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Blasphemy Allegations Claim Another Life in Pakistan

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A Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot, Pakistan was brutally murdered and set on fire by a mob chanting slogans of Tehreek e Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The manager allegedly removed TLP posters. The mob falsely accused him of blasphemy to justify their actions.

In response to a question from Global Strat View, a State Department spokesperson commented, “We are deeply disturbed and saddened by the unspeakable tragic event at the Sialkot factory. We urge relevant authorities to investigate and bring those responsible for heinous and unlawful violence to justice.”

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said the “horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot and the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan. I am overseeing the investigations and let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law.”

Key findings from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) report Violating Rights: Enforcing the World’s Blasphemy Laws, show that nearly 80% of the incidents of mob activity, violence, or threats (with or without state enforcement) related to blasphemy allegations, took place in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Egypt. Among countries with state blasphemy laws, Pakistan has the most number of reported cases.

Blasphemy accusations have often sparked violence in Pakistan. Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer, who was an outspoken critic of the blasphemy law, was murdered in 2011 by his bodyguard for speaking out against it. Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s former Federal Minister of Minorities Affairs and the first Christian parliamentarian in Pakistan’s government was assassinated by Tehrik-i-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban. Both Taseer and Bhatti had advocated for the release of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian who spent nearly a decade in prison after being sentenced to death for blasphemy. Bibi was freed after pressure from the international community.

Pakistani media has blamed the government for mainstreaming radical groups like TLP. Pakistani journalist Nadeem Farooq Paracha tweeted, “Stop calling what happened today as ‘madness’. It was normalized by the state and government decades ago. It became a new norm. If you want to call anyone mad, then call them mad. They did it through myopic politics, textbooks, mainstreaming, and by appeasing hatemongers.”

Pakistani policy analyst and journalist Raza Ahmad Rumi tweeted, “The videos of his lynching/burning are brutal reminders of state policies that have radicalized generations, normalizing murders and mainstreaming radical groups.”

Pakistan lifted its ban on the radical Islamist TLP last month after an agreement was reached with the government that TLP would call off its proposed march to the capital, Islamabad. The government defended its decision to lift the ban, saying it was in the larger national interest and would prevent future violence from TLP.

TLP was banned last year after violent protests in response to the republication of cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Religious Minorities Continue to Suffer in Pakistan

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The Pakistani government is content to spout platitudes and holiday greetings to religious minorities, but continues to turn a blind eye to forced conversions and atrocities against them. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted “Wishing all our Hindu community a happy Diwali,” but his government has a dismal record in safeguarding its minority communities, including Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs.

 

Nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities (most of them minors) are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, and forcibly married to much older men.

 

As recently reported in Dawn, a  parliamentary committee in Pakistan rejected an anti-forced conversion bill, with Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri saying the “environment is unfavorable” for formulating a law against forced conversions. 

 

Global Strat View reached out to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for comment on forced conversions in Pakistan. In an email response, they said,  “The issue of abduction, forced conversion to Islam, rape, and forced marriage remained an imminent threat for religious minority women and children, particularly from the Hindu and Christian faiths. During 2020, USCIRF documented incidents of forced marriages, more than half involving minors. The government did little to ensure minor girls’ safety and return to their families. Authorities often do not take any action, and in abduction cases that are brought to the courts, officials have claimed that victims willingly converted to Islam. The head of the Parliamentary Committee on Forced Religious Conversions, Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar, claimed that most cases of forced conversion “have some degree of willingness on the part of the girl.” 

 

USCIRF further said that “Pakistani courts systematically failed to protect and provide justice to victims, who are often forced to testify that they converted voluntarily to protect themselves and their families from further harm. In April, Myra Shahbaz, a 14-year-old Christian schoolgirl, was abducted at gunpoint. Despite Myra telling police she was drugged, raped, and forced to sign papers her abductor later used to allege that she was 19 and had voluntarily married and converted, the court ordered that she be returned to her abductor.”

 

USCIRF’s 2021 Annual Report chapter on Pakistan, addresses forced conversion in further detail. On the recommendation of USCIRF, the U.S State Department re-designated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.