Raja Masih and Rita hold up a photo of their daughter Arzoo | Fahim Siddiqui/White Star
On the Sunday before Christmas, a historic church in Karachi looks ready to be featured on a ‘happy holidays’ postcard. The church’s stained-glass windows provide the perfect backdrop for the day’s congregational prayers. There’s a little cardboard and cotton ‘snowman’ by the door, and the pillars are covered with Christmas decorations. During the prayers, the socially-distanced and mask-wearing churchgoers pray for those in need, for the wellbeing of their community and their daughters, and even for Pakistan’s president and prime minister.
A year of conversions and coronavirus in Pakistan
Let s hope 2021 brings more good news for our country and a cure for the pandemic of prejudice
Arzoo Raja is escorted to Sindh High Court in Karachi on Nov. 9. (Photo: Nadim Bhatti)
What an experience 2020 has been. While much of the world came to a stop at times during the pandemic, the Pakistan Church continued the battle against blasphemy and forced conversions.
The walls of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore share the highlights of this year’s long struggles.
“Wear a mask, save yourself and others” and “We strongly condemn the kidnapping of 13-year-old Arzoo [Raja] and her forceful conversion and marriage to a 44-year-old person” state the banners at its entrance. Other banners express solidarity with Muslim siblings in condemning the blasphemous statements by French President Emmanuel Macron and atrocities in Kashmir.
Pakistani Catholic accuses police of converting his family Church alarmed at unusual rise in forced religious conversions of underage girls from minorities, hate speech and sectarianism
Sultan Masih and his three-year-old daughter Malka at their house in Islami Colony, Bahawalpur. (Photo by Sultan Masih)
Catholic driver Sultan Masih was shocked when a deputy superintendent of police showed him religious conversion certificates of his wife and daughter. I was asked if I obeyed the laws of the country. They told me to consult church leaders. I never saw my family again, Masih told UCA News.
Masih also appealed to authorities and community members in a video message being circulated on social media.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is setting up a special centre to examine forced religious conversion and the underage marriage of minority girls.
The announcement was made by Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, special aide to Prime Minister Imran Khan on religious affairs and chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council, in a tweet on Dec 16.
“A Special Coordination Centre has been established to address the issues of minorities. No one will be allowed to cause panic in the country over the issues of forceful conversions and underage marriages,” Ashrafi said.
“The issues being faced by nonMuslim Pakistanis will be addressed by the formation of interfaith harmony councils.”
Arzoo Raja is escorted to Sindh High Court in Karachi on Nov. 9. (Photo: Nadim Bhatti)
Pakistan is setting up a special center to examine forced religious conversion and the underage marriage of minority girls.
The announcement was made by Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, the special aide to Prime Minister Imran Khan on religious affairs and chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council, in a tweet on Dec. 16.
“A Special Coordination Center has been established to address the issues of minorities. No one will be allowed to make panic in the country on the issues of forceful conversions and underage marriages,” Ashrafi said.
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