by - When Pakistan was created in 1947, 23% of its citizens were non-Muslim. Today in Pakistan — “Land of the Pure” in Urdu — only about 3% of citizens are non-Muslim.
- The Pakistanis, it is clear, do not want to host minorities: instead, they seem to be increasingly engaged in “purifying the land of the pure.”
- The country’s male-only, elementary school-level madrassas turn out millions of students who are taught to hate Hindus, Christian and Jews.
- The imams of Pakistan, many of whom are trained in Saudi Arabia’s austere Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam, financially support Pakistan’s madrassas and help to perpetuate intolerance. The International Center for Religion and Diplomacy reports that Pakistani seventh grade textbooks portray Pakistan’s Hindus as a traitorous group that supports the country’s arch enemy, India. The same books also portray Pakistan’s Christians as agents of the West bent on destroying Islam.
- Despite the Pakistani government’s having established a “National Action Plan” to protect minorities, there is no discernible improvement in their daily lives.
- The most venomous abuses of all are probably the false accusations of blasphemy, especially common in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. In Pakistan, as in many other Muslim countries, blasphemy is a crime punishable by death, and often also ends up in mob violence against entire minority communities.
- According to an Indian media report last month: “Pakistan was to review its harsh blasphemy laws. It has made them even harsher.”
- In December, after the beheading of Daya Bheel, a Hindu woman, who skin was reportedly peeled off her head, India’s Foreign Ministry demanded that Pakistan fulfill its obligations to protect minorities. The demand will likely have little impact upon crimes such as the abduction of non-Muslim girls and women by Muslim men.