Former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria accuses ex-Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi of forcibly trying to convert him to Islam

Case ID : e97a4b8 | Location : Pakistan | Date of Incident : Wed, 25 October, 2023

Case ID : e97a4b8

Pakistan

25 October, 2023

Former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria accuses ex-Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi of forcibly trying to convert him to Islam

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In October 2023, during a TV interview, former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria opened up about the unjust treatment he met by ex-Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi for his Hindu identity. The Hindu cricketer accused Afridi of forcing him to convert to Islam. Danish Kaneria said that he was ill-treated by his teammates because of his religious identity and often the co-players refused to even eat with him because he was a Hindu. He also revealed how he was woken up by his teammates in the morning and asked to offer Namaz. This was not the first time Danish Kaneria said that he was forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan. Earlier, he alleged that both on and off the field, he was pressured to accept Islam. Later, while talking on a chat show titled ‘Game on Hai’ on a Pakistani TV channel hosted by cricket expert Dr Numan Riaz, the former pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar also said that the Pakistani cricket team was “unfair to Danish Kaneria as he was a Hindu”. He was mistreated on the pretext of his religion and often the co-players refused to even eat with him because he was a Hindu, revealed Akhtar. Danish Prabha Shanker Kaneria was the second Hindu and seventh non-Muslim overall to represent Pakistan in international cricket. Kaneria played 61 Test matches for Pakistan and took 261 wickets at an average of 34.79. He represented the team only in 18 ODIs taking 15 wickets with an average over 45. After allegations of being involved in spot-fixing, Kaneria was given a lifetime ban by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), preventing him from playing in matches under their jurisdiction.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats in this case find their root on discriminatory grounds which have the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion and forceful circumcision. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes.