Religious Persecution and the World Watch List

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2024 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate and to follow the hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce). I congratulate her on leading the debate so well. I can assure you, Ms Vaz, that I will not take as long. That does not take away from the importance of the debate, but I do not want to repeat what has been said. Although we could speak about many countries, I want to focus on two—India and Pakistan.

I declare an interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief. I am very pleased to be chair of the APPG; it is a privilege and an honour. The importance of freedom of religion or belief is indicated by the fact that some 174 Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords wish to be part of the APPG. That shows the interest and the strength of support in Parliament.

Through the APPG I am fully aware of the relevant issues, and it is crucial that we speak about them and give them the time they deserve. With the launch of this year’s world watch list, it is important to bring attention to two specific countries where there is religious persecution—India and Pakistan. As religious nationalism escalates in both countries, the impact of persecution for one’s faith or belief is suffered not only by Christians, but by other religious minorities. Pakistani religious minorities face serious persecution, including forced conversions, child marriage, the abuse of blasphemy laws, exclusion from education, limited employment, hate speech and incitement to violence. All these things happen against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in both India and Pakistan. In Punjab alone, 3,914 cases of rape or sexual abuse of ladies and young girls, 664 cases of domestic violence, 174 honour killings and 44 acid attacks were recorded in one year, such is the violence and hatred towards others. I can never understand how anyone could hate anybody with such venom and violence.

Open Doors has ranked Pakistan as No. 7 on its world watch list for the persecution of Christians. Last year, more than 20 churches and 100 homes were attacked in response to believers’ being accused of desecrating the Koran, often on trumped-up charges. Blasphemy laws in Pakistan pose a grave and serious threat to Christians and many other religious minorities, because it seems that people do not need to have an evidential base; they just have to make an accusation and the authorities will take action, without any basis of fact at all. All minority religious groups in Pakistan suffer persecution, with no end in sight.

The Sita Ram temple in Ahmadpur Sial served the Hindu community in the region for more than a century, with the architecture revealing a rich cultural heritage and religious beliefs. That beautiful representation of Hinduism in Pakistan has now been converted into a chicken shop. Where is the thought for Hindus and people of other religions? The views of the Hindus who live there have been disregarded entirely. Multiple Hindu sites were demolished or encroached upon in 2023. In December, CCTV footage from a Hindu temple in the Sindh region showed a radical extremist mob with sticks and batons attacking the temple and beating Hindu worshippers. Such persecution must be addressed and stopped.

The Ahmadis—we in the APPG met some of them at about this time last year—are a major target for prosecutions under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, with specific anti-Ahmadi laws enabling such persecution. This Muslim group is explicitly targeted by the federal laws of Pakistan. What have we done to address such targeting? I am not asking the Minister to do it all himself—that is not right—but what course of action have the UK Government taken? Ahmadi Muslims are denied the right to call themselves Muslims and have been openly declared as “wajibul qatl”, or “deserving to be killed”, in the Pakistan media and by religious clerics.

Am I less of a Christian because I am a Baptist? The Minister is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) is a member of the Church of Scotland and others in this Chamber are members of the Church of England. Am I less of a Christian than they are? No, I am not—not a bit of it. Why should they be less of a Muslim just because they happen to have slightly different beliefs? They are just as much a Muslim. I find it incredibly hard to try to understand. No state action with Pakistan has been taken to protect the Ahmadiyya. In the past year alone, over 42 Ahmadiyya mosques have been attacked and more than 400 Ahmadiyya graves have been desecrated and destroyed.

Sikhs also suffer grievous religious persecution in Pakistan. With rising violence, many Sikhs have fled Pakistan’s north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to deadly militant attacks and severe religious intolerance. As Members of Parliament, what should we do? What should our Government do? I am always very pleased to see the Minister in his place. I mean it sincerely, and he knows that. I believe that he understands the points I am trying to put forward and agrees with our comments. I know he will be anxious to make clear in his reply what we have in place.

I am also very pleased to see the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for West Ham (Ms Brown), in her place, fresh from the Holocaust Memorial Day debate in the Chamber. A Member can almost be in two places at once. I commend the shadow Minister sincerely. In her comments in the Chamber she mentioned the Tutsis and what happened in Africa. That was a genocide without a doubt, and she said that. I believe that in some parts of the world we are seeing the same genocide being carried out. The hon. Member for Congleton also mentioned genocide. The hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) is a good and dear friend. She knows that. While we do not always agree on everything we speak on, these issues draw us together. With one voice, we speak on behalf of those who wish for someone to be their voice.

One oppressed Sikh has said:

“We do not want money or jobs from the Government. We just want an immediate end to the targeted killings of our community members and want the Government to compensate us for the demolition of our houses. Pakistani leaders have promised to protect members of religious minorities from militants and Muslim mobs, which have carried out lynchings and destroyed places of worship. But minority communities say the authorities have not done enough. There is no security for religious minorities in Pakistan.”

Where is our aid money going in Pakistan? I am not saying we should not give any, but let us make it a condition that we see an improvement in human rights and the opportunity for people to worship their God as they wish. What records are being kept to ensure that the money is spent equally on all areas of need in Pakistan? Religious persecution in Pakistan is a necessary area to which aid money should be directed. We should also help to increase access to education, healthcare and opportunities for work.

I want to speak about access to decent job opportunities. On both occasions when we were in Pakistan, I was really aggrieved to see the young Christians; they have the ability, and with a bit of education they could be nurses and doctors, but only certain jobs are allocated for them. Those jobs are usually for menial positions, such as janitors, sweepers and sanitary workers. The job adverts specifically state that the jobs are only available to Christian minorities. Members of the Christian minorities could be nurses, teachers or doctors or do so many other jobs with the right skills, ability and qualifications. They just need opportunity, which they are not seeing yet. That creates an impression among the wider society that Christians are only able to do such work as the three jobs that I mentioned. We met some very influential people in Pakistan and felt that we were making some headway on this issue, but my question to the Minister is: is our aid money going into job development or trade education?

While the situation in Pakistan continues to give rise to extreme concern and we must constantly monitor it, we must also address the growing religious persecution of Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities in India. India is a country of particular concern to Open Doors and the State Department of the United States of America. In the first eight months of 2023 there were more than 525 attacks against Christians in India. Vigilante violence against Muslims and Dalits has been accompanied by a sharp rise in attacks against Christians in India in recent years. It can manage to escape the headlines, because often much happens there and little is said.

The numbers this year are likely to be particularly high given the violence in Manipur state, where hundreds of churches have been destroyed in the last four months. A petition to the Supreme Court puts the figure of places of worship destroyed at 642. That is 642 churches destroyed. Yes, they can destroy the buildings, but they cannot destroy the spirit or the beliefs of the people, who should have the right to go to those places of worship and the necessary protection should be given. Unfortunately, on many occasions it is not, and sometimes the army, the police and others stand by and let it happen. The Supreme Court has ordered restitution for the victims of the violence in Manipur, but what policies and requirements have been put in place to ensure equal funding to the religious minorities that were impacted by the violence? I apologise to the Minister for asking all these questions in such a hurried state, but I am conscious of the time.

In addition, Muslims are being challenged on their ability to prove their Indian citizenship by the National Register of Citizens. A report published in 2018 indicates that over 15% of the adult population in India are left out or excluded from voting lists, and the percentage is considered to be higher among Muslims. Fifteen per cent of 1.3 billion is 195 million people excluded from voting in India in 2018. If anyone did not have an idea of the vast impact of this issue, those are the figures and the stats, and we can never ignore them. That is a significant number of people to consider as being unable to vote, especially when one realises that currently 15% of the total population of India identify as Muslim. Looking at those numbers, we see that an even greater number of people are excluded because they are Muslims, and that is the case for Christians as well.

We are aware that elections are coming in both Pakistan and India, and we hope and pray that they will be a time of not only safety but opportunity for people to express their mind and vote for whoever they wish, and that the elections will be free from corruption and so on. I believe that the UK has a role to play and must take action to ensure that both countries rightfully include religious minority citizens and their right to vote in any discussions. If the Minister could give us some indication of that, I would be really pleased.

In conclusion, as Members of Parliament it is our duty to ensure freedom of religion or belief for everyone. The APPG, which I am privileged and honoured to chair, speaks up for those with Christian beliefs, other beliefs and no beliefs. We sincerely believe that our God is a God of love. As such, I wish to see everyone have the opportunity to express themselves and their religious views in the way that they wish, and I believe that others in this House do as well. Such violations in India and Pakistan must be brought to the forefront and efficiently addressed.

As I have done on many occasions, I call upon the Minister, who is a dear friend to us all, to ensure that persecution and abuses are addressed. We in this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must play our role in ensuring that we support other nations across the globe. That is how we can influence and assist those in Government and positions of authority—the police, army and so on—to do better. Here in this place we have again been given the opportunity to be a voice for the voiceless—people in this world whom we may never meet. We today have been their voice and it is wonderful to have that opportunity, privilege and honour. They are people we may never meet, but we will undoubtedly meet them in the next world.