Persecution of Religious Minorities: Pakistan

Naz Shah Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2016 Westminster Hall

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I reiterate what my colleagues have said in congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) on securing the debate.

[Mr Graham Brady in the Chair]

Let me start with the words of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the founding father of the nation, in his first presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11 August 1947:

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed”.

He then spoke about the history of religious sectarianism, relating it to Catholicism and what had gone on in England. He said:

“Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”

I want to ask the people in this Chamber, the nation and the people of Pakistan a question: 68 years have passed since Pakistan’s independence and since Muhammad Ali Jinnah made that speech, but where have those freedoms for all the people of Pakistan gone? Where did we start, and where we have we gone? A nation consisting of 191 million people, according to the latest UN estimate, is seeing huge human rights violations and abhorrent discrimination targeting 4% of its minority community.

I have spoken in the House against the rise of Islamophobia in Europe and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, I stand here today as someone from a minority community, as a proud Member of Parliament and as a Muslim. I can easily go to my mosque, and in fact to any mosque belonging to any sectarian denomination, with no threat to my life or religious freedom. I am deeply saddened that while I, a member of a minority community, have all these freedoms, minorities in Pakistan, such as Ahmadis, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and others, do not have the religious freedom that Muhammad Ali Jinnah once advocated, but instead face religious persecution.

That religious persecution has led over the years to thousands of vile crimes being committed against minority communities. According to a report by the United States commission on international religious freedom, between January and June 2013—just six months—there were 108 attacks on minorities, leading to 82 deaths. Of those killed, 22 were Ahmadis, 11 were Christians, two were Hindus, one was a Sikh and 16 were from other minority groups. It must be made clear that the fight against the war on terror in Pakistan, the rise in extremism and the questionable implications of outside actors funding that extremism through the teaching systems in some madrassahs have intensified the persecution against minority communities.

The Shi’a community is a Muslim minority community recognised by the Pakistan state, yet sectarianism and extremism have led to heinous crimes being committed against it. The south Asian terrorism portal found that between 2002 and 2013, 2,086 Shia’s were killed. What is more worrying is the fact that in 2002 and 2003, six and two Shia’s respectively were killed in sectarian hate crimes, whereas 399 Shia’s were killed in 2012 and 410 in 2013.

The rising level of hate is clear, but one of the biggest concerns is that the rising level of extremism is leading to further extremist groups declaring the Shi’a community as non-Muslim and heretics—they are recognised by the state as Muslims—thus validating them for “wajibul kattal”: deserving to be killed. If that is the level of persecution of a community recognised by the state, one can only imagine the fear and terror that other minority communities in Pakistan are living in today.

This week, there have been many events throughout Parliament and across the country involving my Pakistani brothers and sisters, following an official holiday in Pakistan in solidarity with the Kashmiris. I have spoken at many of those events, and I reiterate that if we are to stand against persecution and for the freedom of the Kashmiris, we must also stand against the persecution of any minority. Everyone who is on the side of justice, whether they are religious or of no religion, and of whatever colour, gender, race, caste or creed, must speak against persecution.

The state of Pakistan has faced challenges, especially in tackling terrorism and extremism, which the armed forces and the people of Pakistan have sacrificed thousands of lives in fighting. Nevertheless, we must all stand together against all forms of hate and persecution. I would welcome and encourage Pakistan holding a religious minority conference with hundreds of world scholars, similar to the one that took place in Marrakech a few weeks ago.

Finally, as a member of a minority community who is benefiting from all the religious freedoms in my homeland, I cannot stand by and watch minorities have their freedoms discriminated against in my motherland. Pakistan is an Islamic state, so for the second time in this Chamber I will use my religion and quote verse or ayah 256 of Surat Al-Baqarah of the Koran:

“There is no compulsion in religion”.