitary confinement. A cleric had offered $5,800 to anyone who killed her. As of May 2019, Bibi and her family have left Pakistan and now reside in Canada.

• On 23 September 2012, a mob of protesters in Mardan, angry at the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims, reportedly “set on fire the church, St Paul’s high school, a library, a computer laboratory and houses of four clergymen, including Bishop Peter Majeed.” and went on to rough up Zeeshan Chand, the pastor’s son.
• On 12 October 2012, Ryan Stanton, a Christian boy of 16 went into hiding after being accused of blasphemy and after his home was ransacked by a crowd. Stanton stated that he had been framed because he had rebuffed pressures to convert to Islam.
• In March 2013, Muslims attacked a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, where more than 100 houses were burned after a Christian was alleged to have made blasphemous remarks.

• On 22 September 2013, a twin suicide bomb attack took place at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, in which 127 people were killed and over 250 injured.

• On 14 February 2014 Muslims stormed the Church building and attacked school property in Multan. They were led by Anwar Khushi, a Muslim gangster who struck a deal with the local people’s spokesperson. They seized the Church property and displaced the people and deprived them of their building.
• On 15 March 2015, two blasts took place at a Roman Catholic Church and a Christ Church during Sunday service at Youhanabad town of Lahore. At least 15 people were killed and seventy were wounded in the attacks.

• On 27 March 2016, at least 70 were killed and over 340 wounded when a suicide bomber targeting Christians celebrating Easter attacked a playground in Lahore. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.

• On 17 December 2017, a bomb killed nine and injured fifty-seven. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took responsibility.
• In 2019,a Christian journalist quit the channel Dunya News after she was allegedly persecuted for her faith by co-workers and insulted for not converting to Islam.

Forced displacements of Christians:

Since 2014, the Capital Development Authority (CDA), a public benefit corporation responsible for providing municipal services in Islamabad, has been targeting and demolishing illegal slums who are largely occupied by Christians in the city. The Supreme Court put on hold the demolitions and ordered from the CDA a written justification to it. The CDA’s replied that “Most of these katchiabadies [slums] are under the occupation of the Christian community.” “It seems this pace of occupation of land by Christian community may increase. Removal of katchiabadies is very urgent to provide a better environment to the citizens of Islamabad and to protect the beauty of Islamabad.” Various human rights activists condemned the response.

Pakistan has crossed all limits. It is time, international bodies such as UN, Amnesty International, Vatican take note of the excesses and restrain Pakistan.

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