Pakistani Court Ruling Singles Out Religious Minorities, Causing Concern among Christians

A high court in majority-Muslim Pakistan has ruled that citizens must declare their religious affiliation before joining the civil service, military or judiciary. All birth certificates, identity cards, passports and voting lists must also indicate the person’s faith.

The judgment, a victory for hard-line clerics pressuring the state to single out minorities in their midst, adds that all Muslim candidates for national or provincial assemblies must swear that Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was the last of God’s prophets.

This has spread fear among Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities already under pressure in the South Asian nation. Ahmadis, who believe another Muslim prophet came after Muhammad, feel especially targeted because they could not take the parliamentary oath.

“Already it is difficult for us as minorities to retain our government jobs. With this court judgment, we can forget whatever normalcy we had in our lives,” said Ejaz Mall, 34, a Christian civil servant in Lahore.

“Many people will face socioeconomic exclusion if the order is implemented.”

In its March 9 ruling, the Islamabad High Court argued that citizens should be easily identifiable by their faith and that applicants for public offices should declare their beliefs before being considered for employment.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, in a remark clearly aimed at Ahmadis, said it was “alarming that one of the minorities was often mistaken for being Muslims” because their names and general attire were like those of Muslims.

The court’s ruling outraged human rights activists, who fear it would blackball minorities and lead to more persecution. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on the government to counter it immediately.

“It is essential that the government acts in aid of its minority citizens by appealing this ruling,” said Commission Chairperson Mehdi Hasan.

“Forums for justice such as the Islamabad court should play their due role in safeguarding the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable sections of society.”

The ruling is the latest in a long series of attempts by officials to clearly distinguish between religions in Pakistan. A 1974 constitutional amendment declared the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims and a 1984 ordinance barred them from practicing Islam in public.

Although Ahmadi Muslims, also known as Ahmadiyya, believe in the Quran and Prophet Muhammad, many mainstream Muslims consider them to be heretics because they also believe their 19th-century founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a latter-day prophet.

In 1992, lawmakers proposed indicating religion on official identity cards, but they dropped the idea when Christians protested.

Christians, the second-largest religious minority in Pakistan, comprise less than 2 percent of the country’s 208 million population, followed by Hindus, then Ahmadis and the others.

Non-Muslims have faced discriminatory laws, violence and prejudice for decades in Pakistan. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department placed Pakistan on its Special Watch List for severe violations of the religious freedom of minorities.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its 2017 annual report that “the Pakistani government continued to perpetrate and tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations” in the previous year.

“Religiously discriminatory constitutional provisions and legislation, such as the country’s blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, continue to result in prosecutions and imprisonments,” the report said.

Nasir Saeed, director of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, a Lahore-based group that advocates for religious minorities in Pakistan, said the government should promote harmony rather than further division.

“Minorities, who are living under threat and are already fleeing the country, need to be assured of security, protection and equality,” he said.

The campaign against Ahmadis has gained momentum in the run-up to Pakistan’s general election slated for July. A new ultraconservative religious party shut down Islamabad for three weeks late last year in protests against a new election law that seemed to ease some restrictions on Ahmadis.

Last December, lawmaker Muhammad Safdar Awan called for a ban on Ahmadis from joining the armed forces. Safdar is the son-in-law of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“These people are a threat to this country, its constitution and ideology. I want to bring a resolution to ban the recruitment of Qadianis (Ahmadi Muslims) in the armed forces of Pakistan,” Safdar said at the time.

“A person who doesn’t believe in the jihad in the path of Allah, that person cannot be a part of our pious army.”

Dozens Killed in CAR, Including Priest Who Planned to Move

Dozens, including a Catholic priest, were killed last week as fighting erupted between armed groups in several villages in southern Central African Republic.

Father Joseph Désiré Angbabata, 49, the parish priest of Séko village, near Bambari, lost his life when armed men stormed his village parish of Saint Charles LWANGA on Wednesday, 21 March. He had been planning to move in the coming days due to growing tension in the area.

The assailants are believed to be militants of the UPC (l’Unité pour la Paix en Centrafrique), a predominantly Muslim and Fulani group comprised of fighters who formerly fought for the Séléka rebel group. The UPC has been responsible for numerous massacres and human rights abuses, including the killing of ten Red Cross workers last year in Gambo.

WHO ARE THE ANTI-BALAKA?

Described in Western media as 'Christian rebels', the Anti-balaka are anything but Christian; at best they might be nominal or cultural Christians. Wearing juju (occult charms) around their necks, they fight with knives, clubs, rifles and (ironically) machetes, to rid the south of Muslims. Furthermore, they routinely threaten to burn churches and kill pastors that shelter Muslims. But as the Rev. Dieu-Seni Bikowo explained in 2014, "For us they are not Muslims or Christians. They are people - people in danger."

The attack on Séko followed clashes between UPC militants and local vigilantes – known as Anti-balaka (which translates as “Anti-machete”) – a day before in nearby Tagbara, triggered by the murder of an Anti-balaka militiaman by the UPC.

In response, Anti-balaka forces attacked a UPC position in Tagbara, killing a dozen militants and leading to further reprisal attacks by the UPC, whose men attacked a string of villages on the 100km stretch of road between Bambari and Ippy, killing indiscriminately and setting fire to houses.

Tension is still high, as UPC militants are still occupying the area, despite the presence of UN peacekeepers. The violence has forced many to seek refuge in Bambari. So far it has not been possible to establish the death toll.

‘HE DIED A MARTYR’

In Séko, many had sought refuge in the Catholic parish, but UPC fighters chased them out, shooting the priest at close range and killing at least 16 other villagers, including women and children. The assailants also looted and ransacked the parish.

Last August, a local MP accused UN peacekeepers of “complicity” in the attack in Gambo that claimed dozens of lives, including the ten Red Cross workers.

The MP for Gambo, Michel Kpingo, in a statement said that all had desired the UN Moroccan contingent to be replaced and that “the complicity of these soldiers was clearly established in the events of Gambo”.

The UN denied any wrongdoing in a report published on 24 January.

CHURCH LEADERS AND AID WORKERS TARGETED

The killing of Fr. Joseph Désiré Angbabata is the latest act of violence targeting church leaders in CAR.

On 25 February a church elder who worked for UNICEF was one of six people killed during an ambush by armed men in northern CAR. Gabriel Ole, 66, was an elder at a Baptist church (Eglise Baptiste Doumbia) in Bangui, the capital.

He was among of a group of six workers – including two officials from the Ministry of Education, and three members of a local group (Bangui Sans Frontieres) that works with UNICEF – travelling to the north-western town of Markounda, near the Chad border, when their car was ambushed.

The New Year was also marked by attacks targeting the diocese of Bangassou, including an assassination attempt.

Father Alain Blaise Bissialo, a priest at Christ-King Parish of Tokoyo, was stabbed by unknown armed men on 4 January. Fr. Bissialo, who is the president of the Bangassou Peace and Mediation Committee in the south-east of the country, has been involved in various initiatives for peace and reconciliation between Christian and Muslim communities. Some believe that his activism for peace and social cohesion in the region may have created enemies.