The Qur’an says “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). However, what constitutes “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder. The institutionalized subjugation of the dhimma, with its regular humiliation and harassment, from which one can be freed for the simple price of converting to Islam, is not considered compulsion. Remember Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the journalists who were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam — even though their conversions were obviously coerced, their captors made them say that they were converting freely, and the captors probably believed that themselves. After all, the journos could have chosen to be killed instead.
“Court in Pakistan Validates Forced Conversion, Marriage of Christian Girl to Muslim,” Morning Star News, February 12, 2020 (thanks to the Geller Report):
LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A high court ruling in Pakistan validating the marriage and forced conversion to Islam of a 14-year-old Christian girl has heightened fears that it will encourage others to commit such crimes, sources said.
The High Court in Sindh Province on Feb. 3 dismissed a petition to have the marriage and forced conversion of a Catholic girl overturned, ruling that both were valid since a girl under sharia (Islamic law) can marry after her first menstrual cycle.
Huma Younus was taken from her home in Karachi’s Zia Colony on Oct. 10 while her parents were away and was forced to marry the man who abducted her, identified as Abdul Jabbar of Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab Province, her attorney said.
“The hearing on Feb. 3 lasted only five minutes,” the family’s attorney, Tabassum Yousaf, told Morning Star News. “The court, in just a few words citing the sharia, has justified the violation of the girl’s body since she has already had her first period.”
Yousaf added that the family was prohibited from seeing Huma because police said her life would be at risk if she was brought to the courtroom.
He said the family challenged Huma’s marriage and forced conversion under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, which declares marrying a person under 18 years old an offense punishable by up to three years in prison.
Although the Sindh government takes credit for becoming Pakistan’s first elected assembly to pass a bill on child marriage in April 2014, the law is still poorly implemented, sources said.
Yousaf said he submitted Huma’s baptismal and school documents in court that proved she was 14 years old, but nevertheless Sindh High Court judges Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Irshad Ali Shah ruled that the marriage was valid based on her menstrual cycle.
The legal battle has been going on for months with constant delays and excuses cited so as not to present the underage girl in court, sources said.
The family has filed an appeal to the Court of Justice in Sindh Province, and Yousaf said a hearing is scheduled for March 4. Police will thus have more time for medical tests to determine Huma’s age, he said.
Guardian Consent Needed
The girl’s parents were informed via text message that Huma had converted to Islam and had married Jabbar “of her free will,” sources said.
Since forced conversions are not illegal in Pakistan, her attorney said he believed the case hinged on Huma’s age.
Prominent Supreme Court Advocate Saiful Malook told Morning Star News that even though sharia allows marriage of a minor girl if she has her first period, the marriage has to be validated by the girl’s guardian.
“In no way can any court of law endorse an underage marriage unless it is supported by the girl’s guardian,” Malook said. “Marriage is governed by the Contract Act, wherein no minor can enter into a contract or agreement without the explicit approval of her guardian. In this particular case, the court must take into account whether the girl’s legal guardian has consented to her marriage even if it’s judging the act under the sharia.”
He added that a 14-year-old minor cannot be deemed mature enough to change her religion by her own will, considering the fact that she could have been coerced or blackmailed into renouncing her faith. Huma reportedly filed an affidavit declaring that she married of her own free will, but Yousaf has said that such an affidavit can’t be filed legally until she obtains an identity card at age 18.
The high court must order Huma to record a statement in the courtroom, Malook said.
“If the police are not producing the girl before the court on various pretenses, the court should be wise enough to see through the police’s mala fide and hand the custody of the minor back to her parents,” he said.
Malook, who represented Pakistan’s most high-profile blasphemy convict, Aasiya Noreen, better known as Asia Bibi, before the Supreme Court and won her freedom, said that abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and underage marriage is a major problem in Pakistan. He added that legislation effective in curbing the practice is long overdue.
Christian rights activists believe that the ruling of the Sindh High Court will encourage more perpetrators of such crimes to hide behind sharia. Pakistan Center of Law of Justice Executive Director Napoleon Qayyum told Morning Star News that the high court’s ruling would result in a surge in cases of forced conversion and underage marriages of Christian girls.
“Another Christian girl aged 14 was recently abducted and gang-raped by some Muslim youths in Bihar Colony area of Lahore,” Qayyum said. “The victim is a student of grade nine and was abducted by four or five boys on her way to a local tuition center on Jan. 16, 2020. The abductors not only raped her but also obtained her signatures and thumb impressions on some papers.”
Police were able to recover her on Jan. 19, but Qayyum said he fears the suspects will use her signed documents to produce a fake marriage certificate and religion conversion letter in a bid to escape abduction and rape charges.
“This is common modus operandi of Muslims to confuse the court and avoid justice,” he said.
In nearly all such cases, he said, the rapists threaten to harm the girls’ families if they reveal the truth.
“Moreover, the girls are also forced to give false statements in court that they have changed their religion of free will and had married of their own choice,” Qayyum said. “Girls belonging to minority communities often succumb to pressure and consideration for their family’s security, which has further emboldened the men belonging to the majority faith.”…
Krishna says
Forgot to mention that sharia court validates becuase she had first period
LB says
That doesn’t matter. Even if she was 4 instead of 14 it would still be valid because non-muslims are fair game (halal) for muslims, according to Sharia. It’s simple really: muslims can do pretty much whatever they want with non-muslims no matter the time or place because muslims >> non-muslims. It’s not rocket science.
elee says
Yes, its well within the capability of an armed Muslim.
J D.S says
Wow!!! Satan sure is having Happy time with his pet project ….islam.
AND THE WORLD STANDS STILL AND DOES NOTHING!
Walter Sieruk says
First, the concept and then engagement in a “force conversion “ to Islam, ,or any other religion is a strong reminder that the Christian man, Roger Williams , who was the founder of the State of Rhode Island was someone who had the wisdom and understanding to make a valid and true statement which is “That religion cannot be true which need such instruments of violence to uphold it.”
Second , as for the adult male becoming married to this young girl, child, is result of the Islamic practice of an adult male Muslim having a marriage with a little girl who is only a child is clearly seen by most Westerners as a blatant action of child abuse of the vilest sort.
Nevertheless this heinous Islam tradition is accepted as “normal “in most of the Islamic world. Therefore, this may serve as an example of how the influence of Islam is able to warp the cogitation of the human mind to the extent that a person who is a Muslim might not be able to understand the obvious difference between right and wrong.
Such an awful thing as not having the discerning mental power to seethe clear difference is described in the Bible. For in Isaiah 5:20. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil…” ]N.K.J.V.]
James Lincoln says
Walter Sieruk says,
“That religion cannot be true which need such instruments of violence to uphold it.”
Just wondering which religion Roger Williams had in mind when he said that…
gravenimage says
He was referring to any religion. Roger Williams was a great free thinker.
James Lincoln says
Thank you for the reply, gravenimage.
gravenimage says
Thanks, James. Roger Williams was an early advocate of the separation of church and state and “liberty of conscience”, and was the founder of Rhode Island. Rhode Island became a haven for Baptists, Quakers, Jews and other religious minorities. He was also an advocate of respecting the rights of Native Americans.
elee says
Hey libbers! Hey Rashida! Hey Ilhan! Nope, nobody listening but masybe a few white male oppressors………
gravenimage says
I believe in equal rights and I condemn this injustice.
mortimer says
MOHAMMED USED COMPULSTION FOR FORCIBLE CONVERSION TO ISLAM
Muhammad actually captured a man’s wife and children, then used them as leverage to force his conversion:
The apostle told them to tell Malik that if he came to him as a Muslim he would return his family and property to him and give him a hundred camels. (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 879)
Islam was being cheapened. It was no longer a religion, but rather a political allegiance established by force. Muhammad sent one of his men to Yemen with a military force, where a local pagan leader was told, “Testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, or else I will chop off your neck.” (Bukhari 59:643)
Neither was there any heartfelt religious conviction in the reluctant “conversion” of the Thaqif tribe, for example:
[The Thaqif leaders said to one another] “We are in an impasse. You have seen how the affair of this man [Muhammad] has progressed. All the Arabs have accepted Islam and you lack the power to fight them… don’t you see that your herds are not safe; none of you can go out without being cut off.” (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 915)
Their solution was to “accept Islam,” and so they sent their couriers to Muhammad to announce their conversion, ask for a promise that they would no longer by harassed by the Muslims, and request a grace period before they had to ‘give up’ their old religion:
The riders of Thaqif had come to make their submission and accept Islam on the apostle’s conditions provided that they could get a document guaranteeing their people and their land and animals… Among the things they asked the apostle was that they should be allowed to retain their idol al-Lat undestroyed for three years. The apostle refused, and they continued to ask him for a year or two and he refused… (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 916)
Obviously the Thaqif were not acting out of a true belief in Islam, but rather from the desperation in which non-Muslims Arabs were finding themselves in the wake of Muslim aggression.
mortimer says
“compulsion”
gravenimage says
Important citations, Mortimer. Thanks.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Entitled Monsters.
gravenimage says
Islamic Republic of Pakistan: Court validates forced conversion, marriage of 14-year-old Christian girl to Muslim
…………………
Pakistan has done this many times before. God, I hate Islam.
Every non-Muslim in Pakistan should flee to India, which has offered them citizenship.
Peter Oye says
That is why the capital is called Islam-a-bad
Fejj says
Mohamed had at least 22 wives. Three were called ‘Zayneb’, one called ‘Aisha’ was only 6 when Mo married her. Another one of Mo’s wives he stole from his brother in law (obviously she was young and very pretty). Mo had heaps of sex slaves too.
So easy how they can justify the forced conversion and marriage of a 14 year old Christian girl.
Islam is a horrible religion.
dumbledoresarmy says
Barnabas Fund and the British Pakistani Christian Association newsletters record these sorts of cases.. over and over and over and over and over. It is sickening. The noses of every western politician that ‘accommodates’ and does deals with Pakistan, need to rubbed in this and every other similar – or worse – case.
It should be grounds – since the Pakistani police and courts and government normally do diddly-squat to prevent / deter this absolute sh*t behaviour, and indeed, aid and abet it for the most part – for a cessation of trade with, and aid to, Pakistan, from ANY country that claims to value human freedom and human rights. Cut the bastards off. No aid. NO trade. And, especially NO access, by any Muslim from Pakistan, to ANY of the goodies of the free world. NO Pakistani Muslim should be permitted to enter any free non-Islamic country. Not for any reason. The Christians and Hindus *should* be permitted and encouraged to leave, and given safe haven elsewhere (groups such as Barnabas and the BPCA know very well who the actual, genuine non-Muslims are, since they have been working closely with them – with families, communities, church congregations, for years; and would easily detect any impostors who were trying to pose as Christians in order to get access). They are being treated as if they were prey animals.. which, from the Islamic point of view, is all that they are.
A cricket boycott is long overdue. NO cricketing country that is non-Islamic should tour Pakistan, nor permit the Pakistani team to tour. Let Bangladesh and Pakistan play each other; but cut them off from access to Australia or the UK or India. Keep them out!
The British Pakistani Christian Association has been pressing the British government for some time, to CUT ‘aid’ to Islamic Pakistan, because of this and all the other gross abuses of minority rights, that are routine and institutionalised in that ghastly country.
And if only this could be brought about; then one could look at some of the other horrible Islamic countries, and start isolating them, too. Cut off the aid (which they pocket as of right, viewing it as either jizya or tribute, as something to which they are *entitled*, not something we choose to give and could well choose not to give). Cease to do deals with them; infiels are foolish to do deals with Muslims, who are primed to double-cross and do-down the infidel.
Note: the Muslims in Egypt do EXACTLY the same sort of thing to Coptic girls and women – kidnap (or ‘groom’/ seduce/ deceive, sometimes even pretending to be devout young Coptic men in order to do it), and hve been doing so for decades, whilst courts, police and government connive, aid, abet and generally wink at the practice. Islamic Egypt, too, needs to be ‘cut off’, isolated, and subjected to a barrage of withering scorn backed up by sanctions and denial of ‘aid’ and trade, to indicate the extreme displeasure of the free world.
gravenimage says
Agreed, DDA.
CTTV15@Hotmail.com says
This IS a GLOBAL problem now. It has been that way for 1,400 years and counting..
Jasper says
As an American I could start my own Muslim religion I could proclaim myself a Muslim I’ll get me a Koran and find only kind and descent texts I’ll wear a cloth over my head I’ll preach to all that I’m here to convert folks to only my version of Islam I’ll include Jesus in my teaching I’ll fund raise to destroy the evil version of my religion the hateful Muslim no more child rape or wife beating or cruel behavior well preach love and forgiveness and it’ll take off like a rocket ship who will join?
sidney penny says
Ask yourself why was Pakistan formed in 1957.
Not for race, ethic grouping eg Kurds or homeland eg for the Jews.
But formed because of religion.
If you are reading this you will know what religion I am talking about