Religious leaders reject US list on religious freedom

Ulema Council Chairman Tahir Ashrafi says minorities in Pakistan safer than in US

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman and Special Representative of Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi on Friday rejected the US designation of Pakistan as a country of concern regarding religious freedom.

Talking to media persons, Ashrafi said the report prepared by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (UCIRF) was based on “bigotry, bias, lack of knowledge and for the propaganda purposes which had no link to the reality.

Earlier this week, Pakistan and China were among several countries designated by the US State Department as countries of “particular concerns” regarding religious freedom on the recommendation of the UCIRF. However, the State Department rejected the proposal to place India in the list as well.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited either these countries’ involvement or complicity in “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom”. He said the US would continue to work tirelessly to end religiously motivated abuses and persecution around the world.

Flanked by Allama Sajjad Hussaini, Maulana Ghulam Akbar Saqi, Emanuel Khokhar, Maulana Qasim Qasmi, Maulana Tahir Aqil Awan, Maulana Abubakar Sabri and representatives of the Church of Pakistan, at the press conference rejected Pompeo’s assertions.

“Our Constitution … provides complete religious freedom to minorities and others and guarantees their all rights,” he said. “Placing Pakistan in the list of countries violating religious freedom is regrettable and condemnable,” he added.

He invited UCIRF to visit Pakistan and analyse the ground realities that minorities and others are enjoying complete religious freedom here. “Minorities in Pakistan are safer than in the US and anywhere else in the world,” he added.

Asked the US not to object to the Pakistani laws on the basis of assumptions, he stressed that the blasphemy laws had protected various lives in Pakistan. He said the government and the Ulema challenge the detractors to highlight any misuse of the blasphemy laws.

“There are laws all over the world, regarding religions and blasphemous speeches or literature. Even today, we cannot talk about the Holocaust,” he said. However, he made added: “If the law of about the sanctity of Prophet (peace be upon him) is misused, we are ready to see it.”

“There is no genocide of any minority in Pakistan. No group or sect will be allowed to impose its ideology upon others,” he said. “All minorities and all religious parties in Pakistan reject the US report,” Allama Ashrafi added.

He urged the State Department to take notice of Nazism in India. He pointed out that Indian organisations were involved in spreading terrorism globally but no Indian citizen or organisation was named in the list.

“No minority in India is safe from the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] terrorism. Mass killings and forced conversion of minorities are rampant in India but the US Commission does not see it,” he said, adding India had been propagating against Pakistan for 15 years with false news.

He said that the Foreign Office would take up the US report on religious persecution with the State Department and expressed the hope that after the facts came to light, Pakistan’s name would be removed from this list.

Responding to various questions, the special representative of the prime minister said that the implementation of coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs) would be ensured during the Christmas celebrations in the country.

He also said that steps would be taken at the union council level regarding interfaith harmony, adding that the government was taking steps to include interfaith harmony as a subject in the curriculum. About forced marriages, Ashrafi said, these were not allowed in Islam.

With additional input from APP