KARACHI CHRONICLE: A step forward

On Thursday, November 24, 2016 the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed into law a private bill - The Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill 2015, making forced conversion a punishable criminal act. It is a signal achievement but the question is: will it ever be physically applied in any case of forced conversion? In actual cases the deciding factor will not be law, it will be the prevailing bigotry, which is the attitude not just of so-called religious groups, but of educated persons like lawyers and ordinary citizens as well who see any favour to minorities to be an act of destroying the Muslim creed.
Already, when hardly a few days have passed since the Bill became law, religious groups are agitating against it, describing the law as a breach of the constitution. Since the majority of minorities in Sindh are Hindus, they see the law as favouring Indian atrocities in Kashmir along the LoC. None of it is going to change the fact that Sindh has unanimously passed the Bill into Law, but I do not think it will have practical benefit either for the minorities or the province in general.
In the past, just a few years ago, there were several forced conversions of Hindus girls by means of marriages to Muslim men. Once that happened, and the marriage was consummated, it tended to be condoned. People said the girl would now be 'spoiled goods' who no one in her minority community would like to espouse. So it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. But everyone maintained silence. If it had not been for the fact that such practice prevailed almost like an epidemic, about three years go in Sindh, perhaps the bill would not have been tabled at all, nor today passed unanimously by the Sindh Provincial Assembly. It is important to note the law is unanimous.
The arguments against the law are cases of hair splitting. For example, the Law says a person below 18 years of age cannot be converted. A stupid question is: what would happen if a Hindu couple with small children converted to the Muslim creed? Will their children have to wait till they are 18 years old before deciding if they will to be Muslims or remain (in the case of Sindh) Hindus? Children brought up in a Muslim household will automatically have a Muslim mentality. That is the fact.
Another silly argument is that the law is a breach of the constitution. Really, are those who dislike the law saying the persons in the Sindh Assembly do not know what is the constitution of Pakistan? And since all the members have unanimously passed the bill into law are they all ignorant of the constitution?
These major types of objections against the Minorities Protection Law are irrational, to put it mildly, otherwise one is bound to call it downright bigotry. Nevertheless, the passage of the bill has provided an opportunity to those who use street power to agitate against anything as their sole means of asserting their leadership (they do not win elections, so the street is their only forum).
There is no danger the law will be overturned, but there is tremendous danger it will be exploited for fueling bigotry. Street is where attitudes are shaped through powerful harangues, at which the religious groups are particularly adept. A case in point (though not in context of the bill-law) was a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club the very next day (Friday November 25) in support of Kashmir. The speakers, instead of criticising Indians for the atrocities being committed in Occupied Kashmir, preferred to call them 'Hindu.' They kept repeating it was 'Hindus' who are committing the atrocities. They ignored the fact that the Indian army comprises people of all faiths including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus. But when the man in the street hears only 'Hindu' repeated in the criticism, it will surely make him think Hindu people are bad. What this can do in the province of Sindh can be horribly tragic because this province has the largest concentration of Hindu minority. The sane elements have no street power. Sanity will therefore hardly prevail. God help Sindh and all her people.