56 quotes found
"Whoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person or makes any gesture in the sight of that person or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both."
"On 24 December 2025, an Additional Sessions Court in Lalian, Punjab, delivered a verdict that should shame any legal system claiming to uphold justice. Mubarak Ahmad Saani, an Ahmadi Muslim, was sentenced to life imprisonment under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. His crime was not desecrating the Quran, not insulting Islam, not inciting violence or hatred, but calling himself a “Hafiz,” and distributing a book of Quranic translation and commentary revered by his community. …The verdict of 24 December 2025 will be remembered as a moral failure. It is a stain on Pakistan’s judiciary, a betrayal of the Quran’s own message of justice and mercy, and a chilling reminder that in Pakistan, the harsh persecution of Ahmadis continues—not in the shadows, but in the full light of the courtrooms."
".. the Islamic parties are most successful in galvanising street power when the goal is narrowly linked to obstructing reforms to discriminatory religious laws that often provoke sectarian violence and conflict and undermine the rule of law and constitutionalism."
"In 1996, a Pakistani Christian named Ayub Masih was accused by his Muslim neighbor of encouraging him to read The Satanic Verses. Under Pakistani law, the testimony of a single Muslim suffices in blasphemy cases, and Masih was sentenced to death on April 28, 1998. When the Court failed to order his immediate execution, he was attacked in the courthouse itself but was saved. In a subsequent Christian protest march, attacked with stones by Muslim bystanders, Bishop John Joseph shot himself in a spectacular act of desperation (some Christians allege he was murdered). In Masih's village, all the Christians fled and their houses were occupied by Muslims... Even more serious cases go unreported. Islamists shot and killed in October 1997the Pakistani High Court judge, Arif Bhatti, who had acquitted two Christians on blasphemy charges. ... In Pakistan with its draconian anti-blasphemy law, many people (mostly from the Christian and Ahmadiya minorities) have been arrested on blasphemy charges, many of them have been sentenced to years in prison, some have been sentenced to death, some have been murdered in custody or at large, but in no case has the state dared fully and formally to implement the whole course of its legal provision of a death sentence...."
"Pakistan’s blasphemy laws cause tragedies when those unjustly accused are declared guilty. But even the life of those the courts declare innocent is ruined forever."
"“Bitter Winter” has recently spoken with a number of Pakistanis from different religious backgrounds, wishing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. They are alarmed by the constant climate of serious intolerance that reigns in the country, where a bigoted interpretation of Islam, intermingled with politics, persecute all religious minorities. In Pakistan, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims of Shia (including the Hazaras) and Ahmadi persuasion live under the sword of Damocles of that set of norms that are generally and commonly referred to as the “blasphemy law.” Many feel threatened by a situation that apparently never improves, even if better signs appear at times. They–for example the Ahmadis—are in fact even scared that those better signs could be superficially or ideologically exploited by some outside or hostile forces to imply that, after all, the situation is not that bad."
"[T]he blasphemy law is felt to be a sword of Damocles and has developed a huge symbolic significance which contributes substantially to the atmosphere of intimidation of Christians. The detrimental effect of the law…is most dramatically illustrated by the incident at Shanti Nagar in February 1997 in which tens of thousands of rioting Muslims destroyed hundreds of Christian homes, and other Christian property, following an accusation of blasphemy. Furthermore the blasphemy has engendered a wave of private violence. Equating blasphemy with apostasy and influenced by the tradition of direct violent action and self-help which goes back to the earliest times of Islam, some Muslims feel they are entitled to enforce the death penalty themselves."
"Tahira Abdullah, a human rights activist situated in Pakistan, said that “The lack of political will and commitment has always stood as the biggest obstacle to prevent the abuse, misuse, and exploitation of blasphemy laws.” She further said, “Mr. Khan’s government is no different from its predecessors in promising to tackle the menace of religious violence. But it is too cowardly to confront influential religious parties in Parliament and the rampaging militant extremist groups outside Parliament.”"
"Instances of mob violence, and state-enforced criminal blasphemy cases, are more frequent in Pakistan than anywhere else, according to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom."
"Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are often used against religious minorities and others who are the target of false accusations, while emboldening vigilantes prepared to threaten or kill the accused."
"About 66.7% of the cultivated land (in Lahore District) is in the hands of the Jats, the great majority of whom are Sikhs. They are commonly of very fine physique and often blessed with brains as well. They represent a magnificent supply of human material. They could be and upto a point are, a very great asset to the District and the Punjab. The communal majority in the District belongs to the Muslims…… and the typical zamindar of the district is Sikh Jat."
"We now enter the heart of the Punjab, the tract from the Jhelum in the north to a little beyond the Sutlej in the south. It contains all that is most characteristic of the Province. It is the cradle of the Sikhs and hundred years ago was the mainstay of Ranjit Singh and his power.”... “The peasant proprietor is the backbone of the colonies as he is of the Punjab. In the Lyallpur colony he holds about 80% of the land and in Shahpur nearly as much. In the latter he was mainly recruited from Northern Districts but in the former almost entirely from the central Punjab. A colony could hardly have had better material, for Ludhiana, Jullundur and Amritsar represent the flower of the Indian Agriculture. They are the home of the Jat Sikh who has been described as ‘the most desirable of colonists.’"
"(In the matter of developing Colony Lands) the Jat Sikh has reached a point of development probably beyond anything else of the kind in India. In less than a generation he has made the wilderness blossom like the rose. It is as if the energy of the virgin soil of the Bar had passed into his veins and made him almost a part of the forces of nature which he has conquered. It is clear that the Jat Sikh from the central districts of the Punjab has been very largely responsible for the building up of the colony areas of Lyallpur and Montgomery in the Punjab, which form the granary of a large part of India. It may further be mentioned that the Sikhs in the central Divisions of the Punjab have largest Agricultural interests of all other communities put together."
"The Sikhs played a major part in the development of the rural area of this part and the urban area was built up mainly by the enterprise of Hindus. It would be correct to say that almost the entire trade, commerce and industry of the Lyallpur district and the portion of the Sheikhupura sub-district is in the hands of non-Muslims."
"The tract mentioned above, comprising parts of Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Lyallpur district is one contiguous tract and is Popularly known as the Shahidi Bar. In the preceding paragraphs an account has been given of the Sikh share in the development of this tract and there is no gainsaying that but for the Sikh enterprise the rural areas in this tract would not have been developed and but for the Hindu-Sikh enterprise the markets in this tract would not have flourished."
"Probably about 40% of this small but doughty people are in one manner or the other describable as refugees. The transference, in the main, has been from irrigated regions splendidly fertile to lands less productive. Prosperous colonies developed by an industrious and capable peasantry have been abandoned, as has much other property in rural and urban areas; some revered shrines are left on the far side of the boundary.”... “Until members of this numerically small but virile obstinate and deeply religious community, can (like British Catholics visiting Rome or Lourdes) buy a ticket for Nanakana Sahib or Panja Sahib confident of the ordinary decencies of international travel, there will be no stable peace in the two Punjabs, nor basis for Pakistan to rank herself as the full equal of other countries in standards of civilized modern tolerance…… “Inquiry confirmed the doubt. It elicited, too, the appalling nature of the Sikhs’ own losses. About 40% of them had been made refugees. No such figure was approached by the other communities. They had no strong Press to put their case."
"Sikhs have some of their most sacred Gurdwaras in the West Punjab. The freedom of these Gurdwaras and access to them for purposes of worship forms the sorest point of grievance which the Sikhs have at present against the Pakistan Government, and what is regarded as the easy attitude which the Indian Government is adopting with regard to this matter so deeply vital to Sikh religious sentiment."
"The holiest of the holy of the Sikhs, Nanakana Sahib, birthplace of Guru Nanak-analogous to the Mecca of the Muslims and Jerusalem of the Christians. This Gurdwara also had a vast estate, developed along model lines as a farming colony, and it yielded an annual revenue to the Sikh community of about 20 lakhs of rupees."
"There is then the famous Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in Lahore, site of martyrdom of Sri Guru Arjan Dev. There is the famous Shahidgunj, sacred in Sikh history as the place where the pioneer upholders of the Sikh Creed suffered torture and death at Muslim hands. In Rawalpindi district there is the Panja Sahib Gurdwara, sanctified by Guru Nanak, and so is the famous Babe di Ber in Sialkot. In Gujranwala District is Eminabad. In Lahore District is Kartarpur, a place where Guru Nanak resided for a considerable time. Besides these more famous Gurdwaras, there are hundreds of other shrines, associated with the Sikh Gurus, with holy men and with events in Sikh history. There are then places associated with Sikh history, such as the Mausoleum of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore and his birthplace in Gujranwala. Sikh history and the dearest association of the Sikhs are enshrined in these places. To think that Sikhs and Hindus would leave en masse all that has been mentioned above, if it had been possible for them to retain these, is fantastic nonsense, worthy only of the mendacions propagandists of Pakistan."
"The Sikhs had a further deep interest in Nankana Sahib, which is the birthplace of Sri Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism and is situated in the heart of Sheikhupura district. The Hindus of the Punjab had quite as heavy an economic stake in these districts as the Sikhs, and more so even in Lahore, which town owed almost its entire wealth, industry, educational enterprise, and importance to the vast effort the Hindus had been expending for generations in building it up. Sikh enterprise in developing Lahore was second only to the Hindu-the Muslims there being backward and unenterprising, consisting mostly of migratory seasonal labourers or petty hawkers. (99)"
"Gurdwara Janam Asthan was subjected to continuous attacks since June. Muslim police pickets posted ostensibly for the purpose of protection of this place abetted arson and attacks on the Gurdwara. On August 11, Baulch Military entered the Gurdwara on pretext of finding out supposed bombs concealed inside the Gurdwara, and there bayoneted or shot dead 13 Sikhs... (108-9) The famous historic Sikh Gurdwara of Chhevin Padshahi, situated at a distance of fifteen yards from the Police Station on Temple Road in Mozang, was set on fire on the morning of the 15th August. The few Sikhs who were inside the Gurdwara were burnt alive in the flames. This was one of the numerous places of non-Muslim worship which had been burned in Lahore. Baoli Sahib, Gurdwara Chaumala Sahib and others had been burned before. Even the famous Dehra Sahib, held in highest sanctity by the Sikhs as being the place of martydom of Sri Guru Arjan Dev, fifth Guru of the Sikhs, was attacked. The Sikh guards and priests of this Gurdwara were mostly killed. (127)"
"There is no state today, certainly not in India, to protect Hindu interest in the international arena, to raise voice for the Hindus .... In December 1992, no less than 600 Hindu temples were destroyed in Bangladesh, thousands of Hindu homes were burnt down, hundreds of Hindu women were paraded naked on the streets of Bhola town, a number of Hindus were killed, Hindu shops were looted, Hindu deities were desecrated, Hindu girls were dishonoured. But the Government of India remained silent. In Pakistan, 300 temples were destroyed. In Lahore a Minister of Pakistan personally supervised the pulling down of a temple with the help of bulldozers, and several Hindus were murdered. But the Government of India remained silent. No matter how much tyranny, how much injustice is heaped on Hindus anywhere in the world, the State of India is not bothered - this is the essence of Secularism in India."
"In Pakistan, the dwindling percentage of 1 % Hindus ekes out an existence in constant fear of the never-ending harassment's and attacks by the Muslim majority (which is untroubled by any minoritism). A secularist paper, prudishly and secularly titling: Ethnic violence drives Sinhis across the border, lets out the truth in the small print: According to refugee Sukh Ram], most of the Hindus are forced to desert their homes because of their religion. 'We are not allowed to pray peacefully in the temple of celebrate Hindu festival's he said"
"[There were] similar incidents in Pakistan and Bangladesh. A list of hundreds of temples in Bangladesh in 1989 alone was compiled by the Hindu-Christian-Buddhist Council of Bangladesh. When the Pakistani government announced it would look after the reconstruction of the most important among the hundreds of temples demolished in December 1992, construction companies refused co-operation pleading hey had been threatened by Islamic militants no to colaborate with "idolatry"."
"Invisible walls were also rising among communities, between neighbors, and even within families. The seeds of intolerance had been there at the outset of Pakistan’s creation, though they’d been kept mostly buried. Now, Zia was watering them generously, and the Saudis were adding fertilizer. Mehtab had grown up with Hindu neighbors; they visited each other and played together. Soon, some Sunni Pakistanis refused to even have a Hindu cook in their house, because they considered the food impure."
"“In spite of the assurance given by the Qaid-i-Azam Christians are being ill-treated in the West Punjab. The rights of the Christians are being crushed in every form of life. We have, again and again, made representations to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and to the West Punjab Cabinet for our protection.”"
"Pakistan Hindu leader Raja Chander Singh... says that the Hindu migration to India is now (proportionally) bigger than during the Partition day: "The future of Hindus in Pakistan is very bleak... They are leaving because of fear"."
"Large-scale riots in East Pakistan have compelled over two lakh Hindus and other minorities to come over to India. Indians naturally feel incensed by the happenings in East Bengal. To bring the situation under control and to prescribe the right remedy for the situation it is essential that the malady be properly diagnosed. And even in this state of mental agony, the basic values of our national life must never be forgotten."
"The Muslim League advocates of Pakistan have been prolific with assurances of fair treatment towards minorities-assurances never seriously meant to be kept, and broken in the most unworthy manner in all the territories which became part of the Pakistan State. What the Muslim Leaguers had been planning all these years was really to drive out minorities from Pakistan, and in this way to solve the minority problem. ... Thus, in a thorough and relentless way Rehmat Ali has pleaded for the total elimination of minorities from Pakistan."
"‘What is the fundamental truth about minorities……… remember that, in the past ‘Minorityism’ has ever proved itself a major enemy of the Millat; that at present it is sabotaging us religiously, culturally, and politically even in our national lands; and that in the future, it would destroy us throughout the Continent of Dinia and its dependencies, Hence the Commandment (one of the seven commandments laid down in the pamphlet “The Millat and its Mission”), Avoid ‘Minorityism’, which means that we must not leave our minorities in Hindu lands, even if the British and the Hindus offer them the so-called constitutional safeguards. For no safeguards can be substituted for the nationhood which is their birthright. Nor must we keep Hindu and/or Sikh minorities in our lands, even if they themselves were willing to remain with or without any special safeguards. For they will never be of us. Indeed, while in ordinary times they will retard our national reconstruction, in times of crisis they will betray us and bring about our redestruction."
"Exchange of population or even driving out of Hindu and Sikh population from the Muslim State has from the beginning been inherent in the very conception of the State of Pakistan... When Pakistan was established, this inevitable finale to the process of its establishment was executed with equal zeal and collaboration by the people (Muslims) and. Government of Pakistan. The process of elimination of minorities went on without check by the Muslim police, officials and military. On the contrary, they abetted the process. No responsible Pakistan or Muslim League leaders condemned such attacks on Hindus and Sikhs. (219) The fact is that Muslims everywhere in Pakistan, had made the life of religious minorities miserable. (253)"
"As the Pakistani journalist Khaled Ahmed wrote: When ideology stiffened under the pious military ruler, General Zia, Nawaz Sharif was with him, following the lead given by him and didn’t object when the laws against blasphemy and desecration of the Quran were passed and even made more draconian. Zakat tax meant to be spent on the poor can’t be spent on non-Muslims who are counted among the poorest communities in Pakistan. Muslims who are born in Christian hospitals and study in English-medium schools funded by Christian charity don’t mind if poor Christians are not helped with Muslim charity."
"[Hindus and Christians in Pakistan] face continued threats to their security and are subject to various forms of harassment and social exclusion."
"To fully understand this drama, we must bear in mind a few events which did not take place because they could not have taken place. No missionary has stepped in and courted martyrdom to defend the tribals and Hindus of Pakistan, in fact no missionary was around when the initial massacres took place in East Pakistan, because the missions have disinvested in Pakistan. The missions in Islamic countries find their converts harassed and even killed by their own families, their schools and churches attacked on all kinds of pretext, their graduates not given jobs. So, the missionary headquarters prefer to direct their energies to more hospitable countries like India. The fact that a missionary was killed by a "Hindu" while defending the Muslims, and not the other way round, proves in the first place that Catholic priests can function in India, much more than in Pakistan... Nehru] himself (and the entire secularist establishment till today) reneged on his duty to defend the non-Muslims surviving in the Islamic state which he had helped to create. In the Nehru-Liaqat Pact of 1950, he had given up every right to interfere on behalf of the minorities in Pakistan. By effectively condoning the persecution of non-Muslims in Pakistan, he must accept a share in the responsibility for the retaliatory tribal violence which killed Rasschaert."
"It is rewarding to be a missionary in India, and much safer than China or Pakistan.... These media give far less coverage to the numerous acts of terror against Pakistani Christians, because it would only make things worse for them. So they save their fire for the propaganda war against the Hindus, who have given Christians hospitality for a full sixteen centuries, and who today give them facilities and constitutional privileges which contrast with the restraints imposed on them in most Asian countries. Since the missionaries have no hope of converting Pakistan, they concentrate on converting India and consequently vilify Hinduism much more than Islam."
"I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uyghurs, the Yazidi -- what ISIS did to them was truly cruel -- or Christians in Egypt and Pakistan killed by bombs that went off while they prayed in church."
"Christians, being neutral in the struggle and not the target of persecution, did not migrate in great numbers... They marked their homes with crosses... testifying later as to how the cross had saved them from physical death - an illustration of the power of Christ's cross to save from eternal death as well."
"The dispute over the Abdullah Khan Mosque, which was adjacent to the Shahid Gunj Gurdwara, flared up when the courts dismissed the Anjuman-i-Islamia’s claim to the site and confirmed the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC). 89 Its intention to demolish the defunct mosque and build shops on the site led to widespread protests. When the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam stood aloof, in marked contrast to its activist role in the Kashmir movement, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan thundered against it on 14 July in a packed meeting at Mochi Gate, and afterwards founded the Majlis-i-Ittehad-i-Millat to lead the Shahid Gunj protests. 90 Public opposition to the Ahrars was so great that they found it virtually impossible to hold a meeting in Lahore for the best part of a year. 91 The Majlis-i-Ittehad-i-Millat held a series of public processions and meetings at Mochi Gate. 92 On 20 July a large crowd gathered there from across the Punjab in a bid to reach the disputed mosque to offer prayers. Despite these efforts at mobilisation, the dispute remained unresolved."
"Massjid Shahid Ganj, in Lahore, was constructed as a mosque by one Falak Beg khan, in 1722. The Sikhs, however, claimed that the mosque had been built by demolishing a Gurdwara. Sometime around AD 1762 ,when Sikh power in the region was on the ascendant, they took possession of the building ... The land... became the site of a Sikh Gurdwara and the tomb of a Sikh leader, Bhai Taru Singh."
"When a mosque is adversely possessed by non-Muslims, that is to say, by the Hindus, the Muslims lose all the rights in the land and the building, including the right to worship. The building cannot maintain the character of a mosque and no duty is cast upon the person in possession therof to maintain its original character or to maintain it even as a building."
"We are able to gather from these accounts that both Buddhism and Brahmanism were flourishing in the country, side by side, when the Arab invasion took place in the beginning of the eighth century ; and, as mention is made of monasteries which were, even then, m sore need of repair, Buddhism must have been well established for some centuries before that time as the remains of early stupas, found scattered about the land, clearly indicate."
"It generally is conceded that a large and important portion of the population of Sind at the time of the Arab conquest was Buddhist. .... According to the Muslim sources, Buddhists were particularly well-represented in the Indus Delta region and on the west bank of the Indus River."
"The Blasphemy Laws are primarily used to terrorize minorities and pursue personal scores and vendettas, and their very existence undermines any effective freedom of religion in Pakistan."
"To this day, the blasphemy laws continue to restrict the freedom of religion in Pakistan."
"The judges noted that the ulema were against the propagation of any other religion in Pakistan. They argued that anyone preaching another religion was involved in promoting apostasy, since Muslims could not be converted to another religion."
"The superior judiciary does not bear all responsibility for the dismal state of the fundamental human right of freedom of religion in Pakistan. But it remains the constitutionally designated guardian of guaranteed rights."
"Religion in Pakistan has always been closely tied to the political agendas of successive governments."
"They were afraid that once Islam became the state - religion in Pakistan , other religious groups would be discriminated against ."
"Religion in Pakistan means the Islamic tradition as it is expressed in Pakistani society . And that expression is male oriented , tending towards segregating women and confining them to the house..."
"While many books explore the Iranian Revolution, few look at how it rippled out, how the Arab and Sunni world reacted and interacted with the momentous event. All the way to Pakistan, the ripples of the rivalry reengineered vibrant, pluralistic countries and unleashed sectarian identities and killings that had never defined us in the past. While Pakistan is geographically located on the Indian subcontinent, its modern history is closely linked to the trends that unfolded in the Middle East, and the country features prominently in this narrative. Across this Greater Middle East, the rise of militancy and the rise of cultural intolerance happened in parallel and often fed into each other."
"Many Shias in the region feel that they have been discriminated against since 1948. They claim that the Pakistani government continually gives preferences to Sunnis in business, in official positions, and in the administration of justice...The situation deteriorated sharply during the 1980s under the presidency of the tyrannical Zia-ul Haq when there were many attacks on the Shia population. In one of the most notorious incidents, during May 1988 Sunni assailants destroyed Shia villages, forcing thousands of people to flee to Gilgit for refuge. Shia mosques were razed and about 100 people were killed"
"A revolt by the Shias of Gilgit was ruthlessly suppressed by the Zia-ul Haq regime in 1988, killing hundreds of Shias. An armed group of tribals from Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province, led by Osama bin Laden, was inducted by the Pakistan Army into Gilgit and adjoining areas to suppress the revolt."
"Muslims attacked more than 30 Hindu temples across Pakistan today, and the Government of this overwhelmingly Muslim nation closed offices and schools for a day to protest the destruction of a mosque in India."
"Pakistan is like Israel, an ideological state. Take out Judaism from Israel and it will collapse like a house of cards. Take Islam out of Pakistan and make it a secular state; it would collapse. For the past four years we have been trying to bring Islamic values to this country."