An influential Jesuit magazine close to the Vatican has criticised shortcomings in Pakistan’s religious tolerance, charging that Christians and other minorities were often the target of violence by Islamist fundamentalists. “In Pakistan, unfortunately like in many countries with a Muslim majority, religious freedom is not guaranteed in practice as promised by the constitution,” wrote the Civilta Cattolica magazine in this week’s edition.Christians, Shias and members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect all suffered from acts of violence and persecution, it said, adding that particularly at risk were Muslims who converted to Christianity or who left the Sunni majority to join other Muslim sects, often facing expulsion from their communities, loss of political and civil rights and even death. “For the fundamentalists, the conversion of a Muslim to another religion, especially Christianity, is felt as an insult to Islam, as a real treason punishable with the death penalty,” the magazine wrote.