Forced "Conversions": 600/Year

[Meta Blog]

Via (HT: The American Thinker) comes the following news from Pakistan.

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.

In reading the article, I was at first struck by the fact that no one at this conference roundly denounced this barbaric practice or its close cousin, execution for apostasy, which, if it is not actually legal in Pakistan, apparently might as well be legal. The following passage makes both of these points.

In Pakistan

we do not have any law against forced conversion

and c

onverting 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. [bold added]

What is there to understand? That the followers of Mohammed are all about telling other people what to do, their rational conclusions and actual wishes be damned? What else would a forced "convert" do for the unholy cause of Islam, but to have the scimitar for "apostasy" hanging over the "convert's" head? Islam is as much as a movement against the free exercise of the intellect as it is an intellectual movement.

But a possible explanation for this reticence, not to mention at least some of the the reluctance of the government to do anything about the problem comes later in the article.

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

."

Joseph Francis, of the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement took up this argument. "Our organization has dealt with hundreds of forced conversion cases. Not even the judges of the High Courts deal with such cases objectively. Parents are not allowed to talk to their daughters and many forcibly converted girls are made to be prostitutes."

In conclusion, participants "forcefully and unanimously condemned forced conversions" and called on the government to "abolish personal laws and to punish those who indulge in such practices". [bold added]

Hmmm. Makes me wonder about the veracity of this recent claim, by an official of the Pakistani government. You know, the one "allied" with us against the Islamist Axis.

With this context, the attendees of this conference strike me as quite brave under the circumstances.

-- CAV

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/000923.html