Alexander the great's descendants under attack in Pakistan

I did not know there was a small, religious group living in the furthest corner of NW Pakistan called the Kalash, about 3,500 in all, and they are under attack from Islam. Forced conversions and a heightened tension have the local Kalash very worried. From the biggest cities around the globe, to the smallest village nestled in the remotest part of the earth, Islam is always on the march.

From DAWN.com October 21

Conversions threaten Pakistan’s “Macedonian” tribe

BUMBORET VALLEY: Nestled among the valleys of Pakistan’s mountainous northwest, a tiny religious community that claims descent from Alexander the Great’s army is under increasing pressure from radicals bent on converting them to Islam.

The Kalash, who number just about 3,500 in Pakistan’s population of 180 million, are spread over three valleys along the border with Afghanistan.

For centuries they practiced polytheism and animal sacrifice without interference from members of Pakistan’s Muslim majority.

But now they are under increasing danger from proselytising Muslim militants just across the border, and a hardline interpretation of Islam creeping through mainstream society —as Pook Shireen discovered.

After falling unconscious during a car accident, the mid-20s member of the paramilitary Chitral Scouts woke to find that people with him had converted him to Islam.

“Some of the Muslim people here try to influence the Kalash or encourage them by reading certain verses to them from the Quran,” said his mother, Shingerai Bibi.

I wonder which ones. Maybe 9-29, or 9-111, 4-34, 47-4 or 3-28, perhaps?

“The men that were with him read verses of the Quran and then when he woke up they said to him, ‘You are a convert now to Islam’. So he converted.”

The conversion was a shock for his family. But they were lucky compared with other religious minorities under threat from growing religious conservatism that is destabilising Pakistan.

Read it all