Spero News（http://www.speroforum.com）
Christian girls forced to convert to Islam, 1 August 2008
by Martin Barillas
Christian girls Saba Younis, 13, and Anila Younis, 10, were kidnapped by a Muslim and sold to another who forced them to convert to Islam. Saba Younis was also forced to marry against her will. The courts will not remand girls to their father's custody.
Justice Saghir Ahmed, a judge of the Multan bench of Lahore High Court, Pakistan, sent on July 29, 2008 two under-aged Christian girls to a "darul aman" in Multan, Punjab, for their safety. Darul aman is the name of the institutions set up by government for the shelter of women needing temporary sanctuary or protection.
According to Aftab Alexander Mughal, of Minorities Concern of Pakistan, Saba Younis, 13 years old, and Anila, 10 years old, sisters and Christians, were kidnapped on June 26 by a Muslim man Muhammad Arif Bajwa and then forcibly converted to Islam. When the matter came before the court, Main Naeem Sardar, District and Sessions Judge Muzaffargarh, on July 12, ordered that the girls are not to be remanded to their Christian parents because the girls are Muslim now.
The father of the girls, Younis Masih, filed an appeal to the high court where a Muslim lawyer Rashid Rehman pleaded his case. The court did not believe that the girls accepted Islam by their own free will; therefore the girls were sent to a 'darul aman' in order to be relieved of pressure on the part of Muslims. The girls will again appear in court on Aug. 4 and then the case will be decided according to the girls' statement.
"At least now the girls would be out of some pressure from those Muslims with whom they forcedly lived for 34 days," said Rashid Rehman, a Muslim lawyer who appeared before the court on Masih's behalf, as told to Minorities Concern of Pakistan.
The girls were kidnapped by Muslim fruit vendor Muhammad Arif Bajwa in Chowk Munda, a small town in South Punjab. They had come from Chak No. 552, a Muslim-dominated village, to Chowk Munda to visit their uncle. Bajwa kidnapped the girls at gun point and told them to remain silent or they would be killed. The girls were then sold to another Muslim man Falak Sher Gill , a well-known criminal.
On June 27 the girls were forcefully converted to Islam, and on June 28 Saba Younis was made to marry Gill's son Muhammad Amjid after receiving a fatwa (religious decree) from a Muslim religious leader, to justify their actions. Later on, it was disclosed that the Muslim religious leader was bribed to provide the 'fatwa.'
When Masih went to Gill to demand his daughters back Gill refused to let them go. Gill, though, threatened Masih and said that now the girls had accepted Islam they could not return to their Christian family. Ashfaq Fateh, a Christian social worker from Toba Tek Singh, told Minorities Concern of Pakistan that Gill warned Masih that if he filed a case against him his family would be killed. He also claimed that he could not be caught by the police or found guilty by any court.
Despite these threats, Masih reported all the details to the local police. However, no action has been taken to get the girls released and the police have told him to keep quite about the whole affair.
This incident has created terror among the Christians of Chak 552 and adjoining areas where Christians are now very frightened to speak out against what has happened out of fear of their lives. There are 158 Muslim families in Chak 552 but only 14 Christian families. Law enforcement agencies have been silent and apparently hesitant to take action against the culprits.
Khalid Raheel, the uncle of the abducted girls, contacted Minorities Concern of Pakistan and reported that Ahsan ul Haq - a local member of provincial assembly (MPA) who belongs to the ruling PPP party - is supporting the abductors. Raheel stated that when the Christian members of the local government visited the police station for help they were totally ignored. He went on to say that Christians feel helpless.
The alleged culprits filed a case of harassment against Masih and his family claiming that as the girls have accepted Islam, Masih is threatening them and the other Muslims connected to the case. On the other hand, Masih also filed a petition in a local court for the recovery of his girls. Main Naeem Sardar, District and Sessions Judge Muzaffargarh, on July 12 declared because the girls admitted they are Muslim they cannot return to their Christian parents. According to Masih, the judge did not allow him to have word with his daughter. It is a common interpretation under Islamic law that a Christian cannot have custody of a Muslim.
This is the second time, that Christian girls from this area have been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam and then made to marry a Muslim man without their consent.
In another incident about six months ago, Jamila Akhtar – a Christian woman from the same village - was kidnapped in a same area and sent to Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan. The police did not help to find the missing woman and her aggrieved family is still awaiting her return. Her whereabouts are currently unknown to them.
Although there are many such incidents in the cities and especially in the villages in which girls of poor families are kidnapped by powerful people, it is easier to kidnap Christian, Hindu or Sikh girls, forcefully convert them to Islam, and then make them marry a Muslim man.
In such incidents, religious minorities generally struggle alone without the support of the authorities. The police and majority of the local Muslim community does not support non-Muslim families saying that when a girl has accepted Islam she can not go back to her non-Muslim parents. Many cases of kidnapping of Christians girls in Punjab and Hindu girls in Singh have been reported by human rights groups but very few get media attention.
Religious minorities represent but 3 percent (Christians are only 1.5 per cent) of the total population of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Under the constitution, religious minorities do not have equal rights as Muslims.
Cases of kidnapping of Christian girls:
- On June 4, 2008 a Muslim Ramzan kidnapped two (2) Christian sisters of Chak 285-JB, a village in Toba Tek Singh of Punjab province.
- On March 28, 2008, a Christian girl Farzana Rashid, 14, was kidnapped by policemen from her house in Lahore Cantonment. Later on, she was raped and charged under a false case.
- On May 14, 2008 a Christian girl Sumaira Rafiq Masih was raped by 3 influential landlords of the area while she was working in the fields near Patoki, Punjab province. Police have still not arrested the culprits.
- On Aug. 5, 2007 in Faisalabad, Punjab, two (2) Christian girls aged 11years and 13 years were kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to strangers.
- In another heinous crime on May 26, 2006 a six-year old Sikh girl was forcibly converted to Islam at Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
- In 2005, about 50 Hindu and 20 Christian girls were kidnapped in the country and majority forcibly converted to Islam.
・Martin Barillas is a former US diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America.
（End）
