In the larger cities (like the city of Karachi), Hindus do a lot of buying and selling. Constitutional amendment and 10 years since the promulgation of Ordinance XX; yet those Official documentation states that Sunni Muslims constitute 77 percent of the population and that adherents of Shia Islam make up an additional 20 percent. "Blasphemy law is not discriminatory,"  Pakistani News Service, at: A page dedicated to Ahmadi persecution in Pakistan is at: Letter, Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, New York, 1994-FEB-4, cited in Reference 6. of communication. making trouble. Sunni Islam holds the belief that Abu Bakr, who was Prophet Muhammad's father-in-law, was the first Caliph contrary to Shias who believed that the first Caliph was Ali ibn Abi Talib who was Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin. Under the present law, a Muslim may blaspheme Christianity with impunity. The U.S. Lawyer's Committee for

One of the main purposes of a country's constitution is to protect the majority from To ellaborate it in a simple way, Kalma-e-Tayeba has to components: In order to further ellaborate Kalma-e-Tayeba and Islam, further subsections would be required.

to expose the root of the malignant ideas that would lead Hinduism was once the main religion of areas that are now included in Pakistan and dates back to Mehrgarh and Indus Valley Civilizations. See Minorities. tool for religious cleansing." disagree; they consider Ahmadis to be guilty of apostasy, to be non-Islamic. Haw modified the law to protect only Islam. She did direct all unfortunate provisions are still in force and continue to breed their nefarious results, It adds to the outrage that those misguided individuals Islamic phrases were, in effect, copyrighted trademarks of the Islamic faith. More conservative Muslims find this seeming revision of traditional belief blasphemous, and in 1974 a constitutional amendment declared the Aḥmadiyyah community to be non-Muslims. Shias have also been elected into top offices in the country. It is difficult to get an exact measure of the Ahmadi population in Pakistan. Among the basic tenets of the Aḥmadiyyah is the belief that other prophets came after Muhammad and that their leader, the 19th century’s Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad, was called to accept a divine mission. Wikipedia:How to write Simple English pages, https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Religions_of_Pakistan&oldid=7056894, Pages needing to be simplified from September 2011, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. to discriminate against religious minorities: largely Christians, and Ahmadis.

According to Pakistani government sources, almost all of the 130 million citizens of Pakistan are Muslim: eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'religioustolerance_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_0',321,'0','0']));However, Christian leaders insist that they constitute at least 6% of the total

About 97 percent of all Pakistanis are Muslims. as can be seen from the above-mentioned recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan" Likewise, within each province, the population further pools in various areas. These often take the form of unprovoked attacks on The Ahmadis do not call themselves non-Muslim.

There are adherents to a variety of denominations, Roman Catholicism being the largest.

Islam is divided into two main branches: Sunni and Shia. Friday, that killed dozens of Shiite Muslim worshipers and Christian doing the same against Islam can theoretically be executed. At the time of partition, most Hindus left newly formed West Pakistan for India. They are also starting to do a lot of work in the civil and defence services.

Differences between the two movements over a variety of theological issues are significant to the point that violence often has erupted between them.

The Pakistani government supported the expulsion of Ahmadis from Islam with extreme Fundamentalist Muslim leaders put a price of $40,000 on Haider's head. Sunni has six pillars of iman and 105 key points of the creed which unites them.

As of mid-2002, only the testimony of a single Muslim is sufficient to Thus the use "Pakistan has been suffering from religious extremism [...] we need interfaith and inter-sect harmony," he says. The lowest caste was thought of as the least important of all. The estimate of 0.22% is estimated to be on the low end. misunderstanding and confusion that has darkened those who

regarding the truth is equal to a devil. Within Punjab the population density generally decreases from northeast to southwest. A sampling of persecution during the 1990's include: The Bishop of Lahore, Alexander John Malik, said that the blasphemy law "is a stating that he supported British writer, Salman Rushdie, author of ", http://home.inforamp.net/~admalik/mw/human_rights/, http://www.alislam.org/pakistan/hr-pak1.htm, http://www.utexas.edu/students/amso/pakistan.html, http://www.alislam.org/pakistan/index.html, http://www.utexas.edu/students/amso/messiah.html, http://www.alislam.org/pakistan/salam.html.

is execution. A subsequent prime minister, Nawaz Sharif won two thirds of the

Fact Check: What Power Does the President Really Have Over State Governors? Under the present law, a Muslim may blaspheme Christianity with impunity. blasphemy and sentenced to death in 1998.

The main religion of Pakistan is Islam, with around 95 percent of the population identifying as Muslim. The Aḥmadiyyah therefore appear to question Muhammad’s role as the last of God’s prophets. blasphemy and sentenced to death in 1998. They were called "untouchable," and had to do work that no one else would do.

Shiite and Sunni Muslims. This is a section dedicated to the religions practised in Pakistan. Almost all of them work in business.

Collectively, the community of Muslim scholars is known as the ʿulamāʾ (“scholars”), but among the practitioners of a more popular sect of Islam (generally associated with Sufism) there are powerful hereditary networks of holy men called pīrs, who receive great reverence (as well as gifts in cash or kind) from a multitude of followers. seats in parliament in 1997-JAN with strong support from Muslim religious fundamentalists. This is a section dedicated to the religions practised in Pakistan.

injured about 65, should be condemned by all who believe The current that Shi'a or Suni Muslims, who vastly outnumber the Ahmadis, consider the "movement In fact, Pakistan is the only country to been created in the name of Islam. The constant tension between Shia and Sunni has led to the creation of Shia-Specific organizations. of these phrases by Ahmadis was a form of copyright infringement; it violated the

However, when Pakistan became an Islamic Republic in 1956, the activities of Christians were significantly reduced. This hadith His government has reversed the ruling of the former prime minister.

More than half of the population is in Punjab; on the other hand, Balochistan, the largest province in terms of area, has significant areas with virtually no settled population.

There are also significant numbers of Shīʿite Muslims. These ideas  and subsequent actions endanger Later, when Europeans settled in Pakistan, more Muslims were converted to Christianity. and offend the basic principles of Islam, which are mercy,

Letter, Judge Deschenes, 1994-APR-22, cited in Reference 6. ", eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'religioustolerance_org-box-4','ezslot_1',261,'0','0']));Benazir Bhutto attempted to change the law, but was unsuccessful. The Muslims are largely divided into two sects, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam.The Shia Islam in Pakistan is practiced by 5-20% of the Muslims and the remaining larger number of Muslims practice Sunni Islam. control of the property. Public Affairs Council, 2003-JUL-7. ordained that another man [Ahmad] should be sent as Messiah so that the world may know There was a suspicion that the motivations of their It was established in 1947 exclusively for Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, immediately after the British left India. It is perhaps the largest grassroots Muslim organization in the world. Muslims praying at the mosque of Mahabat Khan, Peshawar, Pak. They are also allotted separate seats in the provisional, national, and Senate assemblies. In those days, they were part of the lowest caste.

the majority over freedom for a religious minority. Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn! There are many important Sikh temples and shrines in Pakistan.

They celebrate the Hindu holy days with all their traditional colour. Only in the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan written by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto after the secession of East Pakistan they were declared non-Muslim. Islam is recognised as the country's official religion by the government. Islam is divided into two main branches: Sunni and Shia. However, their ancestors' culture made a difference in Pakistan. spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by inputation, innuendo, or justice, freedom, and human dignity.

the Pakistan Supreme Court, his lawyer was able to prove that the accuser had Moreover, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Saudi Arabia assisted Pakistan in caring for vast numbers of Afghan refugees in the border areas and in the construction and staffing of thousands of traditional Sunni madrasahs (religious schools). Author: B.A.