Hindu girls abducted, forced to convert to Islam.

Pak Hindu girls forced to convert to Islam
By: Hasan Mansoor
November 13, 2005
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When a Hindu girl is converted to Islam, hundreds of extremists belonging to religious parties such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), take to the streets and chant religious slogans
Karachi: An alarming trend — that of Muslims kidnapping Pakistani Hindu girls and forcing them to convert to Islam — in Pakistan’s Sindh province is forcing the worried resident Hindu community to marry off their daughters as soon as they are of marriageable age or to migrate to India, Canada or other nations.

Recently, at least 19 such abduction cases have occurred in Karachi alone, while several others have been reported in the media.

Sanao Menghwar, a Hindu resident of Karachi’s Punjab Colony, is a traumatised man; all three of his daughters —Aishwarya, Reena and Reema — have been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.

In the police complaint that he filed at the behest of the Panchayat after two days of futile searching for his daughters, he stated that when he and his wife returned home from work, they discovered their daughters had gone missing.

The police arrested three Muslim youths in connection with the crime, who were later granted bail by a court because they’re minors. Menghwar’s daughters continue to remain missing.

“Kidnapping Hindu girls like this has become a normal practice. The girls are then forced to sign stamp papers stating that they’ve become Muslims,” says Laljee Menghwar, a member of the Hindu Panchayat in Karachi.

According to him, the Pakistani government needs to examine and put a stop to the social oppression of religious minorities in the country. “Hindus here are too frightened to vent their anger — they fear victimisation. But we have now decided to go public with these cases and demand justice,” Laljee says. Their cause has found support in the Pakistani Christian community, who carried out a demonstration with them in Karachi, protesting against this crime.

Similarly startling incidents have occurred in several districts of Sindh and evoked identical responses. At least six Hindu girls met this fate a few months ago in Jacobabad (a tribal area heavily inhabited by Hindus) and Larkana districts.

Sapna, the daughter of one Seth Giyanchand, was recently taken to a shrine (Amrote in Shikarpur district) by Shamsuddin Dasti. Dasti, a Muslim friend of Sapna’s brother, is a married man and father of two.

Nevertheless, the custodian of the shrine, Maulvi Abdul Aziz lost no time in converting Sapna to Islam (her names was changed to ‘Mehek’) and marrying her to Dasti. The case came to light only when Sapna’s parents stated that their daughter hadn’t eloped but been abducted.

Human rights activists, such as Nuzhat Shirin who belongs to the Aurat Foundation, says that religious extremism is rapidly increasing in Jacobabad and other Sindh districts.

Extremists in turn encourage shrines, which are involved with forced conversions. When a Hindu girl is converted to Islam, hundreds of extremists belonging to religious parties such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), take to the streets and chant religious slogans.

In Sapna’s case, when she was presented in court with Dasti, extremists showered rose petals on them and loudly chanted religious slogans. The fanaticism was so daunting that Sapna was too frightened to even speak with her own parents who were also present in the courtroom. At that, Maulvi Aziz, who was also standing in the courtroom, was said to have remarked, “How can a Muslim girl live and maintain contact with kafirs (infidels)?”

Sapna’s story sparked widespread demonstrations by the Hindu community. Presidents and mukhis of Panchayats from various towns and districts met in Jacobabad to discuss this serious issue. Activists and leaders from educated segments of society strongly criticised the role of religious leaders, like Maulvi Aziz, in these forced conversion cases.

Still, the threat of victimisation by Muslims is palpable; Shirin says when forced conversion cases make it to court, lawyers themselves avoid taking them up, fearing a backlash from maulvis.

Giyanchand meanwhile has said that he has no other option but to migrate to India — it will be difficult for him to find grooms for his other daughters because of Sapna’s controversial conversion.

And forced conversions are not the only problem that the Hindu minority (there are 2.7 million Hindus in Pakistan; Pakistan’s total population is 140 million) is facing in the country.

A powerful syndicate of bandits and patrons in the northern districts of Sindh regularly kidnap rich Hindus for ransom. They not kill hostages if the ransom doesn’t arrive on time, they even kill some despite their ransom being paid.

Sadham Chand Chawla, the former president of the Hindu Panchayat, Jacobabad, was abducted and murdered. His killers remain at large despite enormous protests. Following his murder, his family had received several threats until they secretly migrated to India.

This is why we must stand up for ourselves. This is what's happening on the ground and no amount of fluffy idealism is going to change this, we must take action.

 

The kidnappings and such things are bad. Here in the UK there have been some cases recently of so-called 'honour killings' in Pakistani families who've settled here - cases where a father and/or brothers murder a young girl because she won't go along with an arranged marriage, or goes with another boy, gets pregnant etc. There have also been cases where girls have been taken to Pakistan and forced into arranged marriages.

This, and other aspects of Pakistani culture are non acceptable anywhere in the world.
However - it comes more from tribal custom than Islam as taught by Muhammed.

Here in Britain we have an extreme right wing - groups like the Britsh National Party, whose agenda if they came to power would be to stop any more immigration into the UK, and doubtless to act against immigrant groups.
Islam, which has no roots in British culture, would no doubt be rigorously suppressed. The very stroke of the pen which authorized closing down mosques, and who knows, maybe even 'rounding people up' as per the NAZIs, would also no doubt also mean the same treatment for Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and other ethnic groups living here.
Their rhetoric is similar to yours Kalidas.
I don't think it's the answer.

Here in the UK the only way forward is for everyone to be governed by purely civil law, and allowed to practice their own religion and customs as long as it is within British law. Also, British Muslims, Hindus, Afro-Carribeans etc. have to be enabled and encouraged to integrate into the overall society.
So far as I can see, the situation in India, although much more inflamatory, is not too disimilar. There you have your various cultural groups - the difference is that it is centuries since India was a wholly Hindu country, if it ever was.
But integration is the only answer, even if that means that old conservative notions have to go.

 

It is horrible. Every bit as bad as the Hindus who forced Muslims in Gujarat to kneel and repeat the name of Sri Rama under threat of beheading during the Godhra riots. Every bit as bad as Hindu zamindars who regularly gang rape and torture women of lower castes, or even their own daughters in-law.

Wrong occurs in every religion. Eradicating the religion is not the answer, because the religion is not the cause. The cause is ignorance and when that is eradicated problems are solved.

 

With some of the abuses - honour killings etc - they don't originate in religion, but tribal custom. In other cases, the original message of the religion has become obscured, or even hijacked by those with a mainly political agenda.

However - there are exceptions to this, noteably in Islam, where judicial punishments are actually prescribed in scripture, such as cutting off limbs, stoning to death and so on.
That being so, I can't see how any integration or reconciliation can take place, as many people, myself included, find such things unacceptable.
Either religion has to change - and that brings in many problems, or I forsee ongoing conflict not only between Hindus and Muslims in the Indian sub-continent, but between Islam and western secular culture.

None of the existent religions has any chance of becoming a global religion, despite the fantasies of believers - once again in Islamic circles there is the idea of a 'universal caliphate', and similarly some fundamentalist type christians believe christianity will one day dominate the entire world.

The only possible solution would seem to be a massive revision of religion as it now exists. Much that is antiquated, or no longer applicable, or outdated by changes in what people find acceptable will have to go. That applies to all - Hindu, Muslim, Christian etc.
Otherwise, there is a danger that religion will become the exclusive territory of fanatics.
For this to happen though would take a huge collective enlightenment, and there's very little sign of such at present. It is only really that which is essential in religions that has any value - the rest is mainly cultural baggage, superstition, and even human stupidity.

The thing is Bhaskar that removing ignorance isn't so easy. The very religions which should be performing this function are often the main causes of ignorance, and to the extent that religions are controlled by those with no realization, just tradition, it's hard to see how a way can be found.

Just a few thoughts.

 

I agree.