Kuwait (City) The majority of Kuwaiti citizens are Muslim, with an estimated 60-70% Sunni and 30-40% Shia. In July, the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) demanded that the federal interior ministry prevent the Ahmadi community from sacrificing animals on Eid al-Adha. Some personal laws regulating marriage, divorce, and inheritance for minority communities date from prepartition British legislation. The Katas Raj Hindu temple was reopened for Hindus after renovation in the Chakwal district of Punjab. The bill would also require the words last of the prophets to be written after the name of Mohammed and specific honors for his companions revered in the Shia community (may Allah be pleased with them, rather than peace be upon them). Members of civil society reported that converts from Islam lived in varying degrees of secrecy for fear of violent retribution from family members or society at large. This statistic was all taken from many independent sources for the year 1999. The law prohibits publishing any criticism of Islam or its prophets or insults to others religious beliefs. In September, unidentified gunmen killed two prominent members of the local Shia community in the Kohat District of that province. Sunnis represent approximately 75 percent of this population and Shias 20 . According to Shia community estimates, There are approximate . Courts issued two new death sentences for blasphemy and sentenced another individual to five years imprisonment. Department of State programs, including outreach activities such as speakers and workshops, helped to promote peacebuilding among religious and community leaders. Sitting by his grave, she tells the story of the day she lost her brother in the attack, a sequence of bomb blasts which killed at least 45 . Many have observed that outrage against Shia. Ahmadiyya leaders stated the ambiguous wording of the legal provision forbidding Ahmadis from directly or indirectly identifying themselves as Muslims enabled officials to bring charges against members of the community for using the standard Islamic greeting or for naming their children Mohammed. The Sindh provincial government has legislation allowing couples to seek divorce and granting Hindu women the right to remarry six months after a divorce or a spouses death. Also in September, a Karachi court issued an arrest warrant for Abdul Jabbar, a Muslim man who allegedly abducted, forcibly married, and converted a teenage Christian girl in Karachi in 2019. Minority religious leaders stated members of their communities continued to experience discrimination in admission to colleges and universities. The law bans the sale of Ahmadiyya religious literature. Edit: August and September of 2020 has seen a renewed attack on Shia Muslims within Pakistan. The 104-member Senate has four reserved seats for non-Muslims, one from each province. In Sindh, police provided enhanced security at churches and Hindu temples, especially in Karachi, on eves of festivals such as Christmas and Diwali. In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. 'Every year we dig mass graves': the slaughter of Pakistan's Hazara For 40-year-old Tehseen, Kashif was her whole world. Shia and Ahmadi Muslims were the most often accused, accounting respectively for 70 and 20 percent of all cases. We call upon authorities to ensure the safety of all Pakistanis.. When he and his sons returned to the house, they shot and wounded two of the Christian family members. In Peshawar, security was increased around churches ahead of Christmas after security forces arrested four militants on December 17 who were allegedly planning an attack on Christmas Day, which is also celebrated as Quaid-i-Azam Day, the birthday of Pakistans founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. In September, several religious groups from the Deobandi and Barelvi schools of Sunni Islam organized a series of rallies in Karachi to denounce Shia defamation of revered Sunni religious figures. . 0.5% Shia, and 0.3% Ahmadi. They also met with representatives of other embassies, leaders of religious communities, NGOs, and legal experts working on religious freedom issues to discuss ways to increase respect among religions and to enhance dialogue. The Shia population is around 20 per cent of the total population of Pakistan. 1.. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony is responsible for organizing participation in the Hajj and other Islamic religious pilgrimages. To prevent a slide back into violence, Islamabad should ensure those inciting or perpetrating violent acts are prosecuted while denying hardliners the civic space to propagate their hatred. I am being targeted because I am from a Shia religious minority. Pakistan Pakistani Shias live in terror as sectarian violence increases The Sunni majority is using blasphemy laws to target and murder those they call 'heretics' Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad. The province-level Sindh Hindu Marriage Act and the national-level Hindu Marriage Act (applying to federal territory and all other provinces) codify legal mechanisms to formally register and prove the legitimacy of Hindu marriages. Christian religious freedom activists continued to report widespread discrimination against Christians in private employment. She was taken to Dera Ghazi Khan, in Punjab, to avoid Sindh provincial law, which bans marriage of girls younger than 18. NON-FICTION: PAKISTAN'S SHIA DYNAMICS - Newspaper - DAWN.COM Others said parliamentarians occupying reserved seats had little influence in their parties and in the National Assembly because they did not have a voting constituency. The court ordered police to hand over the woman to her Hindu husband and no police or court action was taken against Domki. On January 29, an antiterrorism court in Lahore acquitted and ordered the release of 42 individuals accused of participating in the 2015 lynching of two Muslim men in Lahore. Sunni Muslims made up 5 percent of all accused blasphemers, followed by Christians at 3.5 percent, and Hindus at 1 percent. Ahmadi Muslim leaders said they had never been approached about participating in the commission and would never join a body that required them to identify as non-Muslims. According to some estimates, the Barelvi school of . There were continued reports that some madrassahs taught violent extremist doctrine, which the government sought to curb through madrassah registration and curriculum reform. (July 2020 est.) NGOs and legal observers also stated police often did not file charges against individuals who made false blasphemy accusations. Members of religious minority communities stated public schools gave Muslim students bonus grade points for memorizing the Quran, but there were no analogous opportunities for extra academic credit available for religious minority students. Although the government continued to implement elevated security measures around Hazara neighborhoods in Quetta, some Hazara community members continued to state that these measures had turned their neighborhoods into isolated ghettos. The constitution provides for freedom to manage religious institutions. It states every religious denomination shall have the right to establish and maintain its own institutions. Khattaks brother, who witnessed the killing, named two suspects in his criminal complaint, including a friend of Khattak a lecturer from the University of Agriculture in Peshawar with whom Khattak had had a heated religious argument on October 4. Unofficial estimates vary widely with regard to the size of minority religious groups. Information Minister Shibli Farazs announcement that the Cabinet had decided against including an Ahmadi Muslim representative on the new commission contributed to a wave of hate speech against Ahmadis, according to community representatives. Sunni Muslims who want to distribute zakat themselves may request an exemption, and Shia Muslims are exempted by filling out a declaration of faith form. During his February visit to Karachi, the Department of State Special Adviser for Religious Minorities told students and faculty at Karachi Universitys Department of Islamic Studies, An inclusive society creates more space for trade and prosperity. The audience applauded his comments about the protection of religious freedom for Muslims in the United States. Targeted killings of Shia and Ahmadi Muslims and violence and discrimination against Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadi Muslims continued to occur. The constitution states no person shall be compelled to pay any special tax for the propagation or maintenance of a religion other than the persons own. The protesters said that when they opposed the illegal evictions of villagers, they were charged in fake cases by revenue officials. Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology, Office of the U.S. On November 20 in a rural area of Punjab, a teenage boy killed Ahmadi doctor Tahir Ahmad and seriously wounded three of his family members. According to Shia community estimates, There are approximate 320 Million to 350 Millions Shia's lives in the world. Karachi, the financial hub of Pakistan, has witnessed at least four big anti-Shia rallies since September 11, held by different Sunni groups. Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of the Islamic Faith, after Sunni Islam, having about 15% of Muslims worldwide. Although a sizeable. Processing and dissemination of data in the form of Census Reports. Getty Images. Following the killing of Tahir Naseem, the Department of State issued a statement expressing outrage over the killing and noting that Naseem had been lured from his home in the United States by individuals who used blasphemy laws to entrap him. Visiting U.S. government officials met with religious minority community representatives, parliamentarians, human rights activists, and members of the federal cabinet to highlight concerns regarding the treatment of religious minority communities, the application of blasphemy laws, and other forms of discrimination on the basis of religion. T he most intriguing aspect of Kashmir is the dynamic between the Shia and Sunni communities in the Valley. CLAAS helped both file an antidiscrimination petition in the Lahore High Court. Minority rights activists said most government employment advertisements for janitorial staff continued to list being non-Muslim as a requirement. This issue was discussed at a Webinar on Gilgit-Baltistan or G-B on November 10. The situation worsened further last week when an influential Sunni religious scholar, Maulana Dr Adil Khan, was killed in an attack. Some politicians acknowledged privately the bill was intended to ensure textbooks identify Mohammed as the final prophet, thereby excluding Ahmadis from the definition of Islam taught in public schools. The Shia Muslim population in Pakistan is estimated to be between five and 20 per cent which is not considerable given that over 95 per cent of Pakistan's population are Muslims . extremist, and militant groups have come together to harass the Shia population right in the eyesight of the country's security apparatus. On December 15, the Lahore High Court acquitted a second Christian man, Imran Ghafur Masih, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010. Following the July killing of U.S. citizen and self-identified Ahmadi Muslim Tahir Naseem, who was standing trial for blasphemy charges, some political party leaders celebrated the killers actions. The group also painted slogans insulting the Ahmadiyya community. India's Muslims: An Increasingly Marginalized Population The incident was the first attack on a Hindu temple in Tharparkar in more than 30 years. Several minority rights advocacy groups dispute the provisional results of the 2017 census and state the numbers underrepresent their true population and their political influence, because minority seats in the national and provincial parliaments are allocated based on census figures. In April 2021, Human Rights Watch spoke to one Pakistani Shia man who spent nearly a month in UAE detention and was released and deported in late December 2020. Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board - IRB Armed sectarian groups, including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the once-banned anti-Shia group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which is connected to other organizations banned by the government as extremist, and groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States and other governments, continued to stage attacks targeting Shia Muslims, including the predominantly Shia Hazara community. The Rising Threat Against Shia Muslims in Pakistan - The Wire The constitution establishes a Council of Islamic Ideology to make recommendations, at the request of the parliament and provincial assemblies, as to the ways and means of enabling and encouraging Muslims to order their lives in accordance with the principles of Islam. The constitution further empowers the council to advise the legislative and executive branches when they choose to refer a question to the council as to whether a proposed law is or is not repugnant to the injunctions of Islam.. The Hindu community in Sindh and Balochistan remained vulnerable to targeted killings and kidnappings for ransom. On December 24, the PTA issued a legal notice to two Ahmadi U.S. citizens requiring them to remove their website, trueislam.com, or face fines, sanctions, or potential prison sentences. Multiple civil society groups and faith community leaders stated the government had increased efforts to provide enhanced security at religious minority places of worship, which had been frequent targets of attack in past years. 11 Countries with Highest Shia Population - Insider Monkey Local authorities did not allow the repair or unsealing of Ahmadi mosques damaged or demolished by rioters in previous years. Then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs government had granted the land to build the temple in 2016. Blasphemy is a capital offence in Pakistan and even unsubstantiated allegations can lead to mob violence and lynchings against the accused. By law, decisions of the FSC may be appealed to the Supreme Courts Shariat Appellate Bench. Barelvi Islam - GlobalSecurity.org Non-Muslims are required to have the head of their local religious communities verify their religious affiliation. Pakistan People 2020, CIA World Factbook - theodora.com The complainant said the three men hurt the belief of Muslims by engaging in Islamic rituals as non-Muslims. On September 8, Mehwish Hidayat, a Christian woman, was reunited with her family after being abducted by a Muslim man and spending three months in captivity. Speakers at these rallies warned Shia of dire consequences, including beheadings, if they continued to blaspheme against the Prophet Mohammeds companions. rate of urbanization: 2.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.) Shias are around 20% of the world muslim population. In December 2019, the parliament passed and Modi signed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows for the fast-tracking of citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian. In a recent study conducted by the Law and Society Alliance, a New Delhi-based think tank headed by N.C. Bipindra, the population of G-B is now approximately 1.5 million, with around 39 per cent Shia, 27 per cent Sunni, 18 per cent Ismaili and 16 per cent Nurbakhshi. His was the first acquittal for blasphemy since October 2018, when Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in 2010, was acquitted. Shia Population Shia by Country (cont.) In the same election, ASWJ also threw its influential backing behind 70 candidates from Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which won and formed the government. Religious minority community members also stated the government was inconsistent in safeguarding against societal discrimination and neglect, and that official discrimination against Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadi Muslims persisted to varying degrees, with Ahmadi Muslims experiencing the worst treatment. The provincial and federal governments have legal responsibility for certain minority religious properties abandoned during the 1947 partition of British India. The Punjab provincial government adopted three anti-Ahmadi measures: in May, a resolution that Ahmadis not be permitted to join the federal governments National Commission for Minorities unless they acknowledge they are not Muslims; in June, a new curriculum law that requires school textbooks to state the finality of the Prophet Mohammed; and in July, the Protection of the Foundations of Islam bill giving the provincial government authority to censor objectionable materials and inspect any publishing house or private home for banned Ahmadi literature. Any country in which Muslims make up 50% or more of the population is considered a Muslim majority country. On November 9, also in Peshawar, an 82-year-old retired Ahmadi government worker was killed by unknown gunmen while waiting for a bus. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. Speakers at that conference repeatedly used anti-Ahmadi rhetoric. Shias, who make up 15 percent of Pakistan's 220 million population, commemorate the seventh-century massacre of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Husayn and his family and friends at the Battle of Karbala in Iraq for refusing . In contrast, even the baseless and fake cases from the other side are being entertained by police, she said. Groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States and other governments, such as ISIS, also committed violent acts. RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP via Getty Images January 7, 2020, 12:20. On January 30, police arrested two Shia men in Tando Mohammed Khan, southern Sindh, and charged them with blasphemy. Over the past month, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in attacks and arrests of its Shia population, who make up between 15% and 20% of the Sunni-majority country, the largest Shia community outside Iran. On August 30, police charged Shia cleric Taqqi Jaffar with blasphemy for criticizing Mohammeds companions during a Karachi Muharram procession. An Ahmadi trader in Peshawar was shot near his business on August 12. According to a Punjab government official, Sarwar had no intention of signing the bill until there was a consensus that it would not harm religious minorities. A full bench of the Supreme Court may grant a further appeal. On October 19, the PTA lifted the block after the government received reassurances from the company that it would more closely regulate content, but NGOs and activists expressed concern that the government could use this authority to target religious minorities. The present Christian population in Pakistan is ranged between 2-3 million as per as recent (2020-21) year estimation by various institution and NGOs of Pakistan. In May, the New York Times reported the issue, which was subsequently raised by international human rights NGOs. The girl remained in a government shelter for several months before returning to her parents. In January, an antiterrorism court sentenced 86 members of the TLP to 55-year prison terms each for taking part in violent protests following Bibis acquittal. This declaration is also required for private educational institutions, including universities. Shia Muslims also fear their religious freedom is being legislated away. According to the constitution and the penal code, Ahmadis may not call themselves Muslims or assert they are adherents of Islam. After Iran and India, Pakistan has the world's third-largest Shia community, accounting for ten percent of the total population. The family was in another location, however, and survived. Throughout the year, some government officials and politicians engaged in anti-Ahmadi rhetoric and attended events that Ahmadi Muslims said incited violence against members of their community. Citing a sanitation job advertisement issued by the Sindh provincial government, HRCP stated such advertisements infringed on human dignity and violated the constitutional guarantee of equality of all citizens. Courts also penalized antiblasphemy groups. Prime Minister Imran Khan gave verbal approval to build the temple following a request from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Hindu and Christian members of the National Assembly. In July, the Department of State issued a statement following the killing of Tahir Naseem expressing outrage over the killing and noting that Naseem had been lured from his home in the United States by individuals who used blasphemy laws to entrap him. Projections 0 100,000,000 200,000,000 300,000,000 400,000,000 Population 235,824,862 Islam is the state religion in Qatar. The last census was conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2017. It has an estimated 23 million people who adhere to Islam. The rallies came after police charged Shia cleric Taqi Jaffar with blasphemy on August 30 for criticizing two companions of Mohammed during a Karachi Muharram procession. Human rights groups reported an increase in blasphemy cases and allegations against members of the Shia Muslim community. Neither the National Assembly nor the Senate had acted on the 2018 judgment by years end, but Ahmadiyya community representatives said that NADRA required Ahmadis to declare in an affidavit that they are non-Muslims to obtain a national identification card, another requirement of the high court judgment. Sunni coalition to demand arrest of Shia clerics in Pakistan More than 23,000 Shia Muslims in Pakistan killed since 1963, according
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