Morning Star

Sanctioned by the local imam

This is not an isolated case, but already widespread in Muslim lands:

Lahore (AsiaNews) - After a Pakistani Christian girl from Lahore (Punjab) was abducted by a Muslim landowner, she was forced to marry him after conversion to Islam. Her family reacted in a public protest, demanding justice from civil authorities.

Police and the courts have failed so far to act and return the girl to her parents. The local Catholic Church has instead backed the family, condemning the "widespread practice" of kidnapping young Christian and Hindu women to marry them forcibly to Muslims and reduce them to a "state of slavery."

The latest episode involves a 16-year-old girl, Samariya Nadeem (Masih), who was abducted and forcibly married to a rich landowner. The abduction took place 22 days ago in Lahore's 270-TDA Layyah District when the young woman was on her way to school. The family filed a complaint (First Information Report 14/14, under Section 365 B of the Penal Code) with the police for the abduction reporting that Samariya was taken against her will and forced to marry the man.

So far, police have failed to pursue any legal action against the local wealthy Muslim landowner who abducted the girl because of the influence he wields. Police investigators were also unable to talk to the bruised and terrified victim. Anonymous police sources confirmed that the girl was "abducted" and forced to marry. However, an Islamic cleric involved in the affair said that it was "not illegal to abduct and convert non-Muslims."

There have organised protests seeking justice, and enforcement of the Pakistani laws forbidding marriage of minors without parental consent, to no avail. Perhaps it only applies to Muslim girls.

Kidnapping and forced marriage have become a major issue in Pakistan, especially in southern Punjab and in the interior of Sindh province. This is "very common in the region," said Fr Haroon James, a priest and activist in Lahore. Young women and girls "are forcefully converted and married to influential landlords who keep them as slaves."

Muslims make up 97% of Pakistan's population, and they are predominantly Sunni (80%). Christians and Hindu's are each less than 2% of the population, which would explain their lack of influence with any legal authorities. Violence against minorities is commonplace -- even against Shi'a Muslims, and the situation is deteriorating. 

It begins with education

Pakistan has a terrible track record when it comes to violence against women:

Fifty-six women have been killed in Pakistan this year for giving birth to a girl rather than a boy, human rights activist IA Rehman said at a symposium here on Monday. “A country where mothers are killed for giving birth to baby girls can’t be called an ethical society,” Rehman said at the symposium, titled ‘Youth emerging as a force for positive change’, meant to mark the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women. The event was arranged by the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA).

From January 2012 to September 2013, there were also 90 acid attacks on women, 72 cases of burning caused by other means, 491 cases of domestic violence, 344 cases of gang rape and 835 cases of violence, he said. “Young girls are being raped in Pakistan and all we do is shout rather that do anything practical,” he said.

Rehman said that giving girls and boys equal access to education and introducing a uniform education system for the rich and the poor would bring about positive changes in Pakistan. “It has taken us 62 years to say that education is a basic right,” he said.

Mr Rehman has an excellent point in focusing on education, because when a population sincerely believes that girls have no need for education--indeed, that educating them would be harmful--then it nails in their status as second-class persons. From there, it is only natural that they be treated with contempt, and they have no defence. If they cannot read, hold down a job, or understand anything outside the home, then they are trapped. It is marriage or the streets--which usually leads to a brothel or other vile abuse. 

Since Christians are severely marginalised, it only stands to reason that the predominant force of Islam has led to this situation. I know that the UN's CEDAW group usually goes on to undermine traditional families, the right to life, and basic tenets of chastity, but regards to the need to educate girls, we are in agreement. We must advance the right to basic education, the right to personal integrity, and safety for women everywhere. 

Imitating the prophet

If Muhammed could do it, why not his faithful followers today?

(Sobho Dero, Pakistan) A nine year old girl, W*, was married to 35-year old Zahid Zardari on Thursday, after the groom reportedly paid Rs1.5 million to her family. W* is a resident of the Kamal Lashari village. Her uncles reportedly requested Zardari to delay the Rukhsati due to Wadhai’s age but were ignored.

The police was informed about the issue but no action was taken due to the groom’s influential status. When ASI Ghulam Akbar Khaskheli and SHO Fateh Muhammad Awan reached the wedding, they were confronted by Zardari’s men, forcing them to turn back.

Zardari, who lives in district Benazirabad, was accompanied by armed men and aNikahkhwan (vows solemniser) for the ceremony.

Muslim immigrants to Europe have brought with them the cultural tradition of marrying very young girls:

More than a dozen Muslim clerics at some of the biggest mosques in Britain have been caught on camera agreeing to marry off girls as young as 14.

Undercover reporters filming a documentary about the prevalence of forced and underage marriage in Britain for the television program ITV Exposure secretly recorded 18 Muslim imams agreeing to perform an Islamic marriage, known as a nikah, between a 14-year-old girl and an older man.

Campaigners against forced marriage -- which is not yet a crime in Britain -- say thousands of underage girls -- including some under the age of five -- are being forced to marry against their will in Muslim nikahs every year, and that the examples exposed by the documentary represent just "the tip of the iceberg."

The documentary, entitled "Forced to Marry," was first broadcast on October 9 and involves two reporters posing as the mother and brother of a 14-year-old girl to be married to an older man. The reporters contacted 56 mosques across Britain and asked clerics to perform a nikah. The imams were specifically told that the "bride" did not consent to the marriage to an older man from London.

Although the legal age for marriage in Britain is 16, according to Islamic Sharia law girls can marry once they reach puberty. The imams who agreed to marry the girl openly mocked the legitimacy of British law, reflecting the rise of a parallel Islamic legal system in Britain.

It remains to be seen whether feminists or other human rights campaigners zero in on this activity, or whether the "war on women" will be allowed to continue in this perverse form. 

Women as chattel

In eastern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, the notion has become ingrained, for some reason, that women are the possession of men -- fathers, husbands, sons, or other male relations when necessary.  Thus, it only stands to reason that possessions can be bartered, traded or sold according to their value:

The sale and exchange of women as goods is rampant in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province with as many as two women traded per day, according to the findings of a sociology researcher.

In a report obtained by TOLOnews, researcher Assadullah Ahmadi stated that he found some women had been traded up to five times in three Nangarhar districts – Rodat, Mohmand, and Shinwar – as part of the socially-accepted use of wives and daughters as possessions.

"It is [happening] in Mohmand and Rodat, and all of the Shinwar, and the spot of sale is the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan," Ahmadi said.

"This is a society where its clerics speak out against Nowruz, against new year, and almost anything else. But we see that the average of women sold in Nangarhar is two per day," he added, suggesting that the Islamic clerics were ignoring the practice.

In his report, Ahmadi says that the eastern Afghan women were often sold across the border into Pakistan and usually for less than the cost of a mule.

"There are even women that have been sold three to five times and in some cases sold along with their daughters. When we went to them, we came to know their price is less than a mule," he said.

Where does Islam stand on this? It can be confusing, because apparently some clerics do speak against the practice, but the question would be, Why? Are they saying that Islam forbids it? Or that it harms the women? The latter would be a compassionate argument, but it doesn't undermine the authority which is contained in Islam, and which is not ordered to the feelings of women. In fact, one Islamic tradition even allows for a form of prostitution that allows "temporary marriage" for a price.

"There is no doubt that women are being sold, and for three reasons: past practices, poverty, and illiteracy. The women whose husbands doubt them, the women that are not liked by their husbands, and the women whose husbands are poor are sold. However they are not sold as servants but they do the Nikah," said Dai-ul-Haq Abed, deputy minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs.

The Nikah is the temporary or fixed-term marriage allowed in Islam under certain conditions.

"In a discussion with the Hajj and Religious Affairs of Shinwar, they told us that it's a very ingrained trend. We have tried to work on this issue through Islamic means. The phenomenon is decreasing but not eradicated," Abed added.

"Through Islamic means" is tricky, because, traditionally, Islam has allowed such practices, women are to be cared for by men, and marriage is not defined at all like it is in the Christian world. Instead of being a lifelong union between one man and one woman, Islam's allowance for polygamy and no-fault divorce (instigated by husbands only) make the place of women extremely precarious. Their stability is in the hands of men, not religious texts.

"The selling of women has been out there in the past and now. One who overlooks this matter, overlooks the truth," said Mofti Moeen Shah, a member of the provincial council.

"In our tribe of Shinwari, they do it [sell women] when the husband dies," he added.

According to the council, aside from being traded for money, girls as young as 5 years old are given as compensation to victims of crimes committed by the girl's family member or to settle debts. After receiving a girl, the person will often sell her and keep the money.

"In districts of Nangarhar, there are married women between ages of 16 to 80 who are sold when either her husband needs money or wants to marry another girl," said Angiza Shinwari, a member of the provincial council.

"This practice has been done for years now, and it has recently increased because there is no rule of law and there is no punishment of the criminals," she added.

Although Islam is accepted in the pantheon of great religions, it has to account for what its adherents believe about the value of women:

4:34 “ Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other and because they support them from their means. 

"Protection" of a person would obviously differ from the protection of a possession, and yet it's the personhood of women that is of paramount concern here.

On the feast of Saint Lucy...

... a dedicated native of Sweden died after being assaulted in Pakistan by Islamic militants. She was a Pentecostal missionary who had worked in that country for decades:

"Sister Birgitta," whose name has been spelled in various ways, "served for over 40 years in Pakistan...living a life dedicated to helping masses of people who live in abject poverty, regardless of their religions, cast or any such forms of racial or religious segregation,'  Illuminate told BosNewsLife.

Besides the missionary, women and girls have been targeted across Pakistan by Islamic militants, including 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the group recalled. She was shot in the head in October by Taliban gunmen who opposed her campaign for girls education.

Illuminate said it "expresses its outrage and resentment over the state of affairs, where women and young girls are being murdered, kidnapped and subjected to various forms of violence."

The "killings in the name of ‘honor’, suicides, acid throwing and stove-burning" happen "with shameless impunity, while the State functionaries are doing nothing except lip service for TV cameras," the activists said.

Birgitta Almeby, 71, had been shot ten days earlier and was flown home for medical treatment. May the saints welcome her home, and those whose lives she touched grasp how much God loves them. RIP.

Corporal works of mercy?

UPDATES below concerning the anti-polio campaign, which has now been suspended.

In Christianity, there are acts of charity considered "corporal works of mercy," which include clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted, and visiting the sick. That's why there are soup kitchens, schools and hospitals wherever Christians live -- in fact the Church is known for incorporating these gestures of divine love in desperate corners of the world.

Something about residents in some non-Christian regions makes them adverse to such actions, even when they and their own children benefit:

A schoolgirl has been shot dead allegedly by local Taliban members while on her way home from school in eastern Kapisa province, provincial officials said Tuesday. The girl, Anisa, was in Grade 10 and working as a volunteer on a polio campaign in Kapisa. She was returning home from the Mahmoud Raqi Girls High School on Sunday when she was killed in a volley of bullets from armed men.

Kapisa Head of Women's Affairs Saifoora Koohestani said it was local Taliban gunmen, although the group has not claimed responsibility.

"This girl was tenth grade student of Mahmoud Raqi Girls High School in the second part of Koohestan, Kapisa Province. This girl was not only a student, but also a volunteer worker for the (Ministry of) Public Health in the polio campaign," she said.

There have been several cases of students being killed or attacked, but many incidents are not reported.

The Taliban has opposed the polio campaign in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

So the Taliban doesn't want to educate girls, nor does it want to stave off a preventable disease. And something in their creed says it's acceptable to kill a child who is trying to save other children--something that allows a group of armed men to take down an unarmed girl in a hail of bullets.

Dark and perverse. Poor dear, may she rest in peace, and may God console that grieving family.

UPDATE: There have now been five women killed for promoting vaccines, according to the BBC.

UPDATE II: and within 48 hours, three more deaths, causing the polio campaign in Pakistan to be suspended for the time being.

source

What is Islam?

While Islam is commonly referred to as "the religion of peace," one has to admit that there must be different definitions of peace. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that "peace is the tranquillity of order," and by this we understand that true peace is only possible when society (and the persons in it) are all dedicated to living according to God's law. (Unfortunately because of original sin, peace is not possible in this life, but we're obliged to do our best.)

But what about in Islam? There is the understanding that within the boundaries where that religion reigns, the House of Islam (dar al'Islam) there is peace, but not outside its borders, where one finds the House of War (dar al'harb). 

But is the House of Islam peaceful? Not for Christians who live there, and certainly not for Christian women and children:

On August 14, another Christian girl, 12-year-old Muqadas Kainat (which means "Holy Universe") was ambushed in a field near her home in Sahawil by five Muslim men who "gang raped and murdered" her. At the time, her father was at a hospital visiting her sick mother. He and other family members began a frantic search, until a tip led them to the field where his daughter's body lay. The postmortem revealed that she had been "gang raped and later strangled to death by five men." Police, as usual, did not arrest anyone. As a Salem News report puts it, "Complicating matters is the fact that several Christian girls in this remote area have been raped and forced to both marry into the Muslim community and abandon their own religion, human rights groups report…. there is a history in this part of Pakistan according to the Christian community, of local authorities failing to investigate cases of rape or other violence against Christians, often for fear of influential Muslims or militants."

Similarly, on August 20, an 11-year-old Christian boy, Samuel Yaqoob, went to the markets of Faisalabad to buy food for his family, never to return. According to Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, "After extensive searching his body was found near a drain in the Christian colony, bearing marks of horrific torture, with the murder weapon nearby. His nose, lips and belly had been sliced off, and his family could hardly recognize him because the body was so badly burnt. Some 23 wounds by a sharp weapon have been identified in the autopsy. When sending his body for an autopsy, police raised the possibility of sodomy. Parts of Pakistani culture have a strong homosexual pederast culture, and Christian and other minority boys are especially susceptible to rape and abuse because of the powerlessness of their community and their despised status. In one case fairly recently, a Christian boy was kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed by a police officer, his body similarly being dumped in a drain."

Does this encourage conversion to Islam? There is the firm understanding that Muslim women cannot be treated this way (though there are constraints on their dignity within Islam), but does that make the faith appealing for the right reason? or do people thereby seek refuge in Islam so that they will not be abused and harassed? and what does this say about the integrity of Muslims who kidnap, rape, and kill with abandon? or found new families by coercively marrying kidnapped women and children?

There are those who say that any country or region has its criminals. To that we respond: if any of these crimes were punished by the appropriate authorities, it would speak well of Islam. But they were not. The Qur'an clearly states that non-believers do not enjoy the same rights as Muslims, and thus this behaviour must be placed squarely at the feet of Islam, not just the indiginous culture.

For the vilest beasts in God's sight, are the deaf, the dumb, who understand not (Qur'an 8:22).

For the worst of beasts in the sight of God are those who reject Him: They will not believe (Qur'an 8:55).

Verily those who believe not, among those who have received the scriptures, and among the idolaters, [shall be cast] into the fire of hell, to remain therein [for ever]. These are the worst of creatures. (Qur'an 98:6).

With such teachings, why would a Muslim need to worry about the rights of non-believers?

Deeply troubling. Please read the entire report, as distasteful as it may be. It's the least we can do for those who are persecuted for their faith and who will never find justice in this life.

Tremendous story of forgiveness

This young Pakistani woman, Julie Aftab, was attacked in her office by a Muslim man incensed at the cross she wore around her neck.

It was June 15, 2002, two weeks into her new job, when the customer spotted her silver cross, a gift from her grand­father. She wore it despite knowing it branded her as Christian, a tiny minority in the Muslim-majority country.

You are living life in the gutter, the Muslim man told her.

She tried to ignore him, remembering what her mother had taught her since she was a child: "You are no one to insult someone's religion. If someone is insulting religion, they have to answer to God."

You are going to hell, the man told her. You are living in darkness.

"I am living in the light," Aftab replied.

So you think Islam is in darkness? the man demanded.

Aftab was frightened. She knew Christians had been accused of violating Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws in the past when others had twisted their words, to make it sound as though they had attacked Islam.

"No, you said that," she replied. "Not me."

But the man was enraged and returned with the battery acid and his friend. When she finally broke away from them, the acid searing her skin and throat, she ran down the street. As she screamed, teeth fell from her mouth and hit the ground.

Her struggles only worsened when hospital after hospital was threatened not to treat her, for the men insisted that she was a blasphemer. The men were briefly held, and then released without charges. Her family was persecuted and their home burned down. She was in physical and spiritual anguish, wondering why God allowed it.

Now she is in Houston, having been taken there for sugeries -- she endured 31 -- and there found kindness, therapy, and a whole new world that included education and and a home with a generous couple, Lee and Gloria Ervin.

She found a path through it all with forgiveness.

Over time, she became part of the fabric of the Ervin family, standing at the center of the group portrait shot at the couple's 50th wedding anniversary. She still lives in the couple's spare bedroom, and calls them "Auntie Gloria" and "Uncle Lee." She says she is unspeakably grateful for them, for their kindness.

She stopped wearing all black, and now calls her scars "my jewel, my gift from God."

"You don't even see the scars anymore," said Lee, 71. "You see so much beauty."

"We are very proud of her," said Gloria, 72. "We're very proud of all of our kids."

Aftab works at Lowe's in the mornings and takes classes at UH-Clear Lake in the evenings. She plans to someday become a pastor, and raises money for a safe house for persecuted girls in Pakistan.

"There is a reason God gave me life," she said. "I don't want to miss one second of it."

The Suburban Banshee has a lovely thought concerning the story:

When the Emperor Constantine called for a council of all the bishops in the Church, to resolve the problems tearing the Church (and his Empire) apart, they say he hosted the meeting, paid traveling expenses for the bishops, and made himself available to greet them. Many of the bishops had been terribly injured in the persecutions before his reign, but had survived people trying to martyr them — a status the Church called being a “confessor”, because they had continued to confess and affirm Christ despite pressure. So when each one of these confessors arrived for the council, the Emperor treated them with extra respect, and kissed their mangled body parts and scars.

This was the way ordinary early Christians often greeted confessors of any age or state in life, because their scars were holy, their advice was wise, and their prayers were favored by the Lord.

I would kiss her scars in a heartbeat, and rejoice that she has found them to be the treasures that they are.

£4,000 bounty on her head

Today marks the third anniversary of the arrest of Asia Bibi for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.  Having resisted an "invitation" from her fellow workers to become a Muslim, the discussion turned acrimonious. Tempers flared, and the angry women then attacked her for drinking from a communal water bucket.

Parched, she drew water from the estate well, dipped her cup into the bucket and gratefully drank big mouthfuls. No sooner had the cup left her lips than one of the farm hands, “her eyes filled with hatred”, screamed out “Haraam!”, a term meaning “forbidden” in Islamic law. To the other workers, stirred by the commotion, she screamed: “This Christian has defiled the water from the well by drinking from our cup and by repeatedly plunging it into the well. The water is now impure. We can no longer drink it because of her.”

She was immediately arrested (14 June, 2009) and sentenced to death for blasphemy. Subsequently, she was to learn that Pakistani politician, Salman Taseer, was assassinated merely for speaking out in support of her. Even if she were freed -- perhaps through international pressure or the Pakistani court deciding to follow its own laws which have not made it a crime to be a Christian,  her life would still be in peril from her fellow citizens.

Legal and cultural structures that discriminate against individual religious freedom, like Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, effectively sanction wanton acts of violence against religious minorities.

“After the newspaper reports,” writes Bibi, “10 million Pakistanis are ready to kill me by their own hands.” In Pakistan, she says, Christians are like orphans in their own land. On paper, they have the same rights as everyone else. In practice, they do their best not to draw the attention of the rest of society. At home, she says, there is no cross or icon of the Holy Virgin – only a small Bible hidden under the mattress.

More than 80 per cent of acts of discrimination and violence against minority groups, which are growing in a number of places around the world, are directed against Christians.

A French journalist has had access to the illiterate mother-of-five, and has penned an autobiography for her (not yet available in English). In it, our sister Asia begs for prayers:

“Now that you know me, tell those around you what is happening. Let them know about it. I believe this is my only chance of not dying in the pit of this dungeon. I need you! Save me!”

More information here, as well as a musical tribute. Important petition to be signed on behalf of Asia Bibi here, and please don't neglect prayers for her safety and that of her family. Here is the Holy Father asking for her release:

 

Is there a woman shortage?

If the country of Pakistan is 95% Muslim, why is it that the Muslim men must kidnap Christians and Hindu women for brides? There is no indication that polygamy is at the heart of this age-old phenomenon, but that might explain why over 1,000 women are snatched and forced to convert to Islam. The only hint offered in this piece is that "conversions" are thought to be a blessing for these communities.

According to data collected by Fides sources, there are about 700 Christian women in Pakistan each year who are kidnapped and forced to forced conversion. Most cases are recorded in the Punjab, province of central Pakistan where Islamic extremism thrives in society and politics. Due to security reasons the name is not mentioned, a Catholic nun who in Punjab helps victims of forced conversions, told Fides that she receives, on average, a report every week. According to the religious, the phenomenon is growing for several reasons: "First of all, women are considered worthless goods and those of religious minorities are doubly enslaved." Furthermore, "economic crisis and poverty push many people to seek refuge in faith, and the conversion of a new faithful to Islam is considered a merit for heaven.

This week there will be a meeting in Islamabad to explore the question and beg for this practice to stop. While the Christians have to "make nice" and appeal to the liberality of authentic Islam, we have to look at the facts:

• this happens in regions that cling to traditional Islam;
• these regions have been Muslim well over 1000 years;
• to say that this behaviour isn't Islamic is absurd;
• the fact that women are chattel is undisputed by the Qur'an;
• if Islam had a dignified view of women, it would have surfaced by now.

We wish these ministers well, but the odds are slim of influencing such a traditionally Muslim region with ideas of religious liberty and authentic femininity. Prayers for the poor women trapped in such marriages and the families who have lost their dear children (and grandchildren.

By the way, while there are always those who claim that poverty leads people to cling to "god 'n guns" the upscale women of Pakistan are also becoming more religious:

All the women working in the information technology division of the Bank of Punjab's headquarters in the western Pakistani city of Lahore wear headscarves tightly wound around their cheeks and chin, framing their faces as they tap at their keyboards. A year or so ago not one covered their heads with the hijab.

"I was the first," says 28-year-old Shumaila, as she waited with some impatience in the city's iStore for her new £800 Apple MacBook to be loaded with the software she had ordered.

"I started reading the Qur'an properly and praying five times a day. No one made me wear the hijab. That would be impossible," she laughs brightly. "I showed the way to the other girls at work."

They are not alone. Though there are no statistics and most evidence is anecdotal, a new wave of interest in more conservative strands of Islam among wealthier and better educated women in Pakistan appears clear.

It is part of a broader cultural and religious shift seen in the country over decades but which observers say has accelerated in the past 10 years.

Sort of undermines the poverty argument...