Pir Abdul Haq, alias Mian Mithu, specializes in marrying off Hindu women to Muslim men in Pakistan and converting them to Islam simultaneously. His certificates preceded court verdicts before the partition of British India. “Even at that time, my father was jailed for four months when the local Hindus protested. The British gave us a logbook to keep a record of newly converted Muslim girls or any person and share its receipt,” he said at a Sept. 15 press briefing.
“I don’t return Hindu girls even if their community offers money. My faith is bigger than millions. I even refused Asif Ali Zardari [former president of Pakistan] on this issue. Do whatever you want, I told his minister. Allah will help me. I am performing his duty. I live and die for Islam.
“Girls, most of them housemaids, often come to us. Urgent marriages are organized so that they can live with a mehram [male guardian]. We keep the couple until the husband gets a job. I guarantee them protection at the seminary. Many courts forcefully return girls to Hindus. Those who protest these conversions have an agenda to defame Pakistan.”
Another speaker accused the Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of getting foreign funding and raising an outcry. Their annual monitor is based on media reports of alleged victims of forced conversions, he said.
Mithu, 85, is the custodian of Dargah Bharchundi Sharif seminary, one of two major hubs in Sindh province for converting religious minorities to Islam. The former member of the National Assembly was a candidate of Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party at the 2008 general election. In 2017, his photos with Prime Minister Imran Khan went viral on social media. He also leads mobs over blasphemy allegations.
“Women of this country, especially non-Muslim women, and especially underage girls, don’t stand a chance,” author Maria Rashid said in a recent tweet sharing photos of Mithu with Khan and Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The Council of Islamic Ideology invited him to discuss forced conversions during a session. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony later rejected a bill that proposed regulations on conversions to Islam. On Sept. 24, Lahore High Court ruled that Muslim jurists regard the mental capacity of a child as of crucial importance for conversion to Islam. The age of discernment is generally reckoned as the age when one attains puberty, said Justice Tariq Nadeem while dismissing a petition filed by Gulzar Masih, a rickshaw driver from Faisalabad seeking recovery of his daughter Chashman Kanwal.

Over the course of the next six months, Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Nashville will help resettle 150 Afghans into local communities as part of the effort to help them escape Taliban rule under the U.S. State Department’s Afghan Placement Assistance Program.
“We serve people because we can address their needs, and addressing the humanitarian needs of refugees has been part of the mission of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Nashville since its founding in the early 1960s,” said Rick Musacchio, diocesan director of communications. “Catholic Charities works in collaboration with federal partners to make the re-settlement process manageable and not overwhelming for local communities,” he added.
Kellye Branson, director of Refugee and Immigration Ser-vices, is heading the effort on behalf of Catholic Charities. “We had a really quick turnaround to think about it. We were asked how many we could accommodate,” Branson said.
“To get everybody’s thoughts about what might be possible,” she reached out to several entities, she said, including the Nashville mayor’s office, metro-area schools, health officials, the Tennessee Office for Refugees, the Nashville International Center for Empowerment and other local organizations that serve refugees.
“I looked at how many refugees we were projected to get over the next year, how many refugees we’ve served in the past and 150 was where we landed as a number that we felt comfortable accepting over the next six months, that we could garner enough support for, and that we could manage when it came to providing services,” she told. the Tennessee Register, Nashville’s diocesan newspaper.

Muslim clerics in Pakistan are voicing opposition to a draft bill that would only allow “mature people” to change their religion. The top trend on Twitter in Pakistan on Sept.15 was “#Islam mukhalif bill na manzoor [reject anti-Islam bill],” as a debate on the bill aimed at stopping forced religious conversions raged in the media.
Opponents of the bill seemed to direct their ire at Naveed Amir Jeeva, a Christian legislator who has been pushing the Prohibition of Forced Religious Conversion Bill, pending with the Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, since 2019. Some even shared the Pakistani politician’s profile on social media, spewing hate and condemnation.
Human rights and minority groups have been demanding the government resurrect and pass the bill that would criminalize the kidnapping, forced religious conversion to Islam and subsequently forced marriage of underage girls in Pakistan.
A parliamentary committee to protect minorities from forced conversions recommended in February that only a “mature person” (adult) may be allowed to change religion after appearing before an additional sessions judge.
The committee suggested that the judge set a date for an inter-view within seven days of receipt of the conversion application. An additional clause empowered the judge with the option to grant the person 90 days to undertake a comparative study of the religions concerned before return to his office with a final decision.

The Catholic Church in India’s Mizoram state has joined other Christian denominations and youth associations in assisting Christian refugees fleeing unrest in Myanmar.
According to media reports, over the past six months thousands of Christians from Myanmar have sought refuge in Christian-dominated Mizoram after the military junta intensified its crackdown on rebels in Chin state bordering India.
“At present there are around 15,000 refugees from Myanmar living in Mizoram, mostly in Champhai on the Indo-Myanmar border, a strategically important location,” Bishop Stephen Rotluanga of Aizawl told.
“The Church is engaged in humanitarian work along with several other denominations, Caritas India, Catholic Relief Services, the Young Mizo Association and NGOs. Our top priorities are to give them shelter, medicines and food and we have successfully executed our program along with the help of our partners.
“There is no problem for us to help the refugees because people from Myanmar
have been coming back and forth to Mizo-ram for decades. Many have relatives on both sides of the border, hence people can understand their suffering and welcomed them with open arms.
“Many refugees are staying with their relatives and others are in relief camps managed by churches and NGOs. The Young Mizo Association is very active and helping all the agencies to fulfil the requirements.”
Bishop Rotluanga said the state government has encouraged and appreciated the relief work and Mizoram’s chief minister had even asked the prime minister to help with emergency relief funds.
“There are several issues that have to be tackled with love and care as the refugees are in shock and are in trauma leaving their country. Many have lost their near and dear ones. Most of them are Christians at our camp but there are also a few Muslims,” he said.
“We are expecting more refugees in our state after fresh conflict flared up. We already have around 11,500 refugees in our state at present,” said C. Lalrosanga, a member of the lower house of parliament.