CNA Staff, Oct 29, 2020 / 10:15 am (CNA).- Catholics in Pakistan are protesting a judge’s decision not to intervene after a 44-year-old man allegedly kidnapped a 13-year-old Catholic girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then married her.
According to UCA News, Arzoo Raja, a 13-year-old Catholic from Karachi was kidnapped in broad daylight Oct. 13 by Ali Azhar. Raja’s parents were informed days later by the police that their daughter had converted to Islam and had married Azhar, purportedy on her own free will. Her parents then filed a police report.
Two weeks after her abduction, on Oct. 27, the Sindh High Court ruled that the marriage was valid and that Azhar would not be arrested.
Technically, child marriage is illegal in Pakistan, but courts typically do not enforce these laws. Sharia Law, which is used in some judicial decisions in Pakistan, permits a child to be married after her first menstrual period.
Approximately 400 people protested the decision at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Karachi, and Christians in other parts of the country protested as well.
Fr. Saleh Diego, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Karachi, condemned the court for ruling without properly investigating the circumstances.
“Whatever happened in the court was shameful and deplorable. It was all lies that the girl was being sent to a shelter home,” said Diego. “The court, without checking or determining Arzoo’s age, ruled in favor of the abductors.”
Documentation proved that Raja was born in 2007 and is 13 years old.
Diego said that someone of Raja’s age cannot decide to accept Islam on her own, as she “still has a lot to learn about her own religion.”
“A 13-year-old cannot decide about her religion. She is an innocent girl whose statement should be declared null and void by the court,” he said.
The vicar general said there was a “disturbing trend” of Catholic girls being forcibly converted to Islam.
“Religious minorities living in Pakistan are concerned about the future of their daughters who are being converted to Islam,” he said. “But why only girls? Are our boys not good enough for religious conversion? Why are they not so easily converted?” he asked.
In February, the Sindh High Court ruled that a “marriage” between a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped, forced to marry her abductor and convert to Islam was not a violation of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act.
The court found that as the girl had experienced her first menstrual period, the marriage was legal.
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Beijing, China, Nov 4, 2019 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- Chinese authorities have offered a compensation to a Catholic community for the destruction of their church. The offer comes after parishioners barricaded themselves in the Church building overnight in pro… […]
Pope Francis speaks to religious leaders on the grounds of Indonesia’s national mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept 5, 2024. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Jakarta, Indonesia, Sep 5, 2024 / 00:13 am (CNA).
Pope Francis visited the grounds of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque on Wednesday for an interfaith meeting in Indonesia, where he signed a joint declaration condemning religious-based violence with Muslim leader Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar.
The Istiqlal Joint Declaration 2024 is titled “Fostering Religious Harmony for the Sake of Humanity.”
Named for Indonesia’s national Istiqlal Mosque, the document calls for religious leaders to work together to promote human dignity, interreligious dialogue, and environmental protection.
“The values shared by our religious traditions should be effectively promoted in order to defeat the culture of violence,” the declaration says.
“Our religious beliefs and rituals have a particular capacity to speak to the human heart and thus foster a deeper respect for human dignity.”
Pope Francis arrives at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia for an interreligious meeting on Sep. 5, 2024. Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Pope Francis became the first pope to visit the grounds of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque on Sept. 5. The massive mosque is among the largest in the world, accommodating up to 250,000 people at a time. John Paul II, who visited Indonesia in 1989, was the first pope to ever visit a mosque during his visit to Damascus in 2001.
According to the mosque’s grand imam, Istiqlal is second only in size to Mecca and Medina, and its influence extends to Indonesia’s roughly 242 million Muslims.
The interfaith meeting sought to promote religious tolerance and moderation in Indonesia, which faces challenges with the rise of hardline Islamist groups and instances of violence against Christians.
Speaking to representatives of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions — Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism — Pope Francis articulated his vision for interreligious dialogue.
“Sometimes we think that a meeting between religions is a matter of seeking common ground between different religious doctrines and beliefs no matter the cost. Such an approach, however, may end up dividing us, because the doctrines and dogmas of each religious experience are different,” the pope said.
“What really brings us closer is creating a connection in the midst of diversity, cultivating bonds of friendship, care and reciprocity.”
Pope Francis added that when religious leaders cultivate bonds, it enables them “to move forward together in pursuit of the same goals: defense of human dignity, the fight against poverty and the promotion of peace.”
Pope Francis arrived at the mosque through the Alfattah Gate, where Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar warmly greeted him. The two leaders then proceeded to the newly constructed “Tunnel of Friendship,” an underground passage connecting the mosque to Jakarta’s Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, built by the Indonesian government to foster dialogue and unity.
Before entering the “Tunnel of Friendship,” Pope Francis expressed his hope that it would become “a place of dialogue and encounter.”
Pope Francis told the grand imam, “I hope that our communities may increasingly be open to interreligious dialogue and be symbols of the peaceful coexistence that characterizes Indonesia.”
Representatives of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions — Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism — attend the interfaith meeting with Pope Francis and Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar on Sept. 5, 2024, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
´The interfaith event took place in a red and white tent on the mosque grounds. It unfolded with a traditional Muslim welcome dance known as Marawis, followed by a brief chanting of a passage from the Quran by an Indonesian woman and a reading from the Gospel of Luke.
Representatives of the other four recognized religions stood in solidarity as the declaration was read aloud to participants in the tent.
The Istiqlal document identifies dehumanization and climate change as two serious crises facing the world today, emphasizing the shared responsibility of religious communities in tackling global challenges. It also affirms the need for interreligious dialogue to resolve “local, regional and international conflicts, especially those incited by the abuse of religion.”
The joint declaration at the Indonesian mosque was reminiscent of the Abu Dhabi declaration on “Human Fraternity” that Pope Francis signed with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar in the United Arab Emirates, when he became the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula in 2019.
On Thursday, the Indonesian grand imam underlined the significance of the meeting, pointing to Istiqlal Mosque’s influence across Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.
As Indonesia’s only state mosque, the Istiqlal Mosque is “expected to provide guidance to more than one million mosques and prayer rooms scattered throughout the islands of the Republic of Indonesia,” he explained.
“This mosque also seeks to promote religious tolerance and moderation in Indonesia,” the Muslim leader underlined.
Pope Francis kisses the hand of Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar after the signing of the Istiqlal Joint Declaration on Sept. 5, 2024, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
In a moving gesture of solidarity and friendship at the closing of the event, the imam kissed Pope Francis on the head, while the pope kissed the grand imam’s hand and then touched it to his cheek.
Pope Francis will conclude the third day of his apostolic journey to Southeast Asia and Oceania by celebrating Holy Mass in Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. On Friday he is expected to depart Indonesia for Papua New Guinea.
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