Irreligion in Pakistan

Irreligion and atheism are present among a minority of mainly young people in Pakistan.[1][2][3]

In 2005, 1% of those who participated in the poll were atheist and by 2012, the figure rose to 2% according to the Gallup Poll.[4] However, in the 2015 Gallup Poll the rate fell back to 1% convinced atheist in Pakistan.[5]

Atheists in Pakistan face discrimination, persecution and prejudice in society.[6][7] Pakistan is reported by some sources to be among the seven countries where atheism can attract capital punishment, but according to the Library of Congress of the United States, "there is no specific statutory law that criminalizes apostasy in Pakistan."[8][9] On the other hand, the Pakistani government can impose the death penalty for blasphemy.[10] In 2012, Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan was founded by Fauzia Ilyas.[11][12][13][14] It was the first public atheist and non-religious organisation in a country with Islam as its state religion.

Pakistani blogger Ayaz Nizami,[15] the Vice President of Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan. and founder of the website realisticapproach.org, an Urdu website about atheism,[16] is currently detained under the charges of blasphemy and could face the death penalty.[17][18] This happened shortly after former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif supported a crackdown on blasphemous material posted on social media and described blasphemy as an "unpardonable offence" in March 2017.[19][20] Many atheists in Pakistan have been lynched and imprisoned over unsubstantiated allegations of blasphemy. When the state initiated a full-fledged crackdown on atheism since 2017, it has become worse with secular bloggers being kidnapped and the government running advertisements urging people to identify blasphemers among them and the highest judges declaring such people to be terrorists.[21]

Notable non-religious Pakistanis

See also

References
  1. "Pakistani youths turning into atheists". IBN Live. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  2. "Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism" (PDF). Gallup. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
  3. "The hardest part about being faithless". Pakistan Today. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  4. Husain, Irfan (27 Aug 2012). "Faith in decline". Dawn. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2012. Interestingly, and somewhat intriguingly, 2 per cent of the Pakistanis surveyed see themselves as atheists, up from 1pc in 2005.
  5. https://www.gallup-international.bg/en/33531/losing-our-religion-two-thirds-of-people-still-claim-to-be-religious/
  6. "What do Pakistani atheists mean for Pakistan?". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  7. "Being Pakistani and atheist a dangerous combo, but some ready to brave it". Pakistan Today. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  8. Fisher, Max (10 Dec 2012). "The seven countries where the state can execute you for being atheist". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 December 2012. Though that list includes some dictatorships, the country that appears to most frequently condemn atheists to death for their beliefs is actually a democracy, if a frail one: Pakistan. Others include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, the West African state of Mauritania, and the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean.
  9. "Laws Criminalizing Apostasy". Library of Congress. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  10. "There Are 13 Countries Where Atheism Is Punishable by Death".
  11. Khan, Deeyah (13 October 2016). Islam's Non-Believers. This website [Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan] was set up in 2011 for atheists in Pakistan, but its founder Fauzia Ilyas faced multiple death threats and was charged with blasphemy.
  12. van Straaten, Floris (21 December 2015). "Toen ik hem het hardst nodig had, was Allah er niet". nrc.nl (in Dutch). NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 19 August 2017. Het betekende het begin van een jarenlange lijdensweg, die haar van haar islamitische geloof zou doen vallen en voorlopig zou eindigen in een asielzoekerscentrum in Den Helder. [...] Nog datzelfde jaar richtten de twee de Atheists & Agnostics Alliance Pakistan (AAAP) op. [...] In april van dit jaar gebeurde wat Fauzia en Sayed al langer hadden gevreesd: iemand kwam achter Fauzia's identiteit en toog naar de politie om een aanklacht in te dienen wegens blasfemie: hij zei aanstoot te hebben genomen aan haar opvattingen.
  13. "2Doc: Ongelovig - Vrijdenkers op de vlucht". Human (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 August 2017. Samen met haar man Syed richtte Fauzia in Pakistan een vereniging voor atheïsten en agnosten op. Ze kregen te maken met een aanklacht wegens blasfemie.
  14. Κύρκος, M. (12 January 2017). "Η Ύπατη Εκπρόσωπος της ΕΕ, Federica Mogherini, και τα κράτη μέλη πρέπει να εντείνουν τις ενέργειές τους για την προώθηση και την προστασία της ελευθερίας εκδήλωσης όχι μόνο θεϊστικών, αλλά και μη θεϊστικών και αθεϊστικών πεποιθήσεων". European Parliament (in Greek). European Union. Retrieved 19 August 2017. Την έκθεση παρουσίασε ο Διευθυντής του IHEU Bob Churchill, ενώ για τις απειλές θανάτου που έλαβε ως ιδρυτής της αγνωστικιστικής και αθεϊστής συμμαχίας στο Πακιστάν μίλησε η Fauzia Ilyas.
  15. "جراتِ تحقیق - ہمتِ کفر ملے جراتِ تحقیق ملے". Archived from the original on 2015-08-29.
  16. "Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan".
  17. "Blasphemy crackdown: FIA arrests 2 suspects from Karachi".
  18. "42 Christians told 'to convert to Islam or face death penalty'". 31 March 2017.
  19. "Pakistan asks Facebook to help fight blasphemy". BBC. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  20. "Pakistani student accused of blasphemy beaten to death on campus". Reuters. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  21. Shahid, Kunwar Khuldune (11 June 2020). "Pakistan's forced conversions shame Imran Khan". The Spectator. Retrieved 3 September 2020.

Reference given at Sr.2 and 4 referred to Gallup report wherein people reported as atheist 2%. This figure is wrong and actual is 1%. For reference see original report on link https://gallup.com.pk/84-of-pakistanis-define-themselves-as-a-religious-persons-12-say-they-are-not-religious-1-claim-they-are-atheists-3-did-not-answer-gilani-pollgallup-pakistan/.

Further reading
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