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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17 (Manend News): There is no evidence suggesting that non-Muslims,
including underage girls, have been forcibly converted to Islam in Sindh, shows a
groundbreaking study by Institute of Policy Studies’ (IPS) researcher Sufi Ghulam
Hussain based on his ten years of episodical fieldwork, interviews with a cross-section of
Sindhi society and statistical analysis of data acquired from seminaries and courts across
the province.
The study – which was also consulted and by the parliamentary committee formed on the
controversial ‘anti-forced conversion bill’ rejected last week – is based on exclusive IPS
datasets.
The extensive and exhaustive fieldwork consisted of 200 in-depth interviews with a
cross-section of Muslim and non-Muslim population, content analysis of over 400 audio
recordings, along with review of 19 NGO reports. The quantitative sample comprised
6,055 cases of converts documented and collected during 2008 to 2020. Some 32
families, 24 couples (of whom females were mostly neo-converts), 16 males, 24 leaders
of the Hindu community, 22 religious clerics, 21 civil society activists, eight lawyers, two
police officers and two magistrates were interviewed by the lead researcher Ghulam
Hussain.
The key hypothesis was to investigate whether non-Muslim girls below the age of 18 are
forcibly converted to Islam. Analysis of data shows that of the total recorded cases of
conversion involving freewill marriages in this study, only a fraction was minor. “Given
the prevalence of marriages below 18 years in rural Sindh, this is not unexpected”, said
Ghulam Hussain.
None of the cases verified by this research proved to be forcible conversion whereby
‘force’ means coercion, blackmail, deception or the threat to kill a person or his/her
parents. Contradictory to the commonly propagated perception, it was found that
coercion is often used by parents and the community of the converting individual to
revert such a person. This is in the form of political pressure, influencing the local
administration and state institutions, social media campaigning, NGO activism, invoking
caste or community honor, appealing to patriarchal ego, mobilizing separatist elements,
and even torture.
The study shows that religious conversions occur at Sindh’s main seminaries and
religious sites that take care of legal requirements and relevant documentation, including
through courts. During the course of research, credentials of converts registered with
prominent religious seminaries/centers were obtained. These sites include Amrot Sharif
(Shikarpur), Barchoondi Sharif (Ghotki), Gulzar-i-Khaleel (Umerkot), Bait-us-Salam
(Badin), Madina Masjid (Mirpurkhas), and Jamia Binnoria (Karachi).
The related official documents that were collected and analyzed included affidavits of
freewill, petitions (seeking protection from parents), court verdicts/orders, FIRs filed by
parents/police record, CNICs of the neo-converts, nikahnama or marriage certificates
(issued by NADRA), primary school leaving certificate/certificate of matriculation
showing age, medical certificate determining age, certificates of conversion, registers of
conversion, and pamphlets of conversion ceremonies.
The study found that several socio-economic, religious, and cultural push-and-pull factors
come into play in the process of conversion from one religion to another. In most cases,
normative ritual to convert and socio-economic incentive (push factors), desire to marry
and inspiration from Islam and its religious mentors (pull factors) are the key factors that
constitute the conversion process. Push factors are largely driven by the context, the
structural condition and the religious or the cultural milieu, whereas pull factors are
mainly driven by the agency of the individuals and groups.
Among the total sample, the 4,490 individuals who converted as families were either
sufficiently Islamized already over decades or they were pulled by better social and
economic support system among Muslims.
Presence of 229 individual male converts in the sample negates the popular perception of
only women being converted to Islam. The 970 individuals who are couples included
several widows who could not remarry while being Hindu and individuals who wished to
marry their cousins against the dictates of Hindu society. Several marriages take place
between the persons of two distinct castes, which again is disallowed in Hindu ethos, and
conversion offers an option for them. This is a major push factor as out of the total cases
of conversion (723) involving marriage, 617 belong to Scheduled Caste Hindus.
During the course of research, this data has already been presented at various national as
well as international forums including the Parliament, Council of Islamic Ideology,
Islamabad Bar Council, and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at
Brown University, USA.