Pakistan - The next Afghanistan?

Over the past several months, there has been an alarming rise of religious intolerance in and around Pakistan. During the first week of April 2001 about 1 million Muslims from around the world gathered at the Deoband conference in Peshawar where they vowed to make Pakistan an Islamic theocracy like the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.

This conference is just one example of the growing power of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan. Leaders of Islamic militant organizations are also using local newspapers to stir up religious extremism and violence by making provocative statements against non-Muslim people, specifically Christians and Jews. Consequently, antagonism toward non-Muslims is being spread, further aggravating religious strife and bigotry in Pakistan.

The influence of the Taliban of Afghanistan, with the help of revenues from drug trafficking, is strengthening the already fundamentalist Islamic society of Pakistan. There are apprehensions that the followers of the Taliban in Pakistan will become increasingly powerful and as such religious minorities feel insecure. Their fears have heightened since the Taliban has ordered the non-Muslim citizens of Afghanistan to wear yellow badges in order to distinguish them from Muslim citizens. Taliban insurgents have already started appearing in Pakistan and have been responsible for inciting Pakistani youth to join Muslim extremist groups.

The misuse of blasphemy laws has also increased in Pakistan in recent years and individuals of non-Muslim religious minorities are being falsely implicated under blasphemy charges. In April of this year Mr. Pervez Masih, a Christian schoolteacher, was falsely implicated in such a blasphemy case. Masih is currently being held in prison for allegedly uttering blasphemous words against the Prophet of Islam while tutoring several Muslim students. However, it is widely known that Mr. Masih's accuser, Mr. Mohammad Ibrahim, operates a rival high school and had tried to intimidate Mr. Masih so he would close down his school. When several other methods failed, the blasphemy law was used as a means to this end. Masih could spend several years in prison before receiving a trial as few lawyers dare to defend those accused of blasphemy, no matter how spurious the charges.

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