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Jaweed Kaleem Religious Minorities In Islamic Pakistan Struggle But Survive Amid Increasing Persecution
KARACHI, Pakistan -- Every Sunday, thousands celebrate Mass at St. Peter's, a three-floor, 21,000-square-foot Catholic church that's the biggest in Pakistan. Dressed in their best tunics and loose cotton pants, worshippers sit barefoot in the pew-less building -- a style adapted from nearby mosques -- as they sing hymns to the sounds of drums and a piano. As the sun sets, a light shines in a 24-hour prayer room, something common in Western nations but a rarity here.
The success of St. Peter's, which cost $3.8 million to build -- making it the most expensive in the nation when it opened two years ago -- has been hailed as a sign of progress for Christians and religious minorities. Yet beyond its bold size and growing attendance, the difficulties parishioners face stand out here as much as at any other non-Muslim house of worship in this overwhelmingly Islamic country. Guards are outside to protect worshippers from would-be suicide bombers and attackers. Prayers for recent Christian martyrs are said regularly during services. Priests use nonalcoholic wine or grape juice during Holy Communion, partly because it's cheaper, but also to avoid inflaming Muslims who believe drinking is sinful.
While global leaders have focused efforts in this part of the world on fighting the increasing sway of extremists, activists and human rights observers have noticed a different problem spreading inside Pakistan: the targeting of religious minorities. This month, a Pew Research Center report named Pakistan, which is 96 percent Muslim, one of the most hostile nations for religious minorities. Pew placed the country among the top five overall for restrictions on religion, singling out its anti-blasphemy statutes. Courts frequently use such laws to give death or lifetime-jail sentences to minorities accused of insulting Islam. Often, their crime is as simple as openly professing their own faiths. A study on Pakistan from the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom counted more than 200 attacks among religious groups and 1,800 casualties resulting from religion-related violence between 2012 and mid-2013, one of the highest rates in the world.
The problem isn't limited to Christians. All religious minorities in Pakistan face daily reminders of their plight, including discriminatory laws, forced conversions, and bombs and shootings aimed at minority-sect Muslims, such as Shiites and Ahmadis. According to human rights groups, public school textbooks regularly demonize minorities and emphasize the nation's Islamic roots over contributions from people of other faiths. Labor studies have shown minorities stuck on the lower rung of the economy, often working as servants, sweepers and day laborers. Newspapers occasionally report on businesses that deny non-Muslim customers.
"Things have gone from bad to worse to very much worse," said Robert George, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan group that monitors religious rights abuses and advises the president, Congress and State Department on foreign policy.
But despite an overall grim picture, stories of minority empowerment are slowly growing, from sparkling new houses of worship like St. Peter's to burgeoning, organized self-defense efforts among non-Muslims. A host of interfaith activist movements is blossoming, pushing for multi-faith education and less violence, while gaining support from pastors and universities.
A handful of minority leaders are now speaking internationally in the media and through religious and human rights organizations. They hope diplomatic pressure from the U.S. -- a strident political ally and source of aid to the nation -- and global religious leaders can strengthen the climate for minorities here. A more tolerant Pakistan, they say, would translate into another goal for many: less tolerance for terrorists.
"The same people who have declared the West to be their enemy are the ones who have declared non-Muslims and even Shiite Muslims here to be the same," said Michelle Chaudhry, the founder of the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, a Pakistani nonprofit that focuses on promoting interfaith cooperation and education for non-Muslims. "As terrorism has gotten worse since Sept. 11, so has the situation among minorities."
It used to be different. Before British colonial India was partitioned into India and Pakistan in 1947, more than one-fifth of the population of what would become Pakistan was non-Muslim. Most fled to India during the creation of the Muslim state, though largely peaceful relations among faiths continued during Pakistan's early decades. But in 1978, the nation began a 10-year process of "Islamization" under military dictator Zia-ul-Haq. He pushed to convert secular laws into religious ones, installing Sharia courts and enacting anti-blasphemy statutes. Through the 1990s and 2000s, conservative Islamic movements gained cultural and political sway, subverting the region's historically more open approach to faith, including non-Islamic traditions.
Today, religious minorities total just 9 million among 183 million Pakistanis. The biggest groups are Christians and Hindus, each of which accounts for less than 2 percent of the population. Smaller are the numbers of Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Bahá'ís, Jews and Ahmadi Muslims. Shiite Muslims make up about a quarter of Pakistanis, but they, too, find themselves increasingly persecuted by dominating Sunni factions.
Though Pakistan's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, reports of forced conversions to Islam, kidnappings of non-Muslims, job discrimination, blasphemy arrests and razings of minority houses of worship are frequent. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 34 people were charged with blasphemy in 2013. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch reports that at least 16 people are on death row in the country for blasphemy, and 20 are serving life sentences.
Pakistanis recognize the religious tensions -- in a recent Pew survey, 57 percent singled out religious conflict as a major national problem. And some are taking matters into their own hands.
In Akhtar Colony, a poor, mostly Christian neighborhood, retired Pakistani navy officer Munawar Chouhan has offered free self-defense courses for amateur church security guards since early fall. His school caters exclusively to Christians in their teens and 20s, whom he recruits through newspaper ads, then trains out of an office. Chouhan drills volunteers in security sweep techniques, using diagrams and beat-up mannequins to demonstrate how to detect bombs and guns. They learn to spot bulky clothing, unfamiliar faces, and unclaimed bags and purses.
"There are always two sides to Pakistan and two sides to being a non-Muslim in this country," said Chouhan.
He began his classes after Pakistani Taliban-linked suicide bombers killed 78 worshippers and injured 130 others in September at a Catholic church in Peshawar, a northwestern provincial capital near Afghanistan. "For every good story, there's a bad one. We need to protect our own, or no one else will," Chouhan said.
A Catholic and a parishioner at St. Peter's, Chouhan, like most minorities, has adopted the Islamic greeting of "assalamualaikum" ("peace be upon you"). He has trained at least 75 guards, and dispatched them to churches around the city. He has no doubt that his program keeps suspicious characters away from houses of worship, though his students have yet to catch a would-be attacker. "For people that can feel helpless in being part of their religion, we are giving them a way to take charge again," he said.
The program is one of many. In Peshawar and Lahore, Christian leaders have mandated that churches train volunteer guards; some have added security fences and metal detectors. The Catholic Church -- Catholicism is Pakistan's biggest Christian denomination -- has started at least 15 city-based "community protection groups," ecumenical networks tasked with monitoring threats to local churches and human rights violations among Christians, such as coerced marriages to Muslims. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Association, a group of former members of the army, now provides free guards outside dozens of churches around the country on Sundays.
"We are fighting for our survival," said William Sadiq, a Protestant activist who works with Chouhan and runs the Action Committee for Human Rights, a social service organization in Karachi. "If the extremists see more of us standing up for ourselves, they might begin to stand down."
KARACHI, Pakistan -- Every Sunday, thousands celebrate Mass at St. Peter's, a three-floor, 21,000-square-foot Catholic church that's the biggest in Pakistan. Dressed in their best tunics and loose cotton pants, worshippers sit barefoot in the pew-less building -- a style adapted from nearby mosques -- as they sing hymns to the sounds of drums and a piano. As the sun sets, a light shines in a 24-hour prayer room, something common in Western nations but a rarity here.
The success of St. Peter's, which cost $3.8 million to build -- making it the most expensive in the nation when it opened two years ago -- has been hailed as a sign of progress for Christians and religious minorities. Yet beyond its bold size and growing attendance, the difficulties parishioners face stand out here as much as at any other non-Muslim house of worship in this overwhelmingly Islamic country. Guards are outside to protect worshippers from would-be suicide bombers and attackers. Prayers for recent Christian martyrs are said regularly during services. Priests use nonalcoholic wine or grape juice during Holy Communion, partly because it's cheaper, but also to avoid inflaming Muslims who believe drinking is sinful.
While global leaders have focused efforts in this part of the world on fighting the increasing sway of extremists, activists and human rights observers have noticed a different problem spreading inside Pakistan: the targeting of religious minorities. This month, a Pew Research Center report named Pakistan, which is 96 percent Muslim, one of the most hostile nations for religious minorities. Pew placed the country among the top five overall for restrictions on religion, singling out its anti-blasphemy statutes. Courts frequently use such laws to give death or lifetime-jail sentences to minorities accused of insulting Islam. Often, their crime is as simple as openly professing their own faiths. A study on Pakistan from the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom counted more than 200 attacks among religious groups and 1,800 casualties resulting from religion-related violence between 2012 and mid-2013, one of the highest rates in the world.
The problem isn't limited to Christians. All religious minorities in Pakistan face daily reminders of their plight, including discriminatory laws, forced conversions, and bombs and shootings aimed at minority-sect Muslims, such as Shiites and Ahmadis. According to human rights groups, public school textbooks regularly demonize minorities and emphasize the nation's Islamic roots over contributions from people of other faiths. Labor studies have shown minorities stuck on the lower rung of the economy, often working as servants, sweepers and day laborers. Newspapers occasionally report on businesses that deny non-Muslim customers.
"Things have gone from bad to worse to very much worse," said Robert George, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan group that monitors religious rights abuses and advises the president, Congress and State Department on foreign policy.
But despite an overall grim picture, stories of minority empowerment are slowly growing, from sparkling new houses of worship like St. Peter's to burgeoning, organized self-defense efforts among non-Muslims. A host of interfaith activist movements is blossoming, pushing for multi-faith education and less violence, while gaining support from pastors and universities.
A handful of minority leaders are now speaking internationally in the media and through religious and human rights organizations. They hope diplomatic pressure from the U.S. -- a strident political ally and source of aid to the nation -- and global religious leaders can strengthen the climate for minorities here. A more tolerant Pakistan, they say, would translate into another goal for many: less tolerance for terrorists.
"The same people who have declared the West to be their enemy are the ones who have declared non-Muslims and even Shiite Muslims here to be the same," said Michelle Chaudhry, the founder of the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, a Pakistani nonprofit that focuses on promoting interfaith cooperation and education for non-Muslims. "As terrorism has gotten worse since Sept. 11, so has the situation among minorities."
It used to be different. Before British colonial India was partitioned into India and Pakistan in 1947, more than one-fifth of the population of what would become Pakistan was non-Muslim. Most fled to India during the creation of the Muslim state, though largely peaceful relations among faiths continued during Pakistan's early decades. But in 1978, the nation began a 10-year process of "Islamization" under military dictator Zia-ul-Haq. He pushed to convert secular laws into religious ones, installing Sharia courts and enacting anti-blasphemy statutes. Through the 1990s and 2000s, conservative Islamic movements gained cultural and political sway, subverting the region's historically more open approach to faith, including non-Islamic traditions.
Today, religious minorities total just 9 million among 183 million Pakistanis. The biggest groups are Christians and Hindus, each of which accounts for less than 2 percent of the population. Smaller are the numbers of Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Bahá'ís, Jews and Ahmadi Muslims. Shiite Muslims make up about a quarter of Pakistanis, but they, too, find themselves increasingly persecuted by dominating Sunni factions.
Though Pakistan's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, reports of forced conversions to Islam, kidnappings of non-Muslims, job discrimination, blasphemy arrests and razings of minority houses of worship are frequent. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 34 people were charged with blasphemy in 2013. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch reports that at least 16 people are on death row in the country for blasphemy, and 20 are serving life sentences.
Pakistanis recognize the religious tensions -- in a recent Pew survey, 57 percent singled out religious conflict as a major national problem. And some are taking matters into their own hands.
In Akhtar Colony, a poor, mostly Christian neighborhood, retired Pakistani navy officer Munawar Chouhan has offered free self-defense courses for amateur church security guards since early fall. His school caters exclusively to Christians in their teens and 20s, whom he recruits through newspaper ads, then trains out of an office. Chouhan drills volunteers in security sweep techniques, using diagrams and beat-up mannequins to demonstrate how to detect bombs and guns. They learn to spot bulky clothing, unfamiliar faces, and unclaimed bags and purses.
"There are always two sides to Pakistan and two sides to being a non-Muslim in this country," said Chouhan.
He began his classes after Pakistani Taliban-linked suicide bombers killed 78 worshippers and injured 130 others in September at a Catholic church in Peshawar, a northwestern provincial capital near Afghanistan. "For every good story, there's a bad one. We need to protect our own, or no one else will," Chouhan said.
A Catholic and a parishioner at St. Peter's, Chouhan, like most minorities, has adopted the Islamic greeting of "assalamualaikum" ("peace be upon you"). He has trained at least 75 guards, and dispatched them to churches around the city. He has no doubt that his program keeps suspicious characters away from houses of worship, though his students have yet to catch a would-be attacker. "For people that can feel helpless in being part of their religion, we are giving them a way to take charge again," he said.
The program is one of many. In Peshawar and Lahore, Christian leaders have mandated that churches train volunteer guards; some have added security fences and metal detectors. The Catholic Church -- Catholicism is Pakistan's biggest Christian denomination -- has started at least 15 city-based "community protection groups," ecumenical networks tasked with monitoring threats to local churches and human rights violations among Christians, such as coerced marriages to Muslims. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Association, a group of former members of the army, now provides free guards outside dozens of churches around the country on Sundays.
"We are fighting for our survival," said William Sadiq, a Protestant activist who works with Chouhan and runs the Action Committee for Human Rights, a social service organization in Karachi. "If the extremists see more of us standing up for ourselves, they might begin to stand down."
