23 July 2008
Pakistan court says the forced conversion of two kidnapped girls is legal
A Christian father in Pakistan is trying without success to gain custody through the courts of his two pre-teen daughters who were kidnapped and made to convert to Islam - writes Anto Akkara.
On 12 July 2008, a judge in Pakistan's Punjab province ignored pleas that Saba Younis, aged 12, and her 10 year old sister, Anila Younis, who went missing on 26 June from the small town of Chowk Munda, had been kidnapped while on their way to their uncle's residence and ruled that their conversion to Islam was legal.
The kidnappers, who had married the girls, had also filed for custody of the girls at a local police station on 28 June, asserting that the sisters had converted to Islam and their father no longer had jurisdiction over them.
"We are shocked by this court order," Anita Maria, a lawyer and a spokesperson for a Pakistani Christian group told Ecumenical News International recently. "Poor Christians in remote areas have to live with that." Maria said that in some cases young women who have been abducted are charged with adultery if they refuse to convert and marry their abductors.
The police had been unable to trace the girls, and members of the local Christian community were shocked when their abductors came forward to claim that the girls had converted to Islam and that they had married the girls.
The Muzaffargarh district court on 12 July said the disputed conversion of the girls was legal, and it was this ruling that left the local Christians stunned.
"We will move the [Lahore] high court to challenge this order," said Maria, who works as the programme coordinator for Pakistan's Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement.
The Pakistan Minorities Concern network said in a statement that Younis Masih, the father of the kidnapped girls, was threatened by the local police when he went to complain about the kidnapping of his daughters. The statement noted that the village has only a few Christian families living among 150 Muslim families, and said that police refused to support the Christian family. The network pointed out that in 2005, nearly 50 Hindu girls and 20 Christian girls were kidnapped and the majority had been forcibly converted to Islam.
"This is a travesty of justice. But unfortunately, this is the practice here," lamented Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Pakistan, which groups four Protestant churches. Azariah said, "The courts never help us."
Christians account for only about two percent of Pakistan's 168 million people, more than 90 percent of whom are Muslim.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
POSTED BY / www.ekklesia.co.uk
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This is what's happening to Greenland families:
http://sioe.wordpress.com/
Posted by: peter | 25 July 2008
E.Mail: minorities_concern_pakistan@yahoo.com
Forced converted Christian girls sent to a shelter by the
High Court In Pakistan
By Aftab Alexander Mughal
July 30, 2008
On July 29, Justice Saghir Ahmed, a judge of Multan Bench of Lahore High Court, Pakistan, sent two under aged Christian girls to a “darul aman” in Multan, a central city of Southern Punjab, for their safety. Darul aman is the name of institutions set up by government for the shelter of women needing temporary sanctuary or protection. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is also belongs to this ancient city.
The two Christian sisters; Saba Younis, 13 years old, and her younger sister, Anila, 10 years old -- were kidnapped on June 26 by a Muslim man, Muhammad Arif Bajwa and then forcibly converted to Islam.
When the matter came to the court, Main Naeem Sardar, District and Sessions Judge Muzaffargarh, on July 12, ordered that the girls cannot go back with their Christian parents because the girls are Muslim converts now.
The father of the girls, Younis Masih, filed an appeal to the high court where a Muslim lawyer, Rashid Rehman, pleaded his case. The court did not believe that the girls have accepted Islam by their own conscious will, therefore the girls were sent to a 'darul aman' so they could come out from under the pressure of the Muslims. The girls will again appear in the court on Aug. 4 and then the case will be decided according to the girls' statement.
“Although the situation is not very favorable, the court's decision is a very positive out come so far. At least now the girls would be out of some pressure from those Muslims with whom they forcedly lived for 34 days," Rashid Rehman, a Muslim lawyer appeared who before the court on Masih's behalf, told Minorities Concern of Pakistan.
The girls were kidnapped by a Muslim fruit vendor in Chowk Munda, a small town of Tehsil Kot Aadoo in District Muzafargrah (South Punjab) Pakistan. They had come from Chak No. 552, T.D.A, a Muslim dominated village, to Chowk Munda to see their uncle. Bajwa kidnapped the girls at gunpoint and told them to remain silent otherwise they would be killed. The girls were then taken to an unidentified place and later on sold to another Muslim man, Falak Sher Gill, said to be a criminal known for his notorious acts.
On June 27 the girls were forcefully converted to Islam and on June 28 Saba Younis was made to marry Gill's son Muhammad Amjid after receiving a Fatwa (religious decree) from a Muslim religious leader, to justify their action. Later on, it was disclosed that the Muslim religious leader was cheated to get 'fatwa.'
When Masih, the father of the girls, went to Gill to get his daughters back Gill refused to let them go, threatened him and said that now the girls had accepted Islam they could not return to their Christian family. Masih begged Gill to let his daughters go because they are so young.
Ashfaq Fateh, a Christian social worker from Toba Tek Singh told Minorities Concern of Pakistan that Gill warned Masih that if he filed a case against him his family would be killed. He also claimed that he could not be caught by the police or found guilty by any court.
Despite these threats, Masih reported all the details to the local police. However, no action has been taken to get the girls released and the police have told him to keep quite about the whole affair.
This incident has created terror among the Christians of Chak 552, T.D.A and adjoining areas where Christians are now very frightened to speak out against what has happened for fear of their lives and honor. There are 158 Muslim families in the Chak but only 14 Christian families. The law and order agencies are silent and hesitant to take actions against the culprits because they are Muslims.
Khalid Raheel, the uncle of the abducted girls, told Minorities Concern of Pakistan by telephone that Ahsan ul Haq, a local member of provincial assembly (MPA), who belongs to the ruling PPP party, is supporting the abductors. Raheel stated that when the Christian members of the local government visited the police station for help they were totally ignored. He went on to say that in this awful situation, they feel helpless.
The alleged culprits filed a case of harassment against Masih and his family claiming that as the girls have accepted Islam, Masih is threatening them and the other Muslims connected to the case. On the other hand, Masih also filed a petition in a local court for the recovery of his girls. Main Naeem Sardar, District and Sessions Judge Muzaffargarh, on July 12 declared because the girls admitted they are Muslim now they cannot go with their Christian parents instead (they must go) with Gill. According to Masih, the judge did not allow him to speak with his daughter. The girls' confession was made in the company of 16 Muslim men and under pressure. It is a common interpretation under Islamic law that a Christian cannot have custody of a Muslim.
This is the second time, in a very short space of time that Christian girls from this area have been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam and then made to marry a Muslim man without their consent.
In another incident about six months ago, a Christian woman Jamila Akhtar from the same village was kidnapped in a same area and sent to Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan. The Police did not help to find the missing woman and her aggrieved family is still waiting for a miracle to happen to bring their daughter back to them.
Although there are many such incidents in the cities, and especially in the villages in which girls of poor families are kidnapped by powerful people, it is easier to kidnap Christian, Hindu or Sikh girls, forcefully convert them to Islam and then make them marry any Muslim man. In such incidents, religious minorities generally struggle alone without the support of the authorities. The police and majority of the local Muslim community does not support non-Muslim families saying that 'when a girl has accepted Islam' she can not go back to her non-Muslim parents. Many cases of kidnapping of Christians girls in Punjab and Hindu girls in Singh have been reported by the human rights group but very few get media attention.
Religious minorities are only 3 percent (Christians are only 1.5 per cent) of the total population of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Under the constitution, religious minorities do not have equal rights as Muslims. Mainly minorities are poor, belong to labor class, and are living under constant pressure from the state and society.
There are however a few recorded cases of kidnapping of Christian girls as follow:
- On June 4, 2008 a Muslim Ramzan kidnapped two Christian sisters of Chak 285-JB, a village in Toba Tek Singh of Punjab province.
- On March 28, 2008, a Christian girl Farzana Rashid, 14, was kidnapped by policemen from her house in Lahore Cantonment. Later on, she was raped and charged under a false case.
- On May 14, 2008 a Christian girl Sumaira Rafiq Masih was raped by three influential landlords of the area while she was working in the fields near Patoki, Punjab province. Police have still not arrested the culprits.
- On Aug. 5, 2007 in Faisalabad, Punjab, two Christian girls aged 11 years and 13 years were kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to strangers.
- In another crime on May 26, 2006 a six-year old Sikh girl was forcibly converted to Islam at Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
- In 2005, about 50 Hindu and 20 Christian girls were kidnapped in the country and majority forcibly converted to Islam. END
Aftab Alexander Mughal
Editor
Minorities Concern of Pakistan
July 30, 2008
Posted by: Aftab Alexander Mughal | 30 July 2008
Thanks for posting this. It is an absolute outrage. Linked. http://wolfhowling.blogspot.com/2008/08/jihad-counter-terrorism-linkfest.html
Posted by: GW | 03 August 2008
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