There were continued reports that some madrassahs taught violent extremist doctrine, which the government sought to curb through madrassah registration and curriculum reform. In November, the government finalized its Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content Rules 2020, which sought to codify the PTAs authority to regulate content the government deemed unlawful. The rules not only enhanced the PTAs ability to compel online content platforms such as Facebook, Googles YouTube, Twitter, and Wikipedia to remove content but also extended the regulators purview to include local internet service providers that could also be held liable for such content.
Pakistan's Perpetual Shia Shame - SOUTH ASIAN TRIBUNE Religion in Pakistan - WorldAtlas According to civil society and media reports, the government restricted the movement and activities of these individuals because they were known for exacerbating sectarian tensions. Their refusal to sign the statement meant they were automatically disqualified from fulfilling the admissions requirements. The court also barred her alleged husband and his family from meeting her and ordered police to arrest those who facilitated the marriage. The government of Punjab, the countrys largest province, passed a series of measures against Ahmadi Muslim beliefs. According to the Center for Social Justice, a national nongovernmental organization (NGO), at least 199 individuals were accused of blasphemy offenses, a significant increase over 2019 and the highest number of blasphemy cases in a single year in the countrys history. According to local sources, the high-profile case led to communal tensions in Jacobabad, the couples home district, and clerics from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal party publicly accused the girl of apostasy and called for her death. Legal observers also reported judges and magistrates often delayed or continued trials indefinitely to avoid confrontation with, or violence from, groups provoking protests. The four men were charged with defacing antiquities. Zaidi. In May, Daniel Masih appealed to the court in the Sargodha District of Punjab, urging authorities to rescue his brother Bashir and his family from bonded labor under a Muslim landlord. The Hindu community in Sindh and Balochistan remained vulnerable to targeted killings and kidnappings for ransom. / shia surnames in pakistan. Pakistan's Human Rights Commission reported more than 200 terrorist attacks resulted in nearly 700 Shia deaths and over 1,000 Shia injuries in 2013. the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also reported over 600 Shias were killed for their faith between 1999 and 2003. Following complaints by some Sunni groups, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority temporarily suspended 24 News from broadcasting, citing Jaffars comments as hate-inciting content.. On December 2, the Secretary of State redesignated 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 and announced a waiver of the sanctions that accompany designation as required in the important national interests of the United States. Sitting by his grave, she tells the story of the day she lost her brother in the attack, a sequence of bomb blasts which killed at least 45 . Data on sectarian attacks varied because no standardized definition existed of what constituted a sectarian attack among reporting organizations. On January 21, the center in Khairpur hosted a Religious Freedom Day event at which 25 students discussed the importance of being able to practice religion freely in Pakistan. . Wafaqs (independent academic boards) register seminaries, regulate curricula, and issue degrees. Blasphemy is a capital offence in Pakistan and even unsubstantiated allegations can lead to mob violence and lynchings against the accused. 4,465,000. In addition to addressing a legal gap by providing documentation needed for identity registration, divorce, and inheritance, the Hindu Marriage Acts allow marriages to be voided when consent was obtained by force, coercion, or by fraud. The acts allow for the termination of the marriage upon the conversion of one party to a religion other than Hinduism.
Population of Pakistan Total Population of Provinces Wise The HRCP said forced conversions of young women of minority faiths, often lower-caste Hindu girls from rural Sindh province, continued to occur. According to government figures, the remaining 4 percent includes Ahmadi Muslims (whom national law does not recognize as Muslim); Hindus; Christians, including Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants, among others; Parsis/Zoroastrians; Bahais; Sikhs; Buddhists; Kalash; and Kihals and Jains.
Pakistan's Shias Face Double Threat: Extremists and Their Own The penal code does not explicitly criminalize apostasy, but renouncing Islam is widely considered by clerics to be a form of blasphemy, which can carry the death penalty. The group also painted slogans insulting the Ahmadiyya community. The wafaqs operate through an umbrella group, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan, to represent their interests to the government. extremist, and militant groups have come together to harass the Shia population right in the eyesight of the country's security apparatus. At the end of the year, CLAAS was planning to take the case to the Federal Ombudsman.
The story of Pakistan's 'disappeared' Shias - BBC News Shia Population - Worldmapper The government said Ahmadis could qualify for admission if they did not claim to be Muslims. This is probably an attempt to contain any outbreak of violence, because Shias in Pakistan are a sizeable minority. On October 10, 1993, the then Central government had announced elected . How many Shia are in India?
op-ed - Churn in Ladakh: Hot political winds in a cold desert The Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act allows local government officials in that province to register marriages between a Sikh man and Sikh woman solemnized by a Sikh Anand Karaj marriage registrar.
Pakistani Shia end protests; hold funerals for slain 11 miners According to Pew Research Center, adherents of Shiite Islam in Pakistan make up between 15-20% of the country's total population. Human rights groups reported an increase in blasphemy cases and allegations against members of the Shia Muslim community. Hindu activists in Sindh reported discrimination against the Hindu community during COVID-19 food-relief efforts by private charities. Members of this religious group have suffered persecution specifically from Mughal Emperors. 3.72; Encyclopaedia Britannica 4 Oct. 2019; US 18 Dec. 2019), or "some 17-26 million people" ( Encyclopaedia Britannica 4 Oct. 2019). Planning and execution of decennial Population & Housing Census. As of years end, the case was awaiting prosecution. We call upon authorities to ensure the safety of all Pakistanis.. NEW DELHI: Successive Pakistan governments under the garb of development have undertaken an exercise to change demographic composition of Gilgit Baltistan and local Shia population has been reduced to less than 50 per cent compared to 1948. Over the past month, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in attacks and arrests of its Shia population, who make up between 15% and 20% of the Sunni-majority country, the largest Shia community outside Iran. The rallies occurred days after a unanimous resolution by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly condemning anti-Islam statements and the republication in France of the Charlie Hebdo cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. Targeted killings of Shia and Ahmadi Muslims and violence and discrimination against Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadi Muslims continued to occur. Prime Minister Imran Khan gave verbal approval to build the temple following a request from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Hindu and Christian members of the National Assembly. Page 2 of 41 Preface. Ahmadis continued to report widespread societal harassment and discrimination against community members, including physical attacks, destruction of homes and personal property, and threats intended to force Ahmadis to abandon their jobs or towns. The victims, burned to death by an angry mob, were Babar Noman and Hafiz Naeem. Shias adhere to the teachings of Islamic prophet Muhammad, but differ from Sunni in following the religious guidance of his family (who are referred to as the Ahl al-Bayt) or his descendants known as Shi'a Imams, whom they consider to be infallible. On July 31, Hindu business owner and member of the Khairpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries Raja Kishan Chand was killed by unknown gunmen in that city.
Religious Minorities in Pakistan: Identities, Citizenship and Social According to civil society reports, there were many individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and at least 35 under sentences of death, compared with 82 individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and 29 under sentences of death in 2019. The court acquitted a second Christian in December. The stronghold of Barelvism remains Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan. In 2018 the Islamabad High Court issued a judgment requiring citizens to declare an affidavit of faith to join the armed forces, judiciary, and civil services and directed parliament to amend laws to ensure Ahmadis did not use Islamic terms or have names associated with Islam. In the absence of specific language in the law authorizing civil or common law marriage, marriage certificates are signed by religious authorities and registered with the local marriage registrar. (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics) However, according to data from the 2017 Census that was made unofficially available to a lawmaker, the Hindu population may have decreased by 0.19% from 1998. In October, Punjab police arrested three Ahmadis for using Islamic symbols and practices in their mosque. In December 2019, the parliament passed and Modi signed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows for the fast-tracking of citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian. According to Ahmadiyya leaders, the government effectively disenfranchised their community by requiring voters to swear an oath affirming the finality of the Prophethood of Mohammed, something that they stated was against Ahmadi belief, in order to register as Muslims. A June 2020 online survey by the Netherlands-based Gamaan Group found 37% of Iranians identifying as Muslims of which 32% are Shia Islam, 5% Sunni Islam and 3% Shia . Although there were no official obstacles to the advancement of minority religious group members in the military, they said that in practice, non-Muslims rarely rose above the rank of colonel and were not assigned to senior positions.
Lebanon - The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency - CIA Several minority rights advocacy groups dispute the provisional results of the 2017 census and state the numbers underrepresent their true population and their political influence, because minority seats in the national and provincial parliaments are allocated based on census figures. The special assistant to the Prime Minister for religious harmony, Tahir Ashrafi, said it was the responsibility of the government and court to punish the perpetrator in a televised interview. 2. While schools were required to teach Islamic studies and the Quran to Muslim students, sources reported many non-Muslim students were also required to participate because their schools did not offer parallel courses in their own religious beliefs or ethics. Embassy officers met with civil society leaders, experts, and journalists to stress the need to protect the rights of religious minorities and to continue to support measures that decrease sectarian violence. Any country in which Muslims make up 50% or more of the population is considered a Muslim majority country. He fears if he is seen on the streets of Karachi, the Pakistan city he calls home, he will be a dead man walking. The militants were also convicted for running an al-Qaida media cell in Gujranwala. In Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provinces, private schools are also required to teach Islamic studies and the Quran to Muslim students. Dr Nauman Naqvi, an associate professor at Habib University in Karachi, said: Since Pakistans economic and political outlook appears increasingly troubled, the ruling power see Sunni majoritarian populism as the only option to secure stability, undercut democratic forces and distract from the grave political and economic crises that hover over Pakistan. In August, a case was opened against three Ahmadi men after an official of a religious seminary approached police complaining that the men sacrificed an animal on Eid al-Adha. Among the restrictions outlined in the bill, publishers, editors, and translators would be barred from printing or publishing any book and material containing statements or anything deemed to be of a blasphemous nature. "No one knew where I was for 21 . According to religious minority activists, provincial governments also often failed to meet quotas for hiring religious minorities into the civil service. The PTA cited public complaints against an unauthentic version of the Quran uploaded by the Ahmadiyya community on the Google Play Store and information that portrayed Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim on Wikipedia, which the PTA characterized as misleading, wrong, deceptive, and deceitful. The PTA successfully removed the same Quran application from the Apple Store in July. Three suspects were arrested for the rape but were released on bail, and the girls family said they harassed and pressured the girl to withdraw the case. Pakistan's president gives Shias an exemption, but the sectarian confrontation becomes an important political issue in the country.
Shia Muslims Population - World Shia Muslims Population Shias: Heretics in a Sunni Pakistan - Modern Diplomacy The two major powers in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia, an Arab population ruled by a Sunni majority, and Iran, a Persian population ruled by a Shia majority. Parents may send children to private schools, including religious schools, at the familys expense. Islamist political parties and Punjab Provincial Assembly speaker Chaudhry Elahi (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PTI party) criticized the decision before written approval was issued, however, declaring new temples should never be built in an Islamic country. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, Section II. NGOs expressed concern that authorities often failed to intervene in instances of societal violence against religious minorities due to fear of retaliation, inadequate staff, or apathy. Parliament, church leaders, and advocates continued to debate the text of a draft law to govern Christian marriages nationwide, because the existing regulation dated from 1872. Pakistan: Shia Muslims . Though Kareem had meant it as a post of religious devotion, it caught the attention of an extremist Sunni Muslim group, who called him a traitor to Muslims. 3.72; Encyclopaedia Britannica 4 Oct. 2019; US 18 Dec. 2019), or "some 17-26 million people" (Encyclopaedia Britannica 4 Oct. 2019). 2020, in July, 2020, Pakistani police arrested three LeJ operatives who were allegedly planning to carry out an attack in . According to regulations, the only factors affecting admission to government schools are students grades and home provinces, although students must declare their religious affiliation on application forms. I fear for myself and my family. With the police on their way to interrogate him, and fearing the violent fate that extremist Sunni groups in Pakistan inflict on those accused of blasphemy, last month Kareem and his family chose to disappear. [see also: Population country ranks ] Nationality: These observers said the general refusal of lower courts to hold timely hearings or acquit those accused persisted due to fear of reprisal and vigilantism. At least 40 cases were registered against Shias in one month Police intervened on multiple occasions to quell mob violence directed at individuals accused of blasphemy. The resolution stated, This House demands that if the chief of Qadianis [a derogatory term for Ahmadis] submits in writing declaring that they accept the Constitution of Pakistan and accept their status as non-Muslims, then we will have no objection to their inclusion into the Commission.. Representatives of the Kalash, an indigenous group in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, continued to report their youth were under pressure from Muslim schoolteachers and others to convert from their traditional beliefs. In July, Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam [protection of foundation of Islam bill] was passed by the Punjab assembly, which supported only the Sunni interpretation of Islam, provoking a huge backlash from the Shia community. In May, the Cabinet approved a Religious Affairs Ministry proposal establishing a National Commission for Minorities housed within the ministry.
PDF Estimated Percentage Range of Shia by Country - Pew Research Center The National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR), an independent government-funded agency that reports to parliament, is required to receive petitions, conduct investigations, and request remediation of human rights abuses. Neither the National Assembly nor the Senate had acted on the 2018 judgment by years end, but Ahmadiyya community representatives said that NADRA required Ahmadis to declare in an affidavit that they are non-Muslims to obtain a national identification card, another requirement of the high court judgment. In July 2020, Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam (protection of foundation of Islam bill) was passed by the Punjab assembly, which supported only the Sunni interpretation of Islam, provoking a huge . No arrests were made, and no one was charged.
World Shia Muslims Population - Home In May 2000, the Shia Muslims based in the Gilgit district of the then Northern Areas began to agitate against the recently changed curriculum of government schools in the region. In a statement, the Pakistan Hindu Council condemned the killing as well as two other July incidents of violence towards Hindu citizens in the district. According to the SATP and media reports, antiterrorism courts convicted and sentenced several individuals affiliated with terrorist organizations and involved in past sectarian attacks and targeted killings. The constitution prohibits discriminatory admission based on religious affiliation to any governmental educational institution. Authorities also consult the ministry on matters such as blasphemy and Islamic education. The NCHR is also mandated to monitor the governments implementation of human rights and review and propose legislation. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), however, the number of sectarian attacks and killings by armed groups decreased compared with previous years, corresponding with a continued overall decline in terrorist attacks. On August 23, the Sindh provincial government barred 142 firebrand speakers and religious scholars from leaving their home districts for 60 days to avoid violent disturbances during Shia Muharram commemorations. * Name has been changed to protect identity, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning.
With Article 370 gone, Shias in Kashmir are in a state of - ThePrint Some personal laws regulating marriage, divorce, and inheritance for minority communities date from prepartition British legislation. Despite these problems some international organizations have researched and reported some statistics. According to her parents, the girl had been abducted and raped after being forcibly converted to Islam in Karachi.
Iran's Approach to Embattled Shiites in Pakistan is Different Than in At the forefront of anti-Shia campaign in Pakistan are two hardline Sunni Muslim groups, Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Police stated they believed he was targeted because of his religious beliefs. Lawmakers from the National Assembly, the Sindh Provincial Assembly, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly also adopted resolutions requiring the title last of the prophets to be used when referring to Mohammed. 2,724,000.
'Every year we dig mass graves': the slaughter of Pakistan's Hazara On September 7, the JUI-F party held a large Khatm-e-Nabuwat conference in Peshawar, with party leaders and national and provincial parliamentarians in attendance. According to the 2017 census results, the population is 1.6 percent Hindu, 1.6 percent Christian, 0.2 percent Ahmadi Muslim, and 0.3 percent others, to include Bahais, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians. Subsequently, Arfana Mallah, a professor at Sindh University Jamshoro who criticized Soomros arrest and the blasphemy laws, was herself accused of committing blasphemy and had to apologize publicly.
The Changing Landscape of Anti-Shia Politics in Pakistan Sunni coalition to demand arrest of Shia clerics in Pakistan The province-level Sindh Hindu Marriage Act and the national-level Hindu Marriage Act (applying to federal territory and all other provinces) codify legal mechanisms to formally register and prove the legitimacy of Hindu marriages. Median age total: 33.7 years male: 33.1 years On August 24, the Karachi center hosted a talk entitled, How to Develop Religious Tolerance and Empathy, with Syed Ali Hameed from the Shaoor Foundation and a consulate general officer. The government may use the antiterrorism courts, established as a parallel legal structure under the 1997 Antiterrorism Act, to try cases involving violent crimes, terrorist activities, and acts or speech deemed by the government to foment religious hatred, including blasphemy. The government continued its warnings against blasphemy and other illegal content on social media through periodic print advertisements and text messages sent by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). The official state religion of Iran is Shia branch of Islam. Shias, who make up 15 percent of Pakistan's 220 million population, commemorate the seventh-century massacre of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Husayn and his family and friends at the Battle of Karbala in Iraq for refusing . Ahmadiyya community representatives reported the word Ahmadi was written on their passports if they identified themselves as such. On January 22, the Hyderabad center hosted an event on educational institutions roles in promoting tolerance and creating peaceful communities.
Pakistan People 2020, CIA World Factbook - theodora.com They complained that Dalits, who are considered to be the lowest in the traditional Hindu caste structure, were being targeted and subjected to violence and torture in Thar and other areas. The law bans the sale of Ahmadiyya religious literature. Although there continued to be no official restriction on the construction of Ahmadiyya places of worship, according to Ahmadiyya Muslim community leaders, local authorities regularly denied requisite construction permits, and Ahmadis remained forbidden to call them mosques. The Punjab Provincial Assembly also unanimously passed a resolution in May insisting that the federal National Commission on Minorities not include a representative from the Ahmadi community until community leaders submitted in writing that they accepted their status as non-Muslims under the constitution. The family was in another location, however, and survived. Ahmadi community leaders said they saw the requirement to designate Mohammed as last of the prophets as directly targeting them. According to current population projections, Pakistan will reach its peak population in 2092 of 404.68 million people.
Pakistan's growing hatred of Shias - Kashmir Reader According to the constitution and the penal code, Ahmadis may not call themselves Muslims or assert they are adherents of Islam.
Pakistan: The cost of being Shia | South Asia Monitor Since 2019, the NCHR has been without a mandate for a second four-year term and lacked newly appointed commissioners, making it effectively nonfunctional throughout the year. CLAAS helped both file an antidiscrimination petition in the Lahore High Court. In a letter written to the Interior Minister, the LHCBA quoted the section of the constitution stating that Ahmadis are non-Muslim. Shiite Muslims protest in Karachi, Pakistan, against a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Shikarpur, Pakistan, on Jan. 30, 2015. On September 5, the HRCP expressed concern over the surge in blasphemy cases against religious minorities, particularly the Shia community, and the potential for sectarian violence. Speakers at these rallies warned Shia of dire consequences, including beheadings, if they continued to blaspheme against the Prophet Mohammeds companions. On October 5, also in Peshawar, Professor Naeemuddin Khattak, a member of the Ahmadiyya community, died after being shot while driving home from work. Leh's demand for UT status started in 1947 as the old statements of the former parliamentarian and religious leader, Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, indicate. It distributes the funds through a government-run charity as stipends for poor families and students, payment for medical treatment, and support to Sunni mosques and madrassahs registered with the government.
shia surnames in pakistan It has an estimated 23 million people who adhere to Islam. The government has never executed anyone specifically for blasphemy. The situation worsened further last week when an influential Sunni religious scholar, Maulana Dr Adil Khan, was killed in an attack. Religious minority community members also stated the government was inconsistent in safeguarding against societal discrimination and neglect, and that official discrimination against Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadi Muslims persisted to varying degrees, with Ahmadi Muslims experiencing the worst treatment.
Timeline: Modern Sunni-Shia Tensions - Council on Foreign Relations In Pakistan, Shia Muslims make up around 20% of the population, and while the country is tragically home to some of the worst sectarian violence in the world, in 2017 alone 95% of sectarian killings and violence worldwide was focused solely on Shia Muslims.
A New Era of Sectarian Violence in Pakistan | Crisis Group On January 30, police arrested two Shia men in Tando Mohammed Khan, southern Sindh, and charged them with blasphemy. The accused were mostly Shia (70 percent of cases) and Ahmadi Muslims (20 percent of cases). According to technology companies and religious minority activists, the definition of objectionable content in the draft law was vague and subject to government interpretation. Population: 233,500,636 (July 2017 est.) The Sindh Hindu Marriage Act also applies to Sikh marriages. In contrast, even the baseless and fake cases from the other side are being entertained by police, she said. Azerbaijan - 65-75% . Since voters who registered as Ahmadis were kept on a separate voter list, they said they were more exposed to threats and physical intimidation, and many Ahmadis continued their longstanding practice of boycotting elections. Estimates of the Zikri Muslim community, located in Balochistan, range between 500,000 and 800,000 individuals. Azerbaijan has the second highest Shia Muslim population in the world accounting for 83.6% of the total population while the sect accounts for 85% of the Muslim population in the country. Ahead of Christmas in Lahore, police deployed some 6,000 officers and officials at 623 churches. The NCHR was also mandated to conduct investigations of allegations of human rights abuses, but legal sources said the commission had little power to enforce its requests. The constitution states no person shall be compelled to pay any special tax for the propagation or maintenance of a religion other than the persons own.