The issue of conversions

EDITORIAL: In his verdict on a petition filed by a Christian rickshaw driver complaining that his minor daughter was abducted and that upon her recovery the police refused to hand her custody to him claiming that she had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man, Lahore High Court Justice Tariq Nadeem made some important observations. Article 20 of the Constitution, said the honourable judge, grants rights to citizens to propagate their faith, but that does not allow anyone to convert a person to another religion by coercion or inducement. And that forced conversion or imposing beliefs on others constitutes infringement on the right to freedom of religion. Nonetheless, he dismissed the petition. As to the question whether a conversion is tainted or otherwise, he said, the High Court cannot undertake a factual inquiry exercising its jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution.

Focusing on the all-important matter of conversion to another faith, a life changing event for anyone, the court held that Muslim jurists regard mental capacity of a child as of crucial importance when considering the question of his or her conversion. This merits the question who is to determine and how the mental maturity of a child? In fact, the issue has been settled by existing laws that set the age for marriage, issuance of a National Identity Card, and well as induction in the armed forces at 18 years. All these rules are based on modern knowledge that shows mental and physical maturity does not come before 18 years of age; that is when individuals are expected to start making independent decisions for themselves.

The decision is likely to reverberate beyond the present case. The issue of conversions has already been creating a lot of anxiety among religious minorities. There have been a number of cases involving alleged abductions and conversions of underage Christian and Hindu girls for marriage with Muslim men. A point to ponder is that in all such cases the converts invariably are females belonging to poor and powerless members of minority communities. Why not boys if it is a matter of mental maturity? Outcome of the present case could work as an encouragement for people who take advantage of their place in society to make off with girls from vulnerable sections of society. Such acts do no service this country where all laws are made in consonance with the teachings of Islam.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021