“A recent spate of deaths among Christian sewer cleaners in Pakistan underscores how the caste discrimination that once governed the Indian subcontinent’s Hindus lingers, no matter the religion.”
No, it doesn’t. Hindus are not in power in Pakistan. They are a rapidly dwindling minority. They have no cultural influence. The reason why Christians are discriminated against in Pakistan has nothing whatsoever to do with Hindus and Hinduism, but the New York Times, as one of the leaders of the international establishment media, will never tell you what is really behind that discrimination. That’s because it stems from Islamic principles, and the international establishment media is indefatigably and unanimously committed to the defense and whitewashing of Islam in all cases and at all costs, no matter what the circumstances.
The real reason why Christians are discriminated against in Pakistan is because the Qur’an says: “O you who have believed, indeed the polytheists are unclean…” (9:28). Christians are considered polytheists because of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, although the Qur’an betrays a lack of understanding of what the Trinity actually is: “And when Allah will say, ‘O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as gods besides Allah?’ He will say, ‘Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, you would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within you. Indeed, it is you who are the knower of the unseen.” (5:116)
If the polytheistic Christians are unclean, it is readily understandable while they would be relegated to, and restricted to, jobs such as cleaning sewers. Why should those who are clean take such dirty jobs?
There is also a Qur’anic imperative to force Christians to “pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” (9:29) What better way to make them “feel themselves subdued” than by restricting them to this hazardous and humiliating work?
“Sewer Cleaners Wanted in Pakistan: Only Christians Need Apply.” By Zia ur-Rehman and Maria Abi-Habib, New York Times, May 4, 2020:
…A recent spate of deaths among Christian sewer cleaners in Pakistan underscores how the caste discrimination that once governed the Indian subcontinent’s Hindus lingers, no matter the religion.
Like thousands of other lower-caste Hindus, Mr. Eric’s ancestors converted to Christianity centuries ago, hoping to escape a cycle of discrimination that ruled over every aspect of their lives: what wells of water they could drink from, what jobs they could hold. Manual sewer cleaners, known as sweepers, are at the bottom of that hierarchy, the most untouchable of the untouchable Hindu castes.
But when the Indian subcontinent broke up in 1947 and Pakistan was formed as a homeland for the region’s Muslims, a new, informal system of discrimination formed. In Pakistan, Muslims sit at the top of the hierarchy. And as one of Pakistan’s small Christian minority, Mr. Eric has now been forced into the same work his Hindu ancestors had tried to avoid through religious conversion.
Although India has outlawed caste-based discrimination with mixed success, in Pakistan it is almost encouraged by the state. In July, the Pakistani military placed newspaper advertisements for sewer sweepers with the caveat that only Christians should apply. After activists protested, the religious requirement was removed….
While most sweepers like Mr. Eric are illiterate, his generation has been more determined to push their children to attend school to break the cycle of discrimination, just as their ancestors tried to do when they converted. But the children still find themselves discriminated against, forced to adopt the profession of their fathers….
While Christians make up only 1.6 percent of Pakistan’s population of some 200 million, according to a 1998 government census, rights groups believe they fill about 80 percent of the sweeper jobs. Lower-caste Hindus mostly fill the rest of the slots.
When Karachi’s municipality tried to recruit Muslims to unclog gutters, they refused to get down into the sewers, instead sweeping the streets. The job was left to Christians like Mr. Eric, known derogatorily as “choora,” or dirty….
One form of abuse commonly meted out on Pakistan’s religious minorities has been to accuse them of blasphemy, a crime that is punishable by death in the country, and that at times has been used to settle personal disputes.
In one infamous case in 2010, Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced to death, accused of blaspheming Islam. It later emerged that her Muslim colleagues had ordered her to fetch water as they harvested berries on a hot day. When she drank from the communal cup, they accused her of polluting it and an argument ensued.
The case was eventually thrown out for lack of evidence, after Ms. Bibi spent eight years on death row and her family was forced into hiding by the death threats they received.
Pakistan has taken a few steps to protect and empower some minorities, but the efforts have failed to help much. A bill was passed in 2009 to reserve 5 percent of all government jobs for non-Muslims. But over a decade later, that goal has not been reached, officials say.
Mr. Eric feels it is only a matter of time before he dies on the job. But he hopes his son can excel in school and shake off the discrimination that has plagued the family for generations….
Wellington says
Would be deuce difficult to miss the obvious reason for discrimination of Christians in Pakistan more than The New York Toilet Paper Times has. Repulsive publication. Even touching a copy of this decrepit paper makes me both metaphorically and literally want to wash my hands.
The New York Times is an apologist for evil and regularly distorts what the good try to do. Never better exampled than the way this appalling newspaper reports on Israel versus how it reports on the Islamic sphere of mankind.
The New York Times has now fully become representative of what a newspaper should not be. One knows this by now or should know it.
mortimer says
Yes, what we see in the NYT is a genuine example of evil. NYT’s abandonment of ethical standards is repulsive. It’s an outrageous and demonstrably false accusation that Hindus are causing Muslims to hate KAFIRS and POLYTHEISTS. No! The Koran is filled with hatred directed against polytheists!
The NYT has sold out to wealthy Arabs. The NYT executives should be forensically audited. The American people should boycott NYT.
It is no longer an American newspaper.
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Good Evening dear Mr . Mortimer,
You are absolutely correct.
Regards
UIma
James Lincoln says
Wellington says,
“Even touching a copy of this decrepit paper makes me both metaphorically and literally want to wash my hands.”
Interesting.
I have a similar reaction when I’m stuck in Logan airport forced to listen to CNN. Can’t wait to take a long hot shower…
mortimer says
CNN and NYT are guilty of journalistic malpractice. They are pretending to provide ‘news’.
Rufolino says
They are both vendors of not mere distortions, but outright lies. The existence of such a newspaper makes one feel sick.
Templer says
Leftest liers this is what the left do best fake news fake lies islam is the worst death cult on earth no chirstain no other fath is safe while this cult is on the earth so the left as desided to support Islam and Muslims no mater what knowing Dame well Islam will do the rest know that’s not fake news
jca reid says
Might as well blame the Sea for being wet & salty! These folk are supposed to be educated, ffs!
eduardo odraude says
The NYT story is more like blaming the sea for the pollution some companies dump into it.
Peter says
It is the government of Pakistan and Islamists that seek the complete elimination of non-Muslims from Pakistan, not Hindus, who are among the persecuted. Have you ever met a Pakistani Buddhist? Anyone remember what the genocide of Hindus in East Pakistan?
What happened to the Buddhists who used to live in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, and in Central Asia? Guess what, they received the blessing of Islam and were enslaved, converted or slaughtered. They are gone. That is the true meaning of Islamic tolerance, justice, and interfaith dialogue towards non-Muslims, non-monotheists in particular.
mortimer says
Pakistan began with a certain measure of tolerance inherited from the British parliamentary system. They have continued to erode that legacy decade by decade and now Pakistan descends into an abyss of complete intolerance. The NYT sees nothing wrong.
gravenimage says
Actually, the violence in Pakistan against non-Muslims began virtually immediately.
Rob says
Nehru and Mountbatten were v much against partition. Jinnah the Muslim leader pushed it through.
gravenimage says
True, Rob. Muslims wanted their own state, where they could persecute Infidels to their heart’s desire.
rubiconcrest says
Of course the NYT does not allow comments on the articles paid for by the pro Islam lobby.
Donovan Nuera says
Did the NYT ever cover the Asia Bibi blasphemy/torture scandal? Or did they write a sympathetic letter about the muslm plaintiff women field workers who got dishpan hands scrubbing the well-water pail clean of polytheist filth?? Or perhaps an Op-Ed criticizing Canada for allowing the asylum of a Christian woman rather than the 100 Pakistani muslim asylum seekers who had to wait half a day for that case to be processed before they were rubberstamped and had a photo-op with al-Trudeau bin-Pierre? [sarc. off]
Donovan Nuera says
Remember, journalists never took hard classes in college. They probably never took any history classes. They definitely never took any science/pre-med prerequisite classes. I attended a reportely -prestigious college……maybe only 3 classmates knew anything of WWII.
gravenimage says
Depends on the college and on the individual journalism student. My husband took some pretty tough classes, but many slid by without taking much of any thing serious at all.
eduardo odraude says
Two Muslims wrote the story. What a surprise. Not.
This is a very commonplace kind of disinformation jihad that the writers are engaged in. The blame-the-victims disinformation jihad. Muslims devout enough to know and follow the teachings of Muhammad murder, rape, kidnap, torture, and abuse non-Muslims, then seek to blame one group of non-Muslims for what jihadists and sharia mobs have done to another group of non-Muslims, the point being to induce non-Muslims to fight each other instead of fighting the despicable expansionist totalitarian teachings of Muhammad and imposing a containment policy on the Islamic world, the way the Soviets were contained during the Cold War. The Islamic world would have little reason to complain about such a containment policy, since it wouldn’t be hard for them to end it. They would only have to start protecting freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
gravenimage says
Good point, Eduardo. More and more, on any story about a Muslim nation or even about Muslims at all, are either written or “co-written” by Mohammedans these days, even for the Western press.
mortimer says
Robert Spencer has highlighted exactly what the NYT should have seen if they had been reputable: “If the polytheistic Christians are unclean, it is readily understandable while they would be relegated to, and restricted to, jobs such as cleaning sewers.”
The NYT scribblers may not be aware that Islam categorized Jews and Christians as POLYTHEISTS. If they are so ignorant of the facts and so biased against them, NYT is not worth buying or reading.
It is Islam that sees members of other faiths as POLLUTED.
gravenimage says
New York Times blames Hindu caste system for discrimination against Christians in Pakistan
…………………..
This is insane–Hindus are not in power in Pakistan, and never have been. Moreover, Hindus themselves are horribly persecuted themselves, and for the same reason that Christians and Sikhs and the other tiny remnant of Infidels are–because they are not Muslim.
What utter calumny against Hindus.
eduardo odraude says
Yes, a bit shocking that the NYT would allow two Muslims to publish such a disgusting lie against Hindus.
Well, given the NYT’s history, I guess I shouldn’t be shocked. They used to help Stalin, too.
eduardo odraude says
When did the NYT help Stalin? Look up Walter Duranty.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, The NYT has been aiding totalitarians for decades now.
ainu says
Look at the name of the authors of this “report”. Everything else follows from that.
Thank you Mr. Robert Spencer for highlighting this hatred against India. You are a friend of India. Our country has many faults but we are a tolerant people who deserve better.
Mural says
+1
R Russell says
I am about to set the cat among the pigeons – just warning you.
My first visit from the UK to the US was in the mid 1960s – it was there I became a Christian……
We stayed with relatives and they were so proud of having us visit that they introduced us to their friends.
Why do I tell you this? It’s because I wonder if some sections of the US society have moved on from the 1960s.
We were asked in the mid 60s if we had electricity, plumbing in our houses and why we had come to the US without kilts! Did we buy special clothes to wear instead of kilts because we were going overseas?
Reading this about the ignorance of the NY Times reporters makes me believe there must be very many in the US who are so insular in their thinking that they haven’t moved forward very much since the 1960s.
I did say I would set the cat among the pigeons.
mortimer says
Dear R.Russell, the NYT staff are not rubes, but sophisticated world travellers who know better than this. They have been bribed. They are giving a soapbox to the most discriminatory and genocidal religion in history.
eduardo odraude says
Something more complicated than bribery is going on with the NYT.
They may be world travellers, as you say, but ideologically they are often quite insular and do not often step outside the pc intellectual reservation. I’m not saying the profit motive plays no role with their bias. After all, they do serve a “politically correct” readership and don’t want to lose the revenue that readership provides.
Fear also plays some role, I think. No doubt many at the NYT have some fear of being ruined or fired by leftwing cancel culture that could be set aflame if the Muslim journalists and employees at the NYT complain of Islamophobia. No doubt many NYT writers are also afraid of being massacred like the Charlie Hebdo writers gunned down by jihadists.
Many motives are involved in the NYT’s-sponsored Islamic attack on Hindus. We see something similar in the UK: the media there, terrified to criticize Islam, uses the euphemism “Asians” to refer to rape gangs and jihadists. When threatened, many people just do whatever is necessary to stay safe, no matter how dishonest, no matter who else the dishonesty hurts.
gravenimage says
R Russell, sorry that you ran into some yahoos during your visit here. But there are also Britons who at one time thought that all Americans were cowboys.
I don’t think the problem with the NYT is provincialism. Many Americans here know that Pakistan is a Muslim nation that has never been governed by Hindus. This is all about deflection from the oppression of Islam.
jewdog says
Christians are severely discriminated against in several Muslim locales that lack any significant Hindu presence, such as Afghanistan, Gaza, Syria and Iraq. I’d like to hear the Times explanation for that. Islam you say? What Islam? Let’s not be “racist”.
mortimer says
JD, the Koran claims that Jews and Christians are ‘polytheists’. Allah hates polytheism the most. All polytheists are hated by Allah and Allah wants Muslims to hate them and subjugate them. Religious persecution is normative Islam due to Islam’s primary source texts. Hindus have nothing to do with this.
jewdog says
No, Mortimer, the Koran calls Jews and Christians “the people of the book”; Hindus are polytheists (mushrikun), which means that they (Jews and Christians) can pay the jizya (“with willing submission”) and avoid death if they won’t convert.
gravenimage says
Jewdog, Islam hedges this–they also claim that recognizing Jesus as the Son of God and the Trinity makes Christians “polytheists”, and even claim–even more bizarrely–that “Jews say that Uzair is the son of god”.
gravenimage says
Also true, Jewdog.
ElderlyZionist says
If Muslims persecute, it isn’t Hindu discrimination. I’m surprised the NYT writers. Zia ur-Rehman and Maria Abi-Habib, don’t blame The Jews for Muslim Pakistanis persecuting Christians. I’ll wait for it.
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Good Afternoon,
The biggest Achilles Heel in the Hindus is this caste system and untouchable.
Hindu caste system is restricted with in Hindus only. Hindus do not show any racism towards other religions.
It is wrong to project the internal Hindu caste system on other religions.
No doubt the caste system is the worst of its kind among Hindus, but it is within the Hindu circles and got nothing to do with outside religions.
In the past history, caste system started with, Brahmans (Priests, teachers and service to the divine), Kshatriya rulers and warriors), Vaisya(Business class) are considered top, Sudra, Dalits and untouchables are the lowest(working class)..
Because of this the most Divine language Sanskrit got out of reach of many.
And it is also to be noted that the temple priest should be from Brahman caste .
Only recently the upper cast people are realizing, but still it will take some more time for complete change.
If they don’t realize and the spiritual organizations do not counsel the upper classes about this big gap and deficiency of treating all as equal, one day Hinduism will go in to drains.
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/globalcaste/caste0801-03.htm
Regards
Uma
.
Shastra says
cut out your propaganda against hindus you are no different from those NYT. how is rich lower caste is the suffering ones who always owned the land and industries compared to poor brahmins. first read where caste originated it was invented by europeans not indians. read this http://indiafacts.org/limpieza-de–sangreand-the-origins-of-the-caste-system/
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Good Evening Sir,
I am not doing any anti propaganda against Hindus and you are mistaken. The rich lower caste owning the land and industries, is the present situation and not before. Please understand my comment.
Regards
Uma
Shastra says
madam, it is not present situation it was the same situation earlier. who were the farmers do you think they are were all brahmins. brahmins were not allowed to own lands in older india. please do some research instead of believing the western propangada.
gravenimage says
The Caste System is no longer being enforced against anyone now–certainly not in India. India is an egalitarian nation and has done a great deal to address discrimination against the Dalits (former Untouchables).
Mike Davis says
Isn’t this the same newspaper that once called Adolf Hitler “a great leader”……..
eduardo odraude says
And whitewashed Stalin’s Soviet Union (see Walter Duranty).
janwog says
Leftist lie. Islam does not need the caste system to discriminate gravely Kuffirs.
Arman Dash says
To be honest, the Hindu Caste System might have played a role in the subjugation of Christians into being sewage cleaners in Pakistan. I am an ex-Hindu and I became a Christian back in early 2019. The Caste System is the reason why I left Hinduism even though I was not facing discrimination since I was born into the highest caste. In India, sewage cleaning is almost completely done by the Dalit community(outcasts in Hinduism) and a very few by the Shudras(the fourth caste). The reach of the Caste system is so deeply rooted that it has found it’s place in some Christian and Muslim communities in India too. The converts to Islam and Christianity in India are mostly from the Dalit community. Nothing tells me that the same wouldn’t be the case in Pakistan. Even after conversion, Dalits who converted to Christianity continue to face caste discrimination since their Hindu counterparts in villages and cities don’t consider them as “actual” Christians or Muslims. Even though Hindus are not in power in Pakistan but the casteist mindset is very well rooted in the minds of people in the subcontinent, especially in rural areas. Hence they continue to face discrimination. In addition to the Islamic subjugation, I personally don’t think that it is impossible for the casteist mindset of people to not have played a role in the subjugation of Christians in Pakistan.
gravenimage says
Arman, discrimination in Pakistan is based on whether someone is Muslim or not–“higher caste” Hindus are not treated any better than are any other Infidels.
Social traces of the Caste system still linger in India, but not in Pakistan.
Shastra says
this is what i was saying earlier you didnt believe it. see how much hatred christians have for hindus and blame islamic subjugation on hindus. they wouldnt mind joining hands with islamists to wipe out pagan hindus. whom they both hate.
gravenimage says
How is my coming to the defense of Hindus proof that Christians hate Hindus?
And while I disagree with Arman Dash re Hinduism here, where is he joining hands with Islamists to wipe out Hindus? He said no such thing–this is just calumny.
Shastra says
seriously how shameless can you be. dalit christians are facing discrimination by upper caste christians like you not hindus. next caste was invented by christians not by hindus. who did the census of caste made it rigid none other than brits. http://indiafacts.org/limpieza-de-sangre-and-the-origins-of-the-caste-system/
gravenimage says
This is just silly–no, Christians did not invent the Hindu Caste System.
Yaakov Holansky says
Given the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Christian, Anti-Hindu and Pro Muslim bent of the New York Times: it would be interesting to investigate if there is a significant Muslim ownership of the Newspaper or Center of Influence in the life of some Principals at the Newspaper.
DP111 says
The Times belonfs in the sewer.
Yogesh says
The editor’s mom must have been a Hooker.