Hindu community representatives welcomed the decision to return the temple to the community after 70 years. Pakistan 2020 population is estimated at 220,892,340 people at mid year according to UN data. Three U.S. government cultural centers in Sindh Province and Islamabad held events to promote religious freedom. Shia Numbers are in the range of 320 Millions to 350 Millions and according to some estimates its in the range of 400 Millions. Answer (1 of 19): The country Iran has the largest population of Shia. Shia Muslims constitute 10 to 12 percent of the citizen population and an estimated 25 to 30 percent of the Eastern Province's population. On September 30, media reported that a 17-year-old girl from a Hindu Dalit community committed suicide after having been gang-raped a year earlier by Muslim men and subsequently blackmailed by them in Tharparkar, Sindh. This issue was discussed at a Webinar on Gilgit-Baltistan or G-B on November 10. These attacks targeted gatherings of Shia individuals. On September 10, police saved a Hindu trader from a mob that accused him of committing blasphemy and called for his death in Kashmore, Sindh. The law also would make desecration (including physical destruction of books or symbols, along with verbal, written, or online actions perceived to be insults) of any prophet, any of the four divine books (the Quran, Torah, Psalms of David, and Gospel of Jesus), any family and companions of the Prophet Mohammed, as well as abetting or glorifying terrorists, or promoting sectarianism in any book, punishable with a maximum of a five-year jail term and a substantial fine of up to 500,000 Pakistani rupees ($3,100). In January, two Christians, Kamran Sandhu and Nauman Aslam, applied for seats reserved for minorities in the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO) in Punjab. The country is home to the second largest Shia population after Iran. India with 21 million is in second place closely followed by Pakistan (20 million). Throughout the year, Islamic organizations with varying degrees of political affiliation held conferences and rallies to support the doctrine of Khatm-e-Nabuwat. According to Pew Research Center, adherents of Shiite Islam in Pakistan make up between 15-20% of the country's total population. Non-Muslims are required to have the head of their local religious communities verify their religious affiliation. Community leaders continued to report that the government hindered Ahmadis from obtaining legal documents and pressured community members to deny their beliefs by requiring individuals wishing to be listed as Muslim on identity cards and passports to swear Mohammed was the final prophet of Islam and the Ahmadiyya movements founder was a false prophet. T he most intriguing aspect of Kashmir is the dynamic between the Shia and Sunni communities in the Valley. Phillip Smyth was a Soref Fellow at The Washington Institute from 2018-2021. In May, the Cabinet approved a Religious Affairs Ministry proposal establishing a National Commission for Minorities housed within the ministry. Shias in Pakistan are geographically spread across the. Page 2 of 41 Preface. In some schools, however, non-Muslim students may study ethics. 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. On December 2, the Secretary of State redesignated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom and announced a waiver of the sanctions that accompany designation as required in the important national interests of the United States. Police and security forces throughout the country enhanced security measures during religious holidays in consultation with religious leaders. 163,601,094. According to Shia community estimates, There are approximate 320 Million to 350 Millions Shia's lives in the world. By law, madrassahs are prohibited from teaching or encouraging sectarian or religious hatred or violence. Minority rights activists criticized these advertisements as discriminatory and insulting. At first, they used hashtags, then killed us and rallied against us. In June, the Punjab Provincial Assembly unanimously passed the Curriculum and Text Book Board Amendment Bill, which Governor Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar signed into law. The law requires clearance from the Muttahida Ulema Board, a Punjab-based advisory council of religious scholars from multiple Muslim schools of thought, to publish content on Islam in school textbooks, which Assembly Speaker Elahi said was necessary to stop the publishing of blasphemous material against Mohammed and his companions. According to civil society reports, there were many individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and at least 35 under sentences of death, compared with 82 individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and 29 under sentences of death in 2019. Other government officials, including Prime Minister Khan, advised Sarwar against signing the bill, according to a Lahore-based journalist. In 2020, the provincial government began to implement the act, and NADRA began registering Hindu marriages in Sindh, according to Hindu community activists. 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. Syed Kareem* has been in hiding for weeks. Although there were no official obstacles to the advancement of minority religious group members in the military, they said that in practice, non-Muslims rarely rose above the rank of colonel and were not assigned to senior positions. Shia and Ahmadi Muslims were the most often accused, accounting respectively for 70 and 20 percent of all cases. 2020, in July, 2020, Pakistani police arrested three LeJ operatives who were allegedly planning to carry out an attack in . It has an estimated 23 million people who adhere to Islam. The 342-member National Assembly has 10 reserved seats for non-Muslims. Then, in mid-September, a march of more than 30,000 people, organised by extremist Sunni Muslim groups, gathered in Karachi over two days to call Shia Muslims unbelievers and blasphemers and called for their beheading. Analysis of census data and demographic research. Ahead of Christmas in Lahore, police deployed some 6,000 officers and officials at 623 churches. This requirement effectively prohibits Ahmadi Muslims from holding elected office, as they recognize a prophet subsequent to Mohammed. To seek office, Ahmadis would be forced to do so because by law they are considered non-Muslims, even though they self-identify as Muslim. The Charge dAffaires, consuls general, other embassy officers, and visiting senior U.S. officials engaged government officials and senior advisors to the Prime Minister, including the Minister for Human Rights, and officials from the Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, and Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony to discuss blasphemy law reform; laws concerning Ahmadi Muslims; the need to better protect members of religious minority communities; sectarian relations; and religious respect. In July, Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam [protection of foundation of Islam bill] was passed by the Punjab assembly, which supported only the Sunni interpretation of Islam, provoking a huge backlash from the Shia community. The embassy and consulates highlighted the principles of religious freedom and examples of interfaith dialogue in the United States on their social media platforms throughout the year. The protesters said that when they opposed the illegal evictions of villagers, they were charged in fake cases by revenue officials. According to media reports and law enforcement sources, in the weeks leading up to and during the Islamic month of Muharram religiously significant for Shia Muslims authorities at the federal and provincial levels again restricted the movement and activities of dozens of clerics on the Ministry of Interiors Schedule 4 listing. Other NGOs also said that 2020 had seen an increase in blasphemy cases. And up to 18 million of Pakistan's 74 million jobs may be lost. The Shias live in a state of relief and caution: relief at Article 370 being lifted, and caution that things won't get any better for them. According to the CSJ, 2020 saw the highest number of blasphemy cases in a single year in the countrys history. The Shia population is spread all over Pakistan. It is important to remember that Shia have a high birth rate since their religion allows adultery (Mut'a). On November 23, the Sindh High Court dissolved the marriage of an underage Christian girl to a 44-year-old Muslim man. The population density in Pakistan is 287 per Km 2 (742 people per mi 2 ). It threatens to plunge the country into anarchy.. According to the SATP and media reports, antiterrorism courts convicted and sentenced several individuals affiliated with terrorist organizations and involved in past sectarian attacks and targeted killings. On July 31, Hindu business owner and member of the Khairpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries Raja Kishan Chand was killed by unknown gunmen in that city. In August and September, increased security was provided throughout the country for the Shia communitys Muharram processions. July 2021 . The constitution prohibits discriminatory admission based on religious affiliation to any governmental educational institution. On October 11, unidentified militants abducted six Shia pilgrims near the Pakistan-Iran border region of Panjgur, in Balochistan. The author of the article wrote that COVID-19 had been hidden since the 1960s to be used against Muslims.. While the Ministry of Law and Justice was officially responsible for ensuring the legal rights of all citizens, in practice, the Ministry for Human Rights continued to assume primary responsibility for the protection of the rights of religious minorities. The court acquitted a second Christian in December. Victims said their attackers singled them out as vulnerable due to their religious minority identity. Bakhtawar Jaffri, a Shia rights activist in Punjab, said she had recently filed a police report for anti-Shia hate speech but it had been ignored. Dr Nauman Naqvi, an associate professor at Habib University in Karachi, said: Since Pakistans economic and political outlook appears increasingly troubled, the ruling power see Sunni majoritarian populism as the only option to secure stability, undercut democratic forces and distract from the grave political and economic crises that hover over Pakistan. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a national NGO, expressed concern over a surge in blasphemy cases against religious minorities, particularly the Shia community, and the continued potential for sectarian violence. 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. Now theyre coming up with legislation to eliminate the Shia minority.. Ahmadiyya Muslim community representatives continued to state that Ahmadi families were unable to register their marriages with local administrative bodies, known as union councils, since those councils considered Ahmadis to be outside the authority of the Muslim Family Law of 1961. Following the killing of Ahmadi physician Tahir Ahmad in November, the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom posted an official tweet calling upon authorities to ensure the safety of all Pakistanis. Human rights activists reported numerous instances of societal violence related to allegations of blasphemy; of efforts by individuals to coerce religious minorities to convert to Islam; and of societal harassment, discrimination, and threats of violence directed at members of religious minority communities. Many have observed that outrage against Shia. 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. The four men were charged with defacing antiquities. The 16-year-old suspect was being tried as a juvenile; the two coconspirators were a prayer leader and a young lawyer involved in the blasphemy complaint against Naseem. The Shia population in Pakistan is estimated as being 11.8% of the country's population. The last census was conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2017. Ahmadi community leaders said they saw the requirement to designate Mohammed as last of the prophets as directly targeting them. According to religious minority activists, provincial governments also often failed to meet quotas for hiring religious minorities into the civil service. Authorities also consult the ministry on matters such as blasphemy and Islamic education. Although there continued to be no official restriction on the construction of Ahmadiyya places of worship, according to Ahmadiyya Muslim community leaders, local authorities regularly denied requisite construction permits, and Ahmadis remained forbidden to call them mosques. Local authorities did not allow the repair or unsealing of Ahmadi mosques damaged or demolished by rioters in previous years. Political parties elected by the general electorate choose the minority individuals who hold these seats; they are not elected directly by the minority constituencies they represent. 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. Sunni coalition to demand arrest of Shia clerics in Pakistan. However, violence is inevitable because the anger and anxiety on both sides seem to be mounting. The group also painted slogans insulting the Ahmadiyya community. The HRCP reported that more than 40 such cases were registered under the blasphemy laws in August alone. Pakistan's president gives Shias an exemption, but the sectarian confrontation becomes an important political issue in the country. The five wafaqs each represent major streams of Islamic thought in the country: Barelvi, Deobandi, Shia, Ahle Hadith, and the Jamaat-i-Islami, which is considered ultraconservative. Islam in Pakistan. The ministrys budget covers assistance to indigent minorities, repair of minority places of worship, establishment of minority-run small development projects, celebration of minority religious festivals, and provision of scholarships for religious minority students. The PTA cited public complaints against an unauthentic version of the Quran uploaded by the Ahmadiyya community on the Google Play Store and information that portrayed Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim on Wikipedia, which the PTA characterized as misleading, wrong, deceptive, and deceitful. The PTA successfully removed the same Quran application from the Apple Store in July. On January 30, police arrested two Shia men in Tando Mohammed Khan, southern Sindh, and charged them with blasphemy. The anti-Shia Muslim campaign first began gathering pace on social media in September, demanding that Shia Muslims were declared heretics. Although students of other religious groups are not legally required to study Islam, schools do not always offer parallel studies in their own religious beliefs. The U.S. government estimates the total population at 234.4 million (midyear 2020 estimate). Students who identify themselves as Muslims must declare in writing they believe Mohammed is the final prophet. 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. According to Shia community estimates, There are approximate . extremist, and militant groups have come together to harass the Shia population right in the eyesight of the country's security apparatus. On July 13, hundreds of members of the Bheel community, including women and children, marched and demonstrated against the demolition of their homes by revenue officials whom they said were in collusion with an influential landlord of the area in Mithi, Sindh. Speakers at that conference repeatedly used anti-Ahmadi rhetoric. 2. The Sunni majority is using blasphemy laws to target and murder those they call heretics. Shia Muslims 1.1 Demographics According to sources, the Shia population of Pakistan is estimated to be between 10 and 15 percent (Australia 20 Feb. 2019, para. On January 21, the center in Khairpur hosted a Religious Freedom Day event at which 25 students discussed the importance of being able to practice religion freely in Pakistan. On September 5, the HRCP expressed concern over the surge in blasphemy cases against religious minorities, particularly the Shia community, and the potential for sectarian violence. In February, the National Assembly introduced a draft law requiring internet and technology companies to open offices in Islamabad, locate their servers within the country, and remove objectionable internet content within a specified timeframe. The HRCP said forced conversions of young women of minority faiths, often lower-caste Hindu girls from rural Sindh province, continued to occur. Three suspects were arrested for the rape but were released on bail, and the girls family said they harassed and pressured the girl to withdraw the case. The womans family said she was pregnant at the time of her suicide and that police initially refused to file charges against the man because of his caste. In Sindh, police provided enhanced security at churches and Hindu temples, especially in Karachi, on eves of festivals such as Christmas and Diwali. At least three top Twitter trends praised the killer and called him the savior and pride of Pakistan. According to the governments immigration website, the Ministry of Interior could grant visas to foreign missionaries invited by organizations registered in the country. According to the bill, all publishers would be required to submit to the Directorate General Public Relations, the provincial government authority with jurisdiction over printing presses and publishing houses, four copies of every edition of each title they print.
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