Violations of religious freedom

For the second consecutive year Pakistan gets placed on the US State Department's annual list of countries that tolerate severe religious freedom violations. It is among 10 nations - China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan - categorised as "Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)" for having engaged or tolerated "systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom." Previously, this country was on the Special Watch List (SWL) of countries which required close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations engaged in or tolerated by governments. Citing reasons for including Pakistan in the CPC, US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback mentioned Asia Bibi's case, Myanmar for mass violence against Rohingya Muslims, and China for 'imprisonment' of the Uyghurs as well as its treatment of Christians and Buddhists.

Conspicuously missing from this catalogue of countries perpetrating religious freedom violations is India. For a while in the past, it figured in the SWL as Hindu vigilantes associated with the ultra Hindu nationalist BJP government killed Muslims on mere suspicion of eating beef or even transporting cows, forced poor rural Muslim communities to convert to Hinduism under an officially sanctioned 'Ghar Wapsi' (return home) policy, and also committed brutalities against Christians. The conditions have further aggravated. As part of its Hindutva rashtra agenda, the government has changed the special status of Muslim majority region of Jammu and Kashmir putting its 80 million residents under siege and creating a huge humanitarian crisis. It has also made an amendment to the citizenship law with the express design to deny Muslims the same rights as Hindus and some other religious communities, and also started working towards compiling a National Register of Citizens with the same intent. These blatantly anti-Muslim measures have sparked countrywide protests for being discriminatory. Muslims are the most persecuted community under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was denied a US visa in 2005 for "severe violations of religious freedom" - the only person to be ever refused visa on these grounds - for his role as Gujarat chief minister in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom. There is a growing trend of violence against Christians too. Yet that country has been taken off even the Special Watch List because of political considerations.

Be that as it may, it is a very troubling designation for Pakistan, but one that calls for deep introspection on the part of keepers of our collective conscience to improve the environment. Not only minorities face fear and intimidation from extremist elements, even mainstream Muslims are under grievous pressures. Inclusion in the CPC can invite economic sanctions. However, Ambassador Sam Brownback told reporters that while six other nations are being sanctioned, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have had their sanctions waived due to "national interest." That may be a relief, but Pakistan needs to protect and promote religious freedoms, irrespective of external opprobrium.