AMRITSAR: After Christians, Ahmadiyyas and Hindus, the Sikhs are the fourth largest minority in Pakistan converting to Islam. However, these new Muslims are afraid of their own people as they refuse to cooperate with them for discarding their birth religion.
These people are especially finding it difficult to fulfill formalities to get government documents on their new Muslim identities.
Muhammad Abdul Waris, general secretary, Huqooq-un-Naas Welfare Foundation, a Pakistan-based organisation, said impressed with its teachings, people from the minority communities embrace Islam. “In Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs come at No. 3 and 4 respectively, while Christians and Ahmadiyyas stand at No. 1 and 2 as far as embracing Islam is concerned,” said Waris.
The other minority communities in Pakistan include Kalash, Buddhists, Bahai, Parsis and Zikris.
The Huqooq-un-Nass strives to educate, develop and resolve social, cultural and political issues of those who accept Islam as a religion, said Muhammad Abdul Waris, who was Waris Masih before embracing Islam.
On the reports of forcible conversions in Pakistan, Waris vehemently denied the allegations.
He said this was a wrong presumption. Waris claimed that the news reports published in this regard were incorrect and biased.
Most of these cases were of runaway marriages, which were given altogether a different colour, and given negative coverage in the media, he reasoned.
“When I embraced Islam, my family members said I was forcibly converted. But I wonder, I myself didn’t know that I was being forced to embrace Islam,” he said sarcastically.
Waris, who was born as Christian, embraced Islam in 2006. He opined that the new Muslims faced various issues, including the threat from their own family members when they convert.
When asked why Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians were converting to Islam, he said Islam was the only faith that bestows peace, tranquility, direction, and discipline, which other religions lack and that’s why the people of minority religions were embracing it.
