Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lahore (Agenzia Fides) - Conversions and forced marriages are "contrary to human dignity, human rights, fundamental freedoms of every individual, inscribed by God in every human being." For this reason "as Christians, we strongly support the project of a new law that would prevent such abuses, especially those that affect Hindu and Christian religious minorities " says the Dominican Fr. James Channan, OP, Director of "Peace Center" in Lahore to Fides Agency, at the forefront in promoting interreligious dialogue and the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan.
According to Fr. Channan - former secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Dialogue and Consultant of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue - "the initiative of the National Commission for Religious Minorities on the new draft law to stop conversions and forced marriage is very important and would represent a step forward concerning harmony and peace in Pakistan." For this reason, the Christian community "strongly supports the view to contribute to the development, progress and building of a tolerant nation, peaceful, fully respectful of the rights of man." The bill proposed by the Commission provides, inter alia, that the converts to Islam cannot get married for at least six months after the conversion and that a magistrate, not a police officer, is responsible for recording, independently, the declarations of the alleged converted (see Fides 14/06/2012).
The question is shaking the country at all levels. In recent days, the political Hindu Bherulal Balani reported that an elected member of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the ruling party, is involved in the kidnapping and conversion of Hindu girls, noting "the indifference of the party in front of the phenomenon of forced conversions ", which made a comeback to the front pages in recent months for the case of Rinkle Kumari, Asha Kumari and Lata Fumari, three Hindu girls forcibly converted to Islam. The Hindu community has also threatened a "mass emigration from the country, if immediate steps are not taken to stop the forced conversions", as the Hindu Council in Pakistan stated recently, before an assembly of over 400 leaders of the Hindu community of the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces.
The representatives of the "Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network" have also asked the government to take note of the kidnapping of Dalit girls and their forced conversion to Islam, denouncing the social and economic discrimination against the poorest and most marginalized.
According to Paul Bhatti, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for National Harmony, the main causes of forced conversions are poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and social injustice. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/6/2012)
