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Religious Conversions in Pakistan: Empirical Evidence from Sindh
Abstract
Pakistan is often discussed at domestic and international forums in the context of its treatment of the religious minorities and more particularly the alleged forced religious conversions to Islam. This paper is in continuation of a recent report by the author that discussed the narrative of systematic and organized forced religious conversions in Pakistan to show that it is not supported by any data or verifiable evidence. The paper presents preliminary results of the fieldwork that collected data from the province of Sindh in Pakistan. The data gathered comprises audio-visual interviews from a cross-section of the society, official documents, and data of converts. While the study could not find cases of forced conversion, it notes that the force is used against the neo-converts through various means. It identifies 13 push and pull factors that contribute to religious conversions in the context of the area of this study. It also looks into the widespread perception of only women being converted, or the age of converted individuals generally being below 18 years.
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Author and article information
Notes
Ghulam Hussain, “Faith Conversions in Pakistan: Projections and Interpretations,” Policy Perspectives 17, no. 2 (2020): 5–26, https://doi.org/10.13169/polipers.17.2.0005.
Ghulam Hussain, Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and Reality, report (Islamabad: Institute of Policy Studies, 2020), https://www.ips.org.pk/forced-conversions-or-faith-conversionsrhetoric-and-reality/; and; Ghulam Hussain, Mazhab ki Tabdeeli Main Jabr: Fasana aur Haqeeqat, report [Forced Religious Conversion: Myth or Reality] (Islamabad: Institute of Policy Studies, 2020), https://www.ips.org.pk/mazhab-ki-tabdeeli-mai-jabr-fasana-aur-haqeeqat/.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid, “Anthropology of Activism: Engaging with the Narrative of Forced Conversion in Pakistan,” Watson Institute for International And Public Affairs, YouTube, March 26, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HANjmoZEYg&t=2s; and “Jabri Tabteeli ka Mujawiza Qanun: Aik Aalmi Muzakra,” [Forced Conversion's Proposed Law] Shaybani Foundation, YouTube, September 24, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPv8ywbo6LA.
Ghulam Hussain, “Quantitative Dataset (Faith Conversions in Sindh, Pakistan),” Mendeley Data, V1, (2021), https://doi.org/10.17632/zcfnvw2r78.1; and Ghulam Hussain, “Quantitative Dataset (Faith Conversions in Sindh, Pakistan),” Mendeley Data, V2, (2021), https://doi.org/10.17632/zcfnvw2r78.2.
Only the cases having district given, or traced or inferred based on taluka, city and village information have been counted.
“Why I Became a Muslim! Prof Muhammad Ali Sheikh,” IPS TV, YouTube, September 15, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7SbtcMBSxw&list=PL0sb3Ma8wrc9NvEvhkAPf0dtNSGM42NzZ.
“We were Attacked Inside the Court Premises-Mehwish (Monika) and Abdul Razzaq Nohri,” IPS TV, YouTube, October 2, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grVBafuBDNM&t=1347s; and “I was being Forced to Revert to Hinduism- Farooq (formerly Krishan), a Muslim Convert”, IPS TV, YouTube, September 24, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj8fkIevuuI.
“We were Attacked Inside the Court Premises-Mehwish (Monika) and Abdul Razzaq Nohri,” IPS TV.
Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, “Converting: Stages of Religious Change,” in Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies, eds. Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant (New York: Cassell, 1999), 23; Lewis R. Rambo, Understanding Religious Conversion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).
Al-Qur'an 2:256.
Ghulam Hussain, “‘Dalits are in India, Not in Pakistan’: Exploring the Discursive Bases of the Denial of Dalitness under the Ashrafia Hegemony,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 55, no. 1 (2020):17-43, https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0021909619863455.
Ghulam Hussain, Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and Reality; and Mazhab ki Tabdeeli Main Jabr: Fasana aur Haqeeqat.
Ibid.