In its 2024 Annual Report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) highlighted Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws as an impetus for bigoted attacks against Christians and other faith minorities.
(LifeSiteNews) – A U.S. federal commission has found that religious freedom in Muslim-majority Pakistan is continuing to “deteriorate.”
In its 2024 Annual Report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for the State Department to classify Pakistan as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), highlighting the country’s draconian blasphemy laws as an impetus for bigoted attacks against faith minorities.
The 2024 USCIRF report stated, “In 2023, religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued to deteriorate. Religious minorities were targeted for their beliefs, including accusations of blasphemy, and were subject to mob violence, lynchings, and forced conversions. Attacks on and desecration of places of worship also occurred frequently throughout the year.”
“Blasphemy allegations are also used to settle personal vendettas, with no punishment for those who offer false accusations or perpetrate vigilante violence.” the report continued.
Moreover, the report stated that proposed government amendments to Pakistan’s blasphemy law “risk further escalating persecution against Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and Shi’a and Ahmadiyya Muslims.”
Additionally, the report called for the American government to “impose targeted sanctions on Pakistani government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations”, as well as for the Pakistani government to “release blasphemy prisoners and other individuals imprisoned for their religion or beliefs”, among other recommendations.
As a CPC, Pakistan could face sanctions and other diplomatic measures to pressure it to work towards improving conditions supporting religious freedom. Since 2018, the US State Department has categorized Pakistan as a CPC every year.
About 97% of the residents of Pakistan are Muslims, and of those an estimated 85% to 90% are Sunni.
In January 2023, Pakistan’s National Assembly greenlighted an amendment to the country’s blasphemy law, increasing the number of punishable offenses and decreeing that more severe penalties be meted out for “blasphemy” against Islam. Subsequently, the Pakistani Senate passed the bill, known as the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2023 in August 2023.
According to reports from Catholic News Agency (CNA) in 2023, someone could face a lifetime in jail for “insulting any wife, family member, or companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad” under the new legislation. As of the time of reporting, the bill still requires the president’s signature before becoming law.
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