The Wahhabi/Salafi school, which provides impetus to militant Islamists in Pakistan, is at the root of the exploitation of minorities. This agony will stay unless Muslim clerics across the globe come forward and end a destructive ideology
Paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder where an adult experiences an exclusive sexual attraction to pre-pubescent children. Being a mental disorder, those suffering from paedophilia need mental health support. The brains of paedophiles aren’t ‘wired’ correctly, causing them to get sexually attracted towards children. They have a brain malfunction that can hardly be corrected, though there are therapies that can reduce the recurrence of a sick person committing child sexual abuse.
Recently, two minor Hindu girls from Sindh were abducted and transported to Rahim Yar Khan from Ghotki in south-east Pakistan. The two minors were then forcefully converted to (their version of) Islam before being married to Muslim men.
In the videos circulating on social media, the father and brother of the girls can be seen crying hoarse, saying that the girls were abducted and forced to change their religion. However, in another clip, the minor girls appeared to give their statements that they accepted Islam on their own free will. The Pakistani media, too, tried to defend the culprits, saying that the minor girls had embraced Islam out of free will and that they consented to their marriage with willingness and choice.
Due to the Indian Government’s protests, the matter was referred to the court on April 2. The Islamabad High Court formed a five-member Commission to probe the alleged abduction, forced conversion and marriage of the girls. Its members included Pakistani Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari and Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women, Khawar Mumtaz.
It was reported that the girls and their alleged spouses sought court protection. The girls also allegedly said that they belonged to a Hindu family of Ghotki, a small town in Sindh and converted willfully as they were impressed by Islamic teachings.
It is amply clear that the statement of the girls has been given under duress and no sane person can buy the theory that the minor girls, aged 13 and 15, have sufficient maturity and decision-making capacity to understand, comprehend or judge the teaching and traditions of the two religions. Can they make a comparative view of the two diverse religions without experiencing and studying the tenets and principles of the two faiths?
Moreover, according to Muslim practice, at the time of nikah, the father of the girl, minor or major, being the ‘wali’ (protector) is required to give his consent and stand witness to the ceremony, which was not the case here. On the contrary, the father and brother of the girls openly leveled allegations of abduction, forced conversion and marriage of the minors.
The High Court miserably failed to understand that before Partition, during the British rule, the Indian Majority Act, 1875, was applicable on the whole of India, and the same is currently prevalent in India and Pakistan both. Legally and philosophically speaking, the forced marriage of the two girls below 15 years of age, amounts to rape. A person below the age of 18 years is a minor and is not mature enough to comprehend what is good or bad for him/her. The consent given by the girls, even if willingly, is meaningless, irrelevant and illegal. The court should have restored the girls to their parents. Whereas, the Islamabad court on April 11, vide its impugned order, directed the girls to stay with their husbands. The court’s order was based on the five-member Commission’s report, which stated that it held a meeting with the girls and their spouses and found no compulsion, though the statement of the minor girls, expressing consent for the entire episode, was not only irrelevant but null and void from the principle of reasonableness. The (mock) Commission did not incorporate the statements of the girls’ father, brother, neighbours and other respondents.
It is well-known that Pakistan is driven by the extremist ideology of Wahhabism/Salafism. The civilian Government over there is a puppet of its Army. As such, all Muslim and non-Muslim minorities such as Shia Muslims, Hazaras, Ahmedias, Sufis, Barelvies and non-Muslims such as Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are targetted. The Wahabi/Salafi ideology justifies the rape and abduction of all non-Wahhabi women, especially of those belonging to the Shia Muslims and Hindu minorities.
Dozens of terror groups are operating from Pakistan’s soil, internally and externally both. According to Human Rights Watch, during the past one decade, thousands of innocent people — Hindus, Shias, Sufis, Sikhs and Christians — have been killed mercilessly in Pakistan itself by these extremists under the patronage of the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Army, which use them as a bargaining chip in the region. Again, on April 12, as many as 20 people, including two children, were killed and 70 injured in an (un) Islamic State blast, targeting Hazara Shia minority community in Baluchistan.
Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the US recently admitted in Washington that Imran Khan’s statements, promising the end of support to terrorist groups, are motivated by the fear of getting blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force and that there is no evidence that the Government or the military are dismantling terrorist support infrastructure.
One can imagine the nightmare of surviving persecuted minorities of Pakistan, who even after surviving criminal assaults, remain affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, without any remedy. This agony is most likely to stay, unless Muslim clerics across the globe come forward and bring an end to the pseudo-Islamic Wahhabi/Salafi ideology.
(The author is a legal journalist)
