Kafirs

[Koenraad Elst]

Rustam Masalewala <masalewala at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> I have heard that in Islamic rule, apostasy is unlawful,
> punishable by death. Also no other religion may be publicly
> preached in a way to compete with Islam. Thus once Islam
> is dominant, there is no going back to any other religion.
> Is that correct?

That is the position under Islamic law, which is enforced in Pakistan.  In
principle, the punishment is death (as prescribed in both Quran and Hadith),
though many Islamic states settle for
more limited forms of harassament, e.g. forcible divorce, as in the case of
Egyptian professor Abu Zaid, on the plea that a Muslim woman must not be
subordinate (e.g. wife) to a non-Muslim man.  After Partition, Christian
missionaries in Pak were told to concentrate on the Hindu Scheduled Castes
for conversion work.

> Is it legal for Muslims to become Buddhist in Pakistan?

No.  Though I once met a "crypto-Buddhist" Pak family in Sarnath: they said
it would be suicidal to publicly quit Islam, but inside the home they were
full-fledged Buddhists.

The Kalash Kafirs, however, are not Buddhists.  About their religion, vide
Karl Jettmar, ed.: The Religions of the Hindu Kush, OUP 1986.  Officially
there are some
3700 left.  Official policy has changed in the mid-1990 and apparently no
longer seeks their conversion to Islam.  This would make their position
rather similar to that of Zoroastrians in Iran (Rustamji, are you a
Zoroastrian?), a relic partly embarrassing to the fundamentalist authorities
yet useful as proof that Islam tolerates minorities; and in the case of the
Kafirs, also a tourist attraction.

Last year I met a Catalonian, Jordi Magraner, who had
lived among them for 10 years.  He has founded an association for the study
of that region, languages and religion, Groupe d'Etude et de Sauvegarde des
Cultures de l'Hindou Kouch, gesch98 at hotmail.com  The Kalash describe
themselves as Arya-e-Koh, Aryans of the
Mountains.  Their very European looks make them the darlings of advocates of
the unmentionable invasion theory, including political weirdos excited by
the word Aryan.  The Greek Orthodox Church believes they are the descendents
of Alexander the Great's troops and consequently plans to go and convert
them to the Greeks' national religion.  This belief was popularized by
Rudyard Kipling's novel The Man Who Would Be King (also a film
starring Sean Connery), in which the hero impersonates the returned deified
Alexander.

Koenraad Elst