HINDU MAJORITY Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) is not Hinduism. Hindutva is pure politics! The father of the Hindutva, V.D. Savarkar (1883-1966) fashioned his ideology from inside a jail cell between 1911 to 1924. A prisoner of the British, the revolutionary Savarkar had been charged with sedition and originally sentenced to serve 50 years. Savarkar may have detested the Caliphate Muslims with whom he shared a cell, but his Hindutva ideology surely took inspiration from their fundamentalist Sunni Islam, for it adopts many of its elements, in particular its marriage of religion and politics. According to Savarkar’s Hindutva ideology, “Hindustan” (greater India) is the fatherland and holy land of the “Hindu race”. As such, all Indians are Hindus! The only reason some members of the “Hindu race” practice religions other than Hinduism, is because they or their ancestors were converted through trickery, inducement, deception, or fraud. Hindutva contends that all members of the “Hindu race” should “return” to Hinduism for the sake of Mother India. Those who refuse are essentially deemed traitors; a threat to social cohesion and national security. Recommended: Savarkar proposed Hindutva as an ideology around which revolutionaries could rally the majority Hindus against the enemy: the British colonial occupier! Today, Hindu nationalist use Hindutva to dragnet the votes of the majority Hindus against all political opposition. Today, in post-colonial, “democratic” India, the enemy is the non-Hindu: Indian Muslims and Christians! The Hindutva Machine The Hindu nationalist movement in India is collectively known as the Sangh Parivar. This movement, which advocates for the establishment of a Hindu state, consists of: August 1947: Pakistan and India partition and gain Independence. The Hindu caste system is cruel, compassionless, deeply racist and horrifically repressive. According to the Hindu worldview, suffering, poverty and hardship are a consequence of bad karma (i.e. a bad rebirth: a punishment for bad deeds in a previous life). Likewise, good health, wealth and privilege are a consequence of good karma (i.e. good rebirth: a reward for good deeds in a previous life). Consequently, those born into poverty or born with a disability etc, are condemned to a life of supposedly deserved hardship and suffering. Likewise, a person born into power and wealth is deemed to be deserving of all they have; their privilege is simply incontestable. For the poor and downtrodden, low-castes and untouchables/Dalits, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is truly liberating and dignifying. Not only does Christianity affirm them as loved, but it extends a hand, offers opportunity, and provides hope for the future. [Note: Rejection of Hinduism’s cruel caste system is also the reason why many Indian and Nepalese Dalits/untouchables are attracted to revolutionary Maoism. The attraction has less to do with ideology and more to do with a yearning for equity.] For the high castes, however, the Judeo-Christian Biblical worldview – that all people are created equal with an inherent dignity – poses an enormous threat to their inherited power and privilege. This threat – as distinct from any genuine religious concern – is the real reason why India’s Hindu elites want to rid India of Christians and Christianity. ------------ A nation of many nations, India is home to more than 2,700 people groups and more than 1,600 languages. Christians in India are estimated to comprise around 5.8 percent of the population (officially 2.3 percent, according to the 2011 census which automatically counts tribals as Hindus) . . . 5.8 percent of 1.35 billion, equals 80.8 million Christians, virtually all of whom are poor, downtrodden, and consequently powerless. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was founded in India in December 1980. By 1991 it was India’s main opposition party. In March 1998, the BJP won the Lok Sabha (federal parliament) elections, campaigning on a platform of Hindu nationalism and with the slogan, “one nation, one people, one culture”. Between January 1998 and February 1999, police recorded 116 incidents of violent persecution against Christians, more than in all the previous 50 years of independence combined. Only when a Western missionary was murdered did the crisis attract any international attention. The murdered missionary was Australian Graham Staines who, along with his wife Gladys, had served lepers in Orissa/Odisha for some 34 years. Graham (57) was with his two young sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), at a remote bush Bible camp when it was invaded at night by militants led by the Bajrang Dal’s Dara Singh. Raging against the supposed threat of conversions to Christianity, the Hindutva militants trapped Graham, Philip and Timothy in their car, under which they lit a bonfire, and burned them to death. With Narendra Modi at the helm, the BJP not merely won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it won an absolute majority (a difficult thing to do in multi-party systems). For the first time in Indian history, India would be ruled by a Hindu nationalist party no longer constrained by alliances. . . all thanks to the “Modi Magic”. See: Hindu nationalists’ weapon of choice is anti-conversion legislation, the very existence of which inflames Hindu sentiment and fuels intolerance, discrimination, and violent persecution. Anti-conversion laws are in force in eight out of India’s twenty-nine states: Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand. These laws – often known as freedom of religion laws – generally make it illegal to use “force, allurement, inducement or fraud” to coerce another person into changing their religion. That might sound fine, but the devil is in the detail – or more accurately, in the interpretation. While “force” is said to include the “threat of divine displeasure”, “allurement, inducement or fraud” are all undefined, leaving the door open for education, health care, and humanitarian assistance to be viewed as allurement or inducement, while virtually any mainstream Christian teaching – such as “Jesus rose from the dead” – could trigger an accusation of fraud. Hefty fines and prison terms apply – terms that are doubled if the convert is a minor, a woman, or a member of the less educated classes, such as Dalits. Furthermore, anti-conversion laws usually also require that both the person wanting to convert and the person doing the converting (i.e. baptism) first seek permission from their Hindu nationalist-dominated state government officials! Examples: See also: Updates: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin / India As 2018 came to a close and India headed into an election year, it seemed the BJP might struggle to retain a majority in parliament. Unemployment had risen to its highest rate since 1972 (year of earliest comparable data) and the BJP had lost power in the key states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. But if Narendra Modi is anything, he is a brilliant campaigner, and the BJP knows how to win an election. Not only did Narendra Modi out-campaign the arrogant and lack-lustre Congress Party at every turn but, more critically, the BJP ran a subversive campaign of mass manipulation through social media, unprecedented in its sophistication. After analysing all available data, the BJP covertly “microtargeted” individuals and groups with custom messages delivered primarily through Facebook and WhatsApp. As former BJP data analyst Shivam Shankar Singh explains, “[the BJP’s] strategy is about creating a customised enemy for every group”, after which it posits the BJP as the solution. See: Recommended: By this means, the BJP was able to lure even tribal non-Hindus/animists – who have traditionally allied with Christians – into voting BJP, supposedly the only party that can save tribals and tribal culture from the supposed threat posed by conversions to Christianity. By this means the BJP not merely won the 2019 elections, it actually increased its majority, winning 304 of the 542 seats, up from 282 seats in 2014. While it might be a winning formula for the BJP, this strategy of “creating a customised enemy for every group”, has fuelled communalism and shredded the fabric of Indian society. Along with lawfare, loss of benefits, boycotts and banishments, violent persecution with impunity has become the order of the day for Indian Christians. It is a Christian crisis of monumental proportions. ------------ It is unsurprising that the Hindu nationalism of India has bled into Hindu-majority Nepal, also an emerging democracy. In September 2015, Nepali lawmakers passed a new constitution which defined Nepal as a “secular” state, while appeasing Hindu nationalists with the inclusion of anti-conversion measures. Though Article 31 enshrines the right to profess and practise one’s own religion, it also enshrines anti-conversion legislation which renders that right null and void. Clause 3 of Article 31 reads: “In exercising the right entrusted by this article, any act which may be contrary to public health, public decency or morality or incitement to breach public peace or act to convert another person from one religion to another or any act or behaviour to undermine or jeopardise the religion of each other is not allowed and such act shall be punishable by law.” As Nepal advocacy officer for Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Martin Dore, rightly observed, 'That would make it “illegal” to change religion, evangelise, or even explain one’s religion.” Lokmani Dhakal, one of the four Christians in Nepal’s 601-member Constituent Assembly, was left asking, “Without freedom to speak about one’s faith, what is the meaning of religious freedom?” Then, on 8 August 2017 the Nepali parliament passed a bill criminalising religious conversion and the “hurting of religious sentiment”. Clause 158 of section 9 bans the hurting of religious sentiment and is similar to Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Clause 160 in section 9 severely restricts religious conversion and is similar to Indian’s various anti-conversion laws. Christians fear the law will foster intolerance and provide anti-Christian forces with a weapon to use against them. And indeed, it already has! BUDDHIST MAJORITY Buddhist nationalism is not Buddhism. It is politics by other means. --------------- In post-colonial, “democratic” Sri Lanka, Buddhist nationalists play the religion card for political gain. Ambitious politicians promote Buddhist nationalism in order to dragnet the majority Buddhist vote. Buddhist clerics and monks do it to increase their influence and power. The name “Rajapaksa” is virtually synonymous with Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. Mahinda Rajapaksa came to fame during his first term as president (2005-2010) when he, along with his brother, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, crushed the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), ending years of civil war. Both Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa stand accused of war crimes. During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term as president (2010-2015), corruption, nepotism, human rights abuses, and violent Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism all escalated markedly. By the end of 2020, after a spell in the political wilderness, the Rajapaksas were back! The failure of the Yahapalnaya (good governance) coalition – an uneasy alliance cobbled together to break the power of the Rajapaksa clan – along with the trauma of the 21 April 2019 Easter bombings, combined to set the stage for a Rajapaksa revival. The Rajapaksas ran a “populist” campaign based on Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism and national security. As anticipated, Gotabaya Rajapaksa (70) won the November 2019 presidential poll, securing 52.25 percent of the vote. Virtually all Sinhalese voted for Rajapaksa while virtually all Tamils and Muslims voted for Premadasa. Traumatised and desperate for security, Christians (who usually vote with the minority Tamils) overwhelmingly voted for Rajapaksa. On 21 November 2019 President G Rajapaksa appointed his brother, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa (74), as Prime Minister and Minister for Defence and Finance. Buddhist nationalists have been pressing for a law to criminalise conversions for almost 20 years. Draft bills have proposed prison terms and fines for anyone found guilty of “forcing” anyone to convert. The main obstacle in the extremists’ path has been the Supreme Court and the lack of consensus among Buddhists. On 26 February 2020, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed the Annual Convention of the All Ceylon Buddhist Councils. He identified what he maintains are the two greatest “threats facing the Sinhala Buddhist Nation”: (1) the drugs being peddled to school children and (2) the conversion of “traditional Buddhist families to other religions” (specifically Christianity). He hinted of plans to revive the controversial anti-conversion bill and urged the Buddhist Councils to give him unanimous support. Parliamentary elections were held in August 2020. Five members of the Rajapaksa clan won a seat in the parliament, and Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected as Prime Minister. On Monday 22 March 2021, Sri Lanka’s multi-faith International Religious Freedom Round-table sent a letter to PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, urging him to abandon the planned introduction of anti-conversion legislation. Signed by 36 religious dignitaries, the letter affirms the fundamental human right of freedom of conscience on matters of faith and religion, while denouncing unethical conversion through force and violence. It also points out that anti-conversion laws are notoriously ambiguous, giving emboldened intolerant elements a weapon they can use against religious minorities for doing nothing other than worshipping together, sharing their faith, or performing charitable works. On Monday 9 May 2022, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned amid mass protests at the government’s handling of a deepening economic crisis. ------------- It can only be hoped that Bhutan’s remarkable transition under His Royal Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, from absolute monarchy and Buddhist kingdom, to constitutional, parliamentary democracy, does not see Bhutan go the same way as Sri Lanka. Constitution of Bhutan (adopted 2008) Excerpts: Article 3 Spiritual Heritage 1) Buddhism is the spiritual heritage of Bhutan, which promotes the principles and values of peace, non-violence, compassion and tolerance. 2) The Druk Gyalpo [king] is the protector of all religions in Bhutan. 3) It shall be the responsibility of religious institutions and personalities to promote the spiritual heritage of the country while also ensuring that religion remains separate from politics in Bhutan. Religious institutions and personalities shall remain above politics. Article 7 Fundamental Rights 2) Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech, opinion and expression. 3) A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to information. 4) A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. No person shall be compelled to belong to another faith by means of coercion or inducement. 12) A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, other than membership of associations that are harmful to the peace and unity of the country, and shall have the right not to be compelled to belong to any association. Around 2 percent of the population is Christian; almost all are recent converts. They are peaceful good citizens who pose no threat. Any move against them would most likely be motivated by political ambition. MUSLIM MAJORITY As fundamentalist Sunni Islam has risen across the region – courtesy Saudi Arabia – so too has the persecution of religious minorities. ----------------------- Classified as part of South Asia, Afghanistan is essentially a “fault-line” state; with everything north and west of the Hindu Kush leaning towards Persia and Central Asia, and everything south and east of the Hindu Kush leaning towards Pakistan and South Asia. It is one of the most war-ravaged and desperately needy countries in the world. Afghanistan is today an Islamic Republic where, according to the new US-backed constitution, all laws must be consistent with Islam. Consequently, there is no religious freedom for Islamic Sharia Law bans apostasy (conversion out of Islam), blasphemy (criticism or questioning of Islam), and proselytism (sharing a faith other than Islam). What’s more, everyone is obliged to follow Islamic social norms. 2004 Constitution Article 1 Article 2 Article 3 It is virtually impossible for a Christian to survive in Afghanistan today. Absent security, Christians will continue to flee Afghanistan. A growing community of Afghan converts to Christianity exists in Pakistan, and more are emerging in Afghan communities throughout the Diaspora. Recommended: Excerpt: Recommended: ---------------------- In 1971, East Pakistan’s long-marginalised and more secular ethnic Bengalis fought a bloody Liberation War against increasingly Islamist, racist and belligerent West Pakistan. The result was an independent Bangladesh. However, as the nation’s secular roots have eroded, so too have liberty and rule of law. Muslim persecution of religious minorities – i.e. Hindus and Christians – and non-Bengali Pharsis (indigenous hills tribes) has escalated markedly. The non-Bengali Pharsis of the Chittagong Hills Tracts – many of whom are Christian, and who have more in common with East India’s Mizo than with Bengali Muslims – are victims of predatory mass migration (i.e. state-sanctioned colonisation), Islamisation, military violence and other gross human rights abuses. See: -------------------------- Five hundred kilometres south-west of the southern-most tip of India is a series of coral atolls. Looking like a patch of emerald sequins, the Republic of Maldives stretches 885km across the Indian Ocean. Extravagantly beautiful, known for its luxury and elite tourism, the Republic of Maldives has long been one of the world’s most repressive Islamic police states. Just like its patron, Saudi Arabia, the Maldives boasts of being 100 percent Muslim. But just like its patron, it isn’t! Some dozens of Maldivians became Christians through the late 1980s and 1990s after Christian literature and gospel radio (broadcast from Seychelles) became available in the national language, Dhivehi. In June 1998, up to 50 local Christians were arrested, imprisoned and tortured in the notorious political prison of Dhoonidhoo, a tiny island close to the capital of Male. Arrested simply for being Christian, while in prison they were under intense pressure to participate in Islamic rituals and return to Islam. As a result of loud international protest, the Christian prisoners were released in November that year. Up to 25 foreign workers also were detained and their possessions confiscated before they were expelled from the country on allegations of missionary activity. Despite immense hardship and risk, a Maldivian Christian community continues to exist and grow, albeit deep “underground”. On Thursday 7 August 2008, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ratified Maldives’ new Constitution to much fanfare from the Western media which applauded the government for its embrace of democratic reforms. Clearly the Western media still regard religious liberty as a dispensable human right, for the new constitution discriminates against and marginalises non-Muslims, offers no guarantee of religious freedom, elevates Sharia (Islamic Law) as the supreme authority, and iterates that the rights and freedoms specified by the Constitution may be limited by law to protect the tenets of Islam. See: Since then, radical Islam has grown stronger and stronger due largely to the influence of Saudi Arabia. What’s more, hundreds of Maldivians who fought with Islamic jihadists in Syria have returned and are threatening to wreak havoc. See: On 16 April 2020, Islamic State claimed its first attack in the Maldives. Then, on the night of Thursday 6 May 2021, former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed (53) narrowly survived an assassination attempt in the capital Male when a homemade explosive attached to a motorcycle was detonated beside Mr Nasheed’s car. Suffering critical injuries to his head, chest, abdomen and limbs, Mr Nasheed was airlifted to Germany for further treatment. In 2008, Mr Nasheed became the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, only to be ousted in a coup four years later. He has long been an outspoken critic of hard-line Islamists and of Islamisation in the Maldives. The trend bodes ill for Maldivian Christians. Recommended: Excerpts: “At the time of partition in 1947, almost 23 percent of Pakistan’s population was comprised of non-Muslim citizens. Today, the proportion of non-Muslims has declined to approximately 3 percent. . . “The blueprint and arguments for the steps required to transform Pakistan into an Islamic State came from Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the South Asian analogue of the Arab Muslim Brotherhood. . . “Once Pakistan’s raison d’être had been defined in religious terms, the Islamist demands could not be held at bay. . . “General Zia ul Haq [a Sunni], Pakistan’s third military ruler who ruled from 1977-88, imposed a policy of state-led Islamization. Till the time of Zia, most Islamists believed, like Maududi, that given the opportunity any good Muslim would vote an Islamist party into power and set up an Islamic state. By the 1970s it was evident that given the choice Pakistanis, like others, voted for political parties which promised them roti, kapra, makan (food, clothing, housing). This led to what Vali Nasr refers to as the phenomenon of ‘top-down Islamization’ in countries like Malaysia and Pakistan. “As part of this Islamization process General Zia brought in rules and regulations which were supposed to bring Pakistani law more into tune with the Sharia, or at least the Sharia as interpreted by him and his cohorts. These laws, which included the infamous blasphemy law, had a long-term impact on Pakistan’s minorities. . .” Ispahani concludes: “The purification of Pakistan started soon after partition from India and was then institutionalized and legalized by military dictator Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. The Islamists are prevailing in the battle of ideas. Secular voices have been either physically eliminated or removed from the mainstream by judicial means. Therefore, it is in the interest of Pakistan’s neighbors and the international community to support the minority communities in Pakistan and to support the voices of those Pakistanis who refuse to give up the idea of a pluralist society.” Pakistan’s infamous Blasphemy Law goes back to General Zia ul-Haq’s policy of “top-down Islamisation”. Section XV (15) of the Pakistan Penal Code – articles 295 through 298-C – covers “Offences Relating to Religion”. Articles 295-B and 295-C were added in 1987 and establish the penalty of death for blasphemy against Islam.
Muslims from the Sunni majority routinely wield the blasphemy law as a weapon, to remove opponents, eliminate competitors, grab land, and cruelly persecute religious minorities, in particular Shi’ites, Ahmadiyya’s and Christians. Most accusations are baseless, made only for personal gain. What’s more, accusations routinely trigger, and are used to justify, violent Islamic pogroms in which entire Christian communities are collectively punished, their homes looted and torched while police stand idly by. As soon as someone is accused of blasphemy, they are arrested and jailed. They must then prove their innocence using a legal system that is totally stacked against them. Lawyers are often too afraid of radical Islamists to represent the accused. Judges are often too afraid to acquit innocent. Those who have done so, have subsequently needed to flee for their lives. Politicians who advocate for a revision of the law – in particular to ensure those who make false accusations are severely punished – have likewise been forced to flee the country. The blasphemy law is thus a “sword of Damocles” permanently suspended over the neck of Pakistan’s religious minorities and reformers. Recommended: Another horrendous trend in Pakistan is the abduction, forced Islamisation and forced marriage to Muslim men, of religious minority girls. Most victims are minors, and police and local courts routinely collude with Islamists to block all efforts at redress. Recommended: Excerpt (from executive summary) Example: Excerpt: Also: Excerpts: “In the exceedingly rare situation that the girls from religious minorities are returned to their families, the families and the girls are heavily pressured to drop the charges against their kidnappers. There is no criminal penalty for forced conversion outlined in the Pakistan Penal Code . . . the abductors of religious minority girls are rarely ever punished, thus allowing the crimes to be continuously perpetuated with impunity.” Compounding the problem of radicalisation and intolerance is the fact that Pakistan has more than 35,000 Islamic madrasas. While many have long been keen to “mainstream”, hard-line clerics wielding phenomenal and fearsome “street power” repeatedly derail all efforts. Any Pakistani government brave enough to pursue madrassa reform deserves all the support it can get. In February 2020, the US government signed a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban. Subsequently, ten Pakistani Islamic militant groups merged with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP: the Pakistani Taliban), which is based in the tribal borderlands of north-west Pakistan. Further to this, when the Afghan Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021, they released more than 5000 prisoners, of whom at least 2,300 were known hardened militants affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic State. Recommended: Peshawar’s churches and Christian communities may be more at risk now than at any time in Pakistan’s history. Recommended: Hindu Majority
India, Nepal
Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?
by V.D.Savarkar, originally published in 1923 (now almost impossible to get, although some e-commentaries are available on-line).
[The author of this page owns a copy published in 2009 by Hindi Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi, India.]
[Partition: Muslim majority Pakistan (includes East Pakistan, later known as Bangladesh) spits from Hindu majority India to form a “homeland” for Muslims.]
INDIA
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Hindutva!
By Elizabeth Kendal, Religious Liberty Monitoring, July 2014
India, Madhya Pradesh: anti-conversion law ramped up.
By Elizabeth Kendal, 2 Feb 2021
The Battle for Himachal Pradesh
By Elizabeth Kendal, 2 Oct 2019
Hindutva, Conversions and Violence
By Elizabeth Kendal, Religious Liberty Monitoring, 4 Nov 2015
Former BJP data analyst on how the party wins elections and influences people
The Caravan, 29 January 2019
How to Win an Indian Election: What Political Parties Don’t Want You to Know
by Shivam Shankar Singh (Ebury Press, Feb 2019).
Additional information source on India:
The Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI)
https://efionline.org/category/rlc-reports/
NEPAL
------------ Buddhist Majority
Sri Lanka, Bhutan
SRI LANKA
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BHUTAN
------------- Muslim Majority
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, The Maldives
AFGHANISTAN
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Afghanistan shall be an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state.
The sacred religion of Islam is the religion of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Followers of other faiths shall be free within the bounds of law in the exercise and performance of their religious rituals.
No law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam in Afghanistan.
Anticipating a rough horizon
U.S. troops are leaving Afghanistan, but the war on the Afghan people, and threats to the country’s underground Christians, are staying—and growing.
By Mindy Belz, World Magazine, 19 May 2021
“AMONG AFGHANISTAN’S non-Muslims are Christians who have seen a revival of faith and rapid growth since the U.S.-led liberation from the Taliban in 2001. There are basically three types of believers,” said a foreign worker in Afghanistan whom WORLD is not naming due to threats – “those who have been forced to leave the country, those who survive by exercising their faith underground, and those who are dead . . . Yet Muslims have continued to come to faith across the country.”
Afghanistan: Islam, the Taliban, and the Underground Church
By Elizabeth Kendal, 8 April 2022
BANGLADESH
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Hidden Genocide in Chittagong Hill Tracts
By Elizabeth Kendal, 8 Feb 2017
THE MALDIVES
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The Republic of the Maldives, 2008 Constitution
Analysis:
Religious Liberty Absent from New Constitution.
By Elizabeth Kendal, Religious Liberty Monitoring, 12 August 2008
Covid-19 sows Islamic trouble in Maldives paradise
Tourism-dependent island nation threatens to become a hotbed of religious extremism as economic desperation sets in.
By Bertil Lintner, Asia Times, 5 April 2020
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PAKISTAN
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Cleansing Pakistan of Minorities
by Farahnaz Ispahani, former member, Parliament of Pakistan.
Hudson Institute, 31 July 2013.
“When Pakistan was founded in 1947, its secular founding fathers wanted to create a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims, not an Islamic state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah [a Muslim from the long-persecuted Shia minority], recognized as Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader), clearly declared that non-Muslims would be equal citizens in the new country. But Pakistan’s trajectory after independence has been very different.
Whoever wilfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Qu’an or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.
Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights
A Freedom House Special Report.
REPORT ON Forced Marriages & Forced Conversions in the Christian Community of Pakistan
By Movement for Solidarity and Peace (MSP Inc.) Pakistan, April 2014.
“The prevalence and incidence of forced conversion and marriage are difficult to accurately estimate due to reporting deficiencies and the complex nature of the crime. Estimates therefore range from 100 to 700 victim Christian girls per year. For the Hindu community, the most conservative estimates put the number of victims at 300 per year.”
Pakistan: A Cry for Justice
By Elizabeth Kendal, 4 Nov 2020
“Not all [victims] are minors and not all are abducted. Some girls and parents are groomed, until they reluctantly become convinced it is the only way to escape poverty and persecution. By this means Christian and Hindu girls are either lured or trafficked from their own community into the Muslim community where they are exploited, abused and forced to produce Muslim babies.”
Pakistan: Abduction, Conversion and Child Marriage of Religious Minority Girls
By Jubilee Campaign, November 2020
“The police generally hold negative bias towards Christians due to the Islamic thought which permeates society . . . The police often refuse to file a First Information Report (FIR), and sometimes they falsify information, obstructing the families from getting their daughters back. When documentation is shown which prove that the girl is under 18 years, the police often disregard such evidence. . .
The Evolution and Future of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
By Abdul Sayed, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 21 Dec 2021
Pakistan: Christians in Peshawar Gravely Imperilled
By Elizabeth Kendal, 9 Feb 2022