The surprise on the part of the former minister for religious minorities that there were Jews in Pakistan underscores how thoroughly their presence has been erased from history there. "Pakistan census poses question on remaining Jews," from Reuters:
ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan government census on civil servants raised curiosity on Thursday about one of the Islamic Republic’s smallest and most low-profile religious minorities -- the Jews.
The 2003 census, released on a government Web site last week, showed none of the 234,933 government employees declared themselves to be Jews, though 10 had done so in the previous census three years earlier.
“Whatever happened to the 10 Jew civil servants?,” read a headline in The News daily, Pakistan’s biggest-selling English language newspaper, on Thursday.
But, for many people the real news was that there were still any Jews living in Pakistan, given Pakistan’s longstanding antipathy towards Israel and Zionism.
Even a former minister for religious minorities was taken aback that there were Jews in the country.
“I never thought there were Jews in Pakistan. I have never seen them or met them, even when I was a minister,” remarked Colonel S.K. Tressler, who served in President Pervez Musharraf’s first cabinet in 1999.
“I was also surprised to see the report that there were Jews in the government service, also.”
Officials who conducted the census couldn’t say whether the Jews had retired, converted, migrated, died, or simply chose to mark themselves in an “Other Religions” category.
The census depended on what answers respondents submitted, and Jews might have chosen not to disclose their religion.
“In the latest census, they might not have indicated their religion. If it is not there, it will not reflect in the census,” Saeed-un-Nisa Abbasi, of the Establishment Division, which looks after civil service affairs, told Reuters.
The existence of Jews in Pakistan is seldom acknowledged, although the mostly Muslim country has sizable Hindu and Christian communities, who between them make up about four percent of Pakistan’s 160 million people.
The number of Jews living in Pakistan today is unknown, but must be very tiny.
There were a couple of thousand Jews living in Karachi and Peshawar before the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan in 1947.
Their families mostly migrated from Iraq in the 19th century.
A 55-year-old woman, who converted to Islam from Judaism when she married, remembered attending services at a synagogue in Karachi.
The woman, who asked not to be named, says all of her relatives have migrated to Israel, the United States and Europe, and she hasn’t seen any people from her old faith for years.
“I have been separated from them for a long time,” she said.
A commercial plaza now stands where the synagogue used to be, she added.
"There were a couple of thousand Jews living in Karachi and Peshawar before the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan in 1947.
Their families mostly migrated from Iraq in the 19th century."
-- from the article above
Thesee were Jews who left Baghdad when it was still under Ottoman rule (the real flourishing, and it was temporary, of the Baghdadi Jews came in the 1920s, under the protection of the British -- and those who assume that the Jews of Baghdad had it good before, or after, misremember or miss the point: the British presence for a decade was akin to the Mongol presence in Baghdad for about a half-century after theconquest of 1258, a brief period in which the dhimmi status of both Christians and Jews was lifted, only to be reimposed when those ruling Mongols converted to Islam).
The history of modern Asia, and its development, is punctuated by the names of merchant and banking families of Baghdadi Jews that proved to be so important in many different parts of Asia, including both India and China. We have heard of the Kadoories and the Sassoons, especially in regard to Hong Kong and the beginnings of the city of Shanghai, in which Baghdadi Jews played such an important role, in the 1920s (few non-Chinese may not be aware of how new Shanghai is). But there were others, such as the Marshalls. In the 1940s, in Mumbai, one of the Marshalls was a classmate of Bhutto. Another member of the Marshall family was a leader in the independence movement in Singapore, and became independent Singapore's first prime minister.(See the biography of Marhsall by Chan Hee Cheng)
Many people do not realize the level of ethnic cleansing that happened during the partition and immediately after it, within Pakistan...for example, here's a synopsis of a study...
See http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE6-2/sridhar.html
QUOTE
This study found strong evidence for ethnic cleansing in Pakistan and particularly in West Pakistan. It also compared these numbers with corresponding numbers for India and found that there is no case for apportioning blame to both countries. There was no evidence for a corresponding ethnic cleansing in India. West Pakistan had a higher minority population (21%) than India (13%) in 1941 but by 1951, Pakistan had virtually no minorities left (3%) while India continued to be home to a substantial Muslim minority (9%). This analysis stops at 1951 but a further analysis would reveal that while the Muslim minority in India has increased over the years (reaching 12% in 1991), it has continually declined in both West Pakistan and East Pakistan. This analysis is however, beyond the scope of this article.
The study reveals that about 15 million people belonging to the minority communities in Pakistan were ethnically cleansed during partition. These numbers are substantially higher than existing numbers quoted in most articles and books. While our estimates are not foolproof, they would suggest that many of the established numbers might need to be revisited. It would be important to note however, that these numbers are in terms of 1951 population – hence accounting for growth (birth and mortality), a more accurate number could be arrived at for the entire period (in other words a discounted value could be arrived at to get a better estimate of the actual numbers ethnically cleansed).
An interesting, albeit chilling finding of this analysis is that there are almost 7.5 million people belonging to the Hindu and Sikh minority populations of Pakistan that are unaccounted for over and above those who migrated to India. Some of them would have been killed and others converted from their faiths to Islam. This fact seems to have received inadequate attention amongst researchers till now and more research may perhaps reveal much more than this limited analysis could reveal.
UNQUOTE
Pakistan's version of the holocaust....
"But, for many people the real news was that there were still any Jews living in Pakistan, given Pakistan’s longstanding antipathy towards Israel and Zionism."
Interesting how the correspondent tacitly exonerates Pakistan from 'racism' and ascribes 'political' reasons for the absence of Jews in this, a Muslim country.
It's an Israel thing and has nothing to do with anti-Jewish hatred. Nothing to do with long-standing enmity between Jews and Muslims.
Oh no. Nothing to see here. Move along now.
OT: A new low for Jhimmi:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/staticarticles/article53954.html
And what about the "news" that in Pakistan, which at Partition had a population that was 15% Hindu (I don't know what percentage of the populaton was Christian) is now down to a non-Muslim population, of both Hindus and Christians, of 4%.
No Pakistanis surprised by that?
Nor are they surprised, I suspect, to find that the 35% of the population in formerly East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, that was non-Muslmi at Partition, has become a mere 7% of Bangladesh's population. Remember that little war in 1970-71? You don't? You don't remember the million or more killed by the raping, murdering, looting army of West Pakistan in East Pakistan, aided by local Muslim fanatics called "razakars" who were happy to help kill those, mostly secularists, eager for Bengali independence despite Pakistan's insistence, echoed by local collaborators, that such independence would be "bad for Islam"? Well, in Bangladesh, where 35% of the population at Partition was non-Muslim, that figure is now 7%, and falling.
No Bangladeshi Muslims surprised at that?
And are Pakistanis surprised, are Bangladeshis surprised, to discover that, while the percentage of non-Muslims in their countries keeps going deeply down, in India, the Muslim percentage of the population has steadily risen?
Apparently there is something in the air of Pakistan (and Bangladesh) that drives non-Muslims out, or forces them to convert. And there is something in the air of India that does neither to Muslims.
What could that something be?
"But, for many people the real news was that there were still any Jews living in Pakistan, given Pakistan’s longstanding antipathy towards Israel and Zionism."
I guess Pakistan will have to make like Avis and try harder. Someone will probably be beheaded for failing to get rid of the last of the Jews. I'm sure when this is finally accomplished Pakistan will brag about it incessantly. "Come to Pakistan-the ONLY member of the ummah with nukes (for now) and 100 percent Jew free" will read travel brochures to increase tourism. Hitler will smile from hell over it.
"What could that something be?"
"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is realm as vast as space, and as timeless, as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow; between science and superstition; and it lies between the pit of man's fear, and the summit of his knowledge. These are dimensions of the imagination... it is an area which we call...
The Twilight Zone."
..........In observing Islam I am constantly amazed at how the logical is actually illogical...and the illogical garners such support as to defy the logical...
....Islam is systematically destroying all it encounters....cultures,religions,non muslims,countries,and even each other..
...It is time to stop appeasing the Muslims, time so tie your bootlaces and prepare for the fight of your life...
....I am getting better at understanding Muslims, I am getting better at deflating their lying statements....I am getting better at informing others of the dangers of appeasing Muslims...
....When the going gets tough, the tough get going...It is time to get tough...Wimps and appeasers need not apply....
....If Muslims are in your neighborhood...watch them closely.....
The census was taken only to find out where the Non Muslims lived...The Muslims have instituted a policy of Zero Tolerance...
Its not surprising. The countries with the lowest percentages of Jews are the most primitive and poor. As the percentage of Jews rises, so does the standard of living and the culture of that country.
In about 1965, when the Pakistani presence in England was rapidly getting noticeably larger, I used occasionally to wander down to Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park in London on a Sunday afternoon and drift around listening to the assorted speakers. Some of whom were clearly mad, or mere egotists, but a very few were speakers with an interesting message.
I discovered that one soapbox was usually in evidence: it was described by its sign as 'The Pakistani Forum' and I learnt that it was manned by a group of Pakistani Muslims from Luton (a provincial town north of London).
The speakers were articulate and passionate, especially given that they seemed not to be well-educated. They might have been curry house workers or taxi drivers. They all spoke about one interrelated subject: 'the Zionists'/Israel/the Jews'.
As I am a Jew, I naturally found it rather dis-quieting that a minibus full of Pakistanis, who had come to England fairly recently, should bother to drive all the way to London and back from Luton nearly every Sunday to orate anti-Jewish screed (not very subtly masked as 'anti-Zionism' and ironically they were mere 'settlers' themselves yet denounced all Jews in Israel as 'settlers'). I never heard them deny the Holocaust and never heard them use the word 'Palestinian' - but then "Palestinians' weren't on these speakers' radar really before the Six Day War - the words they all used were 'Arab refugees'.
At the end of the Muslims' speechifying the main speaker would beckon to a young Pakistani man in the audience to come up on the soapbox. This guy was a Pakistani Jew and he only spoke about the plight of Jews in Pakistan and he was allowed a ten minute slot at the end.
The Muslim Pakistanis used to turn their backs on this guy and pack up their stuff while he spoke as quickly as he could.
Some years later, after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, I re-visited Speakers' Corner occasionally. The Pakistani Forum had developed into a much slicker operation and now bore the sign of a Luton mosque. The Jewish guy who used to speak was no longer invited to do so.
This seems to me a transplanted microcosm of what Jews faced and still face in Pakistan.
It was one of my earliest lessons in the existence of the 'ummah' - in the Muslim loyalty to Islam that transcends loyalty to others of your countrymen and women that are non-Muslims.
Looks like Pakistan can be added to the list of Judenrein lands, right up there with Saudi Arabia and Yemen. This is just sad. And the Muslims have the audacity to say they are the new Jews?!