Source: DW
Fishel Benkhald tells DW he has faced immense social discrimination in Pakistan following his registration of Jewish faith, but he will continue to raise voice for the rights of religious minorities in the country.
Dubbed “Pakistan’s last Jew,” Fishel Benkhald, a resident of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, was originally registered as a Muslim and was named Faisal Khalid. After several months of bureaucratic struggle and paperwork, he was finally recognized by the Islamic country’s authorities as a Jew in March this year.
Benkhald: ‘It is my religious right to visit the holy sites in Israel.’
Benkhald claims he was born to a Muslim father and a Jewish mother. The South Asian country’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) usually does not entertain requests for changing religion on the basis of mother’s faith. But the unprecedented decision by authorities to change his religion on the national identity card made the 29-year-old ecstatic. But since then he has been facing hostility in Pakistan, Benkhald told DW.
“When my landlord learnt about my Jewish identity, he asked me to vacate the apartment where I had been living for months,” Benkhald said. “Obviously, he did not tell me why he took that decision, but I could sense it was because of my new religious status,” he added.
Categories: Anti-Semitism, Asia, Jews, Pakistan, The Muslim Times