A United States physique on spiritual freedom in its newest report has been scathing in its criticism of Pakistan and China over the appalling situation of the minority communities within the two Asian nations, stating widespread situations of pressured conversions, sexual assault, slavery and torture.
Stating that underage ladies from the Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities proceed to be kidnapped for conversion to Islam, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report launched on Thursday mentioned that round 1,000 such incidents happen within the nation yearly.
“In Hindu, Christian, and Sikh communities, young women, often underage, continued to be kidnapped for forced conversion to Islam. Several independent institutions estimated that 1,000 women are forcibly converted to Islam each year; many are kidnapped, forcibly married, and subjected to rape. Local police, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, are often accused of complicity in these cases by failing to investigate them properly,” the report says.
If the instances of rape and conversion are investigated or adjudicated, the ladies are reportedly questioned in entrance of the lads they had been pressured to marry, creating stress to disclaim coercion, it goes on to say.
“In October 2019, the Sindh Government rejected a bill seeking to criminalize forced conversion. Religious minorities also faced broader social discrimination, with reports of economic boycotts,” says the report.
Concentration camps
The findings on China say the nation has detained round 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz Muslims in over 1,300 focus camps throughout the Xinjiang province the place they’re subjected to the worst kinds of torture, whereas half one million youngsters have additionally been separated from their dad and mom.
“Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang. Individuals have been sent to the camps for wearing long beards, refusing alcohol, or other behaviors authorities deem to be signs of ‘religious extremism’. Former detainees report that they suffered torture, rape, sterilization, and other abuses,” reads the report. It goes on to say that the spiritual freedom situations in China proceed to deteriorate. For Pakistan, it recommends that the nation be positioned within the listing of nations of explicit concern, as spiritual freedom there continues to development negatively.
The report says that the systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya legal guidelines, and Pakistani authorities’ failure to handle pressured conversions of spiritual minorities—together with Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs—to Islam, severely restricted freedom of faith or perception.
“While there were high-profile acquittals, the blasphemy law remained in effect. USCIRF is aware of nearly 80 individuals who remained imprisoned for blasphemy, with at least half facing a life sentence or death,” the USCIRF report reads.
It says that after spending 5 years in solitary confinement for allegedly posting blasphemous content material on-line, Junaid Hafeez was given the loss of life sentence in December 2019.
“Many ongoing trials related to blasphemy experienced lengthy delays as cases were moved between judges. Moreover, these laws create a culture of impunity for violent attacks following accusations. In March 2019, a student murdered Professor Khalid Hameed over perceived ‘anti-Islamic’ remarks,” it says.
Mob assaults
The USCIRF additional factors out that protesters in Sindh attacked and burned Hindu outlets and homes of worship following two incidents.
“In the first, a cleric accused a Hindu veterinarian of wrapping medicine with paper printed with Quranic verses; in the second, a student levelled blasphemy charges against a Hindu principal. A mob also attacked a Christian community in Punjab after a mosque claimed over its loudspeaker that the community had insulted Islam,” the report reads.
It says that in one other incident, practically 200 Christian households in Karachi had been pressured to flee their properties as a result of mob assaults after false blasphemy accusations in opposition to 4 Christian girls.
The report says that the Ahmadi Muslims, with their religion basically criminalised, proceed to face extreme persecution from authorities in addition to societal harassment as a result of their beliefs, with each the authorities and mobs concentrating on their homes of worship.
“In October, for example, police partially demolished a 70-year-old Ahmadiyya mosque in Punjab,” it says.
Surveillance state
The report additionally accuses the Chinese authorities of making a high-tech surveillance state, utilising facial recognition and synthetic intelligence to watch spiritual minorities.
“On April 1, a new regulation requiring religious venues to have legal representatives and professional accountants went into effect. Some smaller religious venues, especially in rural areas, found these requirements impossible to fulfil,” it observes.
According to the USCIRF findings, throughout 2019, the camps more and more transitioned from re-education to pressured labour as detainees had been compelled to work in cotton and textile factories.
“Outside the camps, the government continued to deploy officials to live with Muslim families and to report on any signs of “extremist” spiritual conduct,” the report says.
It says that authorities in Xinjiang and different elements of China have destroyed or broken hundreds of mosques and eliminated Arabic-language indicators from Muslim companies.
“The Chinese government continued to pursue a strategy of forced assimilation and suppression of Tibetan Buddhism, as demonstrated by the laws designed to control the next reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and those of other Tibetan eminent lamas. Monks and nuns who refused to denounce the Dalai Lama have been expelled from their monasteries, imprisoned, and tortured,” it says.
The report mentions that in protest of repressive authorities insurance policies, not less than 156 Tibetans have self-immolated since February 2009.
“Chinese authorities raided or closed down hundreds of Protestant house churches in 2019, including Rock Church in Henan Province and Shouwang Church in Beijing. The government released some of the Early Rain Covenant Church congregants who had been arrested in December 2018, but in December 2019 a court charged Pastor Wang Yi with ‘subversion of state power’ and sentenced him to nine years imprisonment,” it factors out.
The native authorities continued to harass and detain bishops, together with Guo Xijin and Cui Tai, who refused to hitch the state-affiliated Catholic affiliation, it says.
Bounties
Several native governments, together with Guangzhou metropolis, provided money bounties for people who knowledgeable on underground church buildings, based on the findings. In addition, authorities throughout the nation have eliminated crosses from church buildings, banned youth below the age of 18 from taking part in spiritual providers, and changed photos of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with footage of President Xi Jinping, they are saying.
“According to studies, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners had been arrested throughout 2019 for practising the motion’s meditation workout routines or distributing literature about their beliefs. Human rights advocates and scientists introduced proof that the observe of harvesting organs from prisoners—many of whom are believed to be Falun Gong practitioners—continued on a big scale,” the USCIRF report says. “In addition, there were widespread reports that authorities across China demolished Mahayana Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian statues it claimed were ‘unauthorized’.”
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