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Forced conversion is forbidden by Islamic law. However, it has been a constant of Islamic history, and continues today. "Around 600 people a year are forcely converted to Islam," from AsiaNews, with thanks to Liberal Muslim:
Lahore (AsiaNews) – The same Islam that pronounces death for conversion to another religion, forces women married to Muslims to become Muslims too. Forced conversions figures reach between 500 to 600 people a year in Pakistan, although “national media report only 100 such cases” that police and the courts “treat prejudicially”. This was the most significant conclusion of a meeting on “Forced Conversion of Women and Minorities Rights in Pakistan” held on 26 May in a hotel in Lahore.More than 50 human rights activists, lawyers and representatives of religious minorities from four provinces of Pakistan participated in the consultation organized by the Minority Rights Commission of Pakistan (MRC).
Khaliq Shah – MRC member – outlined the aims of the meeting: to highlight this important issue at national level; to launch a campaign against forced conversions; to analyze the causes and to review the law. Shah, who has been researching the topic for a long time, said: “The problem is especially present among poorer and marginalized social groups”.
I.A. Rehman, member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said that according to the Universal declaration of Human Rights, every individual can join any faith of his choice and practice that faith freely, and no one can force him to change his belief. “From this perspective, free conversion is no problem but forced conversions should be banned; this issue must be debated,” he said.
“In Pakistan we do not have any law against forced conversion and converting from Islam to any other religion means death. To change this state of affairs, we must consider the issue as a struggle for democracy and invite Muslims as well to these meetings, so they can help us to better understand all points of view of the argument”.
Mgr Joseph Coutts, bishop of Faisalabad, was also present at the meeting. “This is a delicate problem and each of us should contribute towards resolving it. At the root of the problem are factors like feudalism and the country’s socio-economic structure. When we discuss forced conversions, we must talk about these aspects too.”
Kalyan Singh, a Sikh participant said one of the toughest challenges to overcome was the “subjection of judges to Islamic clerics. Judges do not manage to deal with such cases neutrally because they are scared of the revenge of religious extremists.”
Posted by Robert at May 31, 2006 9:12 AM
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I thought that Muslims are told that there is "no compusion" in religion? Well I guess wrong.
Posted by: bigcatgirl13106![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 31, 2006 9:38 AM
"Forced conversion is forbidden by Islamic law."
Caveat emptor: Large print forbiddeth; small print alloweth.
Under Islamic power (and Sharia), the penalties and oppression of those who don't convert, the Mafia-like rewards to those who do, the belief that all non-Muslims are really Muslims rebelling perniciously against Islam who need to "revert" back to their original Muslim state, the constant belief that non-Muslims with any degree of social rights, respect & power are a threat to Islam as a politico-religious entity -- altogether amounts to the conditions of forced conversion and nourishes a psycho-social atmosphere where compelling non-Muslims to convert becomes a way to "defend" and strengthen Islam.
Once again, we must use the special Islamic lexicon which always contains a Catch-22 Loophole:
"Forced conversion is forbidden" = "It is forbidden to force a person to convert apart from the following conditions which are either mandated outright by Islamic tradition and Sharia, or are strongly nourished by the atmospherics of the tradition and culture":
--imposing penalties on, and oppression of those who don't convert,
--offering Mafia-like rewards to those who do convert,
--the belief that all non-Muslims are really Muslims rebelling perniciously against Islam who need to "revert" back to their original Muslim state,
--the constant belief that non-Muslims with any degree of social rights, respect & power are a threat to Islam as a politico-religious entity,
--the constant belief that all "threats" to Islamic supremacism must be stamped out.
at May 31, 2006 10:46 AM
Where is this perfect pure islamic country that all muslims keep talking about? Ah, UTOPIA.
Posted by: Borg at May 31, 2006 10:50 AM
So Islam is a ONE WAY DEAD END STREET.
With no backing up.
And the name on the road sign reads:
Pedophile's Cul De Sac
Posted by: profitsbeard at June 1, 2006 1:07 AM
FYI - the whole thing is a lie: from the largest perspectives all the way down to the names of the old prophets....
All lies great and small.
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses at June 1, 2006 2:09 PM
Pakistan has a problem with the treatment of its minorities, so do a lot of other countries. What it also has is a relatively free press, which highlights injustices such as forced conversions.
It is nowhere near what Afghanistan was under the Taliban or what Saudi Arabia is under their royal family.
To place things in perspective its worth pointing out that the 600 conversions a year are out of a population of 150 million. The leading bowler in the Pakistan Cricket team is a Hindu. When the vice captain of the team converted from Christianity (voluntarily) a lot of people were actually dismayed.
I encourage you to read this article on Pakistan
http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/08/critical_digres_1.html
at June 3, 2006 7:44 AM
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