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Second opinion: Convert or face violence! Khaled Ahmeds Urdu Press Review While there is rampant sectarianism in evidence in Pakistan, there is also a subliminal pressure on the sects to convert to the mainstream. When members of other sects or religious communities convert under conditions of duress there is much jubilation among the orthodox, which is allowed to be expressed in the Urdu press. But are such conversions, whenever they happen, really genuine? According to Nawa-e-Waqt (3 October 2003) religious leaders gathered in Chiniot- Chenabnagar for khatam-e-nabuwwat accused the government of being soft on Qadianis who were being employed in key posts (kaleedi) and even posted in the Auqaf Department. They said the Qadianis were busy conspiring against Islam and were freely violating laws enforced against them. The conference was addressed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman of JUI and Liaquat Baloch of Jamaat-e Islami in addition to dozens of other religious leaders. According to Jang, the Chenabnagar meeting warned the government that the Qadianis had become emboldened (hauslay barh gayay). They also said that behind the façade of the NGOs, the spread of Qadiani faith, Judaism and Christianity would not be tolerated and that a movement could be launched against the government on it. There are severe disabilities imposed on the Qadianis. They were apostatised under a PPP majority in parliament and General Zia then compounded the deed by barring them from saying the kalima and calling a mosque a mosque. There is a whole annual tome of trumped up court cases against them, which shock the outside world. There are many irrational sides to the state of Pakistan of which the persecution of the Qadianis is one. The khatam-e-nabuwwat tradition in the country generally serves to rouse the common man and make him feel disgruntled against an erring state that gives protection to a community that is conspiring with the Jews. The noise made about the so-called kaleedi jobs has gone on even after the virtual ouster of the Qadianis from important areas of state employment. The National Assembly in its October session (27 October 2003) went into the question of minority representation in the bureaucracy and was told that there were two Qadianis and nine Christians in the culture ministry in the federal government. There was also news in the press (daily Insaf) the same day that a dozen members of the Qadiani community in Punjab had converted to Islam amid much merrymaking on the part of the Sunni community. The cruel fact behind this conversion is that khatam-e-nabuwwat gatherings in various parts of Pakistan constantly threaten the Qadianis with vigilante action while the National Assembly literally serves as the whistle-blower on low-level government employees who still happen to be Qadianis. The message is: convert or face violence.
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