On January 21, the center in Khairpur hosted a Religious Freedom Day event at which 25 students discussed the importance of being able to practice religion freely in Pakistan. On August 12, armed gunmen attacked the house of Ahmadi Muslim Syed Naeem Ahmad Bashir in the Sahiwal District of Punjab, firing into the courtyard at night, where they reportedly expected the family to be sleeping. On December 2, the Secretary of State redesignated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom and announced a waiver of the sanctions that accompany designation as required in the important national interests of the United States. If Pakistan is unwilling to protect its Shia citizens, they may look to During the year, courts overturned some blasphemy convictions upon appeal and acquitted others after the accused had spent years in prison. Top Countries by Muslim population | Muslim population in World 2022 In October, Punjab police arrested three Ahmadis for using Islamic symbols and practices in their mosque. When he and his sons returned to the house, they shot and wounded two of the Christian family members. The court ordered police to hand over the woman to her Hindu husband and no police or court action was taken against Domki. Courts issued two new death sentences for blasphemy and sentenced another individual to five years imprisonment. The constitution prohibits discriminatory admission based on religious affiliation to any governmental educational institution. Embassy officers continued to engage civil society leaders, local religious leaders, religious minority representatives, and legal experts in discussing ways to combat intolerance and promote interfaith cooperation to increase religious freedom. Minority rights activists criticized these advertisements as discriminatory and insulting. On January 26, for example, a local court sentenced four boys for vandalizing a Hindu temple in Sindhs Tharparkar District, the first attack on a Hindu temple in that area in more than 30 years; minority lawmakers and civil society activists reacted strongly to the attack. In the absence of specific language in the law authorizing civil or common law marriage, marriage certificates are signed by religious authorities and registered with the local marriage registrar. Pakistan: The cost of being Shia | South Asia Monitor Shia Population - Worldmapper The Sindh provincial government has legislation allowing couples to seek divorce and granting Hindu women the right to remarry six months after a divorce or a spouses death. In Islamabad, the deputy inspector general of police said as many as 15,000 police, Rangers, and Frontier Corps personnel were involved. Shias in Pakistan reputedly account for about 20 percent of the population or 42 million out of the population of 210 million making it the second largest Shia population in the world outside Iran. According to NGOs and media reports, individuals convicted and sentenced to death in well-publicized blasphemy cases dating as far back as 2014 including Nadeem James; Taimoor Raza; Junaid Hafeez; Mubasher, Ghulam, and Ehsan Ahmed; Shafqat Emmanuel; and Shagufta Kausar remained in prison and continued to await action on their appeals. The TLP and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a banned organization under the National Counterterrorism Authoritys Schedule-I list, also held smaller rallies. PDF Estimated Percentage Range of Shia by Country - Pew Research Center Despite these problems some international organizations have researched and reported some statistics. Shia Muslims 1.1 Demographics. There continued to be reports of attacks on holy places, cemeteries, and religious symbols of Hindu, Christian, and Ahmadiyya minorities. Zaidi. The victims, burned to death by an angry mob, were Babar Noman and Hafiz Naeem. As a result, the maps are designed to give a general overview of where significant Shia population centers, zones of influence, and points of interest . The court ordered the chief executive officer of GEPCO to hire the two Christians, but he did not do so. The Sunnis, on the other hand, nurse the fear that they have decisively lost power and things . Danesh Kumar, the adviser on minority affairs to the Balochistan Chief Minister, said the government had decided to hand over sacred sites of religious minorities in Balochistan to promote interfaith harmony. Timeline: Modern Sunni-Shia Tensions - Council on Foreign Relations Anti-Shia Violence: Widening Sectarian Schism in Pakistan In June, the Punjab Provincial Assembly unanimously passed the Curriculum and Text Book Board Amendment Bill, which Governor Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar signed into law. Sanjay Mathrani, a former participant in a U.S. government exchange program, was a featured speaker. In October, members of a State Youth Parliament team in Gujranwala defaced a public portrait of the countrys first Nobel laureate, physicist Dr. Abdus Salam, an Ahmadi. Throughout the year, some government officials and politicians engaged in anti-Ahmadi rhetoric and attended events that Ahmadi Muslims said incited violence against members of their community. victims of Takfiri terrorism and govt apathy - Tehran Times Islamic world, countries with a traditional Islamic population Unofficial estimates vary widely with regard to the size of minority religious groups. Although there were no official obstacles to the advancement of minority religious group members in the military, they said that in practice, non-Muslims rarely rose above the rank of colonel and were not assigned to senior positions. The stronghold of Barelvism remains Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan. Following the killing of Ahmadi physician Tahir Ahmad in November, the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom posted an official tweet calling upon authorities to ensure the safety of all Pakistanis. Some religious minority leaders stated the system of selecting minority parliamentarians through the internal deliberations of mainstream parties resulted in the appointment of party stalwarts or those who could afford to buy the seats, rather than legislators who genuinely represented minority communities. Salman Khan, the head of the Muslim family, remained at large. The '2019 International Religious Freedom Report,' of the US Department of State, released on June 10, 2020, has voiced concern over the targeted killing in Pakistan of Shia Muslims, including ethnic Hazaras, who are largely Shia, and Ahmadi Muslims in attacks believed to be driven by faith. According to sources, the Shia population of Pakistan is estimated to be between 10 and 15 percent (Australia 20 Feb. 2019, para. Analysis of census data and demographic research. The Hindu community in Sindh and Balochistan remained vulnerable to targeted killings and kidnappings for ransom. * Name has been changed to protect identity, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The Shia population in Pakistan is estimated as being 11.8% of the country's population. Violence has not begun, but its likelihood looms large. The PTA cited public complaints against an unauthentic version of the Quran uploaded by the Ahmadiyya community on the Google Play Store and information that portrayed Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim on Wikipedia, which the PTA characterized as misleading, wrong, deceptive, and deceitful. The PTA successfully removed the same Quran application from the Apple Store in July. Qatar. Community leaders continued to report that the government hindered Ahmadis from obtaining legal documents and pressured community members to deny their beliefs by requiring individuals wishing to be listed as Muslim on identity cards and passports to swear Mohammed was the final prophet of Islam and the Ahmadiyya movements founder was a false prophet. It is more accurate than the previous one. The country is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and maintains two reservations: first, that ICCPR Article 3 regarding equal rights of men and women would be applied as to be in conformity with Personal Law of the citizens and Qanoon-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (Law of Evidence), under which the in-court testimony of men in certain civil matters pertaining to contracts and financial obligations is given greater weight than that of women; and second, that ICCPR Article 25, on the equal right for citizens to take part in public service, would be subject to articles of the constitution mandating that the President and Prime Minister be Muslims. Pakistan's Perpetual Shia Shame - Baltimore Post-Examiner By years end, police had dropped the case due to lack of evidence and pressure from activists. Members of religious minority communities stated public schools gave Muslim students bonus grade points for memorizing the Quran, but there were no analogous opportunities for extra academic credit available for religious minority students. Two days later, the 21-year-old student found himself the subject of a police report, accused of violating Pakistans draconian laws on blasphemy. The wafaqs operate through an umbrella group, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan, to represent their interests to the government. Pakistan population is equivalent to 2.83% of the total world population. Visiting U.S. government officials met with religious minority community representatives, parliamentarians, human rights activists, and members of the federal cabinet to highlight concerns regarding the treatment of religious minority communities, the application of blasphemy laws, and other forms of discrimination on the basis of religion. Although there continued to be no official restriction on the construction of Ahmadiyya places of worship, according to Ahmadiyya Muslim community leaders, local authorities regularly denied requisite construction permits, and Ahmadis remained forbidden to call them mosques. At other times, advocacy groups reported that blasphemy trials were held inside jails for security reasons, in which case the hearings were not public, resulting in a gain in immediate security but a loss of transparency. Other government officials, including Prime Minister Khan, advised Sarwar against signing the bill, according to a Lahore-based journalist. Wadi-e-Hussain: A graveyard for Pakistan's Shia victims The information in the following paragraph was provided in a country report on Pakistan by the . According to technology companies and religious minority activists, the definition of objectionable content in the draft law was vague and subject to government interpretation. Shiites are estimated to be 21-35 percent of the Muslim population in South East Asia. Indonesia is the country with the Largest Muslim population in the world. The U.S. government estimates the total population at 234.4 million (midyear 2020 estimate). Following the address, the Special Adviser convened an interfaith roundtable discussion at Karachi University, which included Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Parsis. 'Every year we dig mass graves': the slaughter of Pakistan's Hazara On October 7, Dr. Qibla Ayaz, then chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, inaugurated a national code of conduct to promote interreligious harmony in the face of increased sectarian violence and mistreatment of religious minorities. According to government figures, the remaining 4 percent includes Ahmadi Muslims (whom national law does not recognize as Muslim); Hindus; Christians, including Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants, among others; Parsis/Zoroastrians; Bahais; Sikhs; Buddhists; Kalash; and Kihals and Jains. Iran Sets Its Eyes on Afghanistan | The Washington Institute Christian activists also stated young women from their communities were vulnerable to forced conversions. The court acquitted a second Christian in December. In January, after going missing, a 15-year-old Hindu girl appeared in a video with Ali Raza, a Muslim man, in which the two claimed they had willingly married and she had converted to Islam. Pakistan 10 - 15 10 - 15 Palau -- --Palestinian territories <1 <1 Panama <1 <1 Papua New Guinea <1 <1 Paraguay -- --Peru <1 <1 . Islam in Pakistan - Wikipedia 0.5% Shia, and 0.3% Ahmadi. According to civil society reports, there were many individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and at least 35 under sentences of death, compared with 82 individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and 29 under sentences of death in 2019. In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. The girls family said they feared she had been forced to convert and marry a Muslim. You can add more than one country or area. Pakistan Demographics 2020 (Population, Age, Sex, Trends - Worldometer In December 2019, the parliament passed and Modi signed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows for the fast-tracking of citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian. shia surnames in pakistan NON-FICTION: PAKISTAN'S SHIA DYNAMICS - Newspaper - DAWN.COM The constitution requires the President and Prime Minister to be Muslims. 03 / Select Countries You can add more than one country or area. All senior officials, including members of parliament, must swear an oath to protect the countrys Islamic identity. The last census was conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2017. Bibi remained in custody at years end. An additional six Sikh gurdwaras and seven Hindu temples were also reopened after renovation in Punjab. / shia surnames in pakistan. According to a 2019 report by Pakistan's National Commission for Human Rights, an independent watchdog, at least 509 Hazara have been murdered for their faith since 2013. According to eyewitnesses, police officials in at least four police vans cordoned off the area and arrested Soomro, who initially resisted. According to Ahmadiyya leaders, the government effectively disenfranchised their community by requiring voters to swear an oath affirming the finality of the Prophethood of Mohammed, something that they stated was against Ahmadi belief, in order to register as Muslims. According to the SATP, at least 10 persons were killed and three injured in 10 incidents of sectarian violence by extremist groups during the year. The government may use the antiterrorism courts, established as a parallel legal structure under the 1997 Antiterrorism Act, to try cases involving violent crimes, terrorist activities, and acts or speech deemed by the government to foment religious hatred, including blasphemy. In 2017, TLP was responsible for forcing a law minister to quit over a perceived softening in the blasphemy laws. According to some estimates, the Barelvi school of . Authorities also consult the ministry on matters such as blasphemy and Islamic education. 2022 population pyramid Dependency ratios total dependency ratio: 59.3 youth dependency ratio: 44 elderly dependency ratio: 15.3 potential support ratio: 6.5 (2021 est.) The government of Punjab, the countrys largest province, passed a series of measures against Ahmadi Muslim beliefs. Pakistan: Shia Muslims . In January, an antiterrorism court sentenced 86 members of the TLP to 55-year prison terms each for taking part in violent protests following Bibis acquittal. As well as the 50 who have been charged in the blasphemy crackdown, five have been killed since September and many more Shia families and well-known figures have gone into hiding. The resolution stated, This House demands that if the chief of Qadianis [a derogatory term for Ahmadis] submits in writing declaring that they accept the Constitution of Pakistan and accept their status as non-Muslims, then we will have no objection to their inclusion into the Commission.. This requirement effectively prohibits Ahmadi Muslims from holding elected office, as they recognize a prophet subsequent to Mohammed. Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of the Islamic Faith, after Sunni Islam, having about 15% of Muslims worldwide. According to civil society and media reports, the government restricted the movement and activities of these individuals because they were known for exacerbating sectarian tensions. Representatives of the Bahai community said this policy particularly affected them because the Bahai World Center the spiritual and administrative center of the community was in Haifa, Israel. Total. Civil society activists and media reported young Christian and Hindu women being abducted and raped by Muslim men. 4,465,000. There is a small myth that Christianity has been existent in Pakistan ever since a few decades after the crucifixion of Jesus . The official state religion of Iran is Shia branch of Islam. Members of religious minorities, particularly lower-caste Hindus, complained of forceful evictions from their homes and villages by individuals desiring their land with assistance from government officials. These terrorist outfits have committed horrendous crimes in this mountainous region . 11.0%. It has quasi-judicial powers and may refer cases for prosecution but does not have arrest authority. The event received positive coverage in local media. In July, police arrested four men for destroying a 1,700-year-old Gandharan civilization statue of Buddha in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a video showing one of the men hammering the statue went viral on social media. 3 - Challenging School Textbooks: The Sectarian Making of National Updated: September 04, 2020 06:14 AM GMT. Edit: August and September of 2020 has seen a renewed attack on Shia Muslims within Pakistan. There were some cases in which police received custody of the accused from a court for 14 days for a senior officer to carry out an investigation. The Khan government, meanwhile, has been accused of both turning a blind eye to rising sectarianism from hardline Sunni groups, which reportedly enjoy patronage from state and military officials, and also using their support for political gain at a time when the government is weak and the economy is collapsing. Sources vary on the precise breakdown of the Muslim population between Sunni and Shia Muslims. In addition to addressing a legal gap by providing documentation needed for identity registration, divorce, and inheritance, the Hindu Marriage Acts allow marriages to be voided when consent was obtained by force, coercion, or by fraud. The acts allow for the termination of the marriage upon the conversion of one party to a religion other than Hinduism. Their families believe they were taken into custody by the intelligence. At least one individual was accused of spreading blasphemous content through social media under PECA. Subsequently, Arfana Mallah, a professor at Sindh University Jamshoro who criticized Soomros arrest and the blasphemy laws, was herself accused of committing blasphemy and had to apologize publicly. The killings took place during protests sparked by twin suicide bombings outside two churches there. Ahmadi representatives said the wording of the declaration students were required to sign on their applications for admission to universities continued to prevent Ahmadis from declaring themselves as Muslims. The statement also called on the government to immediately reform its often abused blasphemy laws and its court system, which allow such abuses to occur, and to ensure that the suspect is prosecuted to the full extent of the law., In an official tweet in November following the killing of Ahmadi physician Tahir Ahmad, the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom said the killing was the latest in a series of recent killings targeting the Ahmadiyya community. 2. I fear for myself and my family. With the police on their way to interrogate him, and fearing the violent fate that extremist Sunni groups in Pakistan inflict on those accused of blasphemy, last month Kareem and his family chose to disappear. By one estimate, in Pakistan, the Shias are. Ahmadi community leaders said they saw the requirement to designate Mohammed as last of the prophets as directly targeting them.

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