Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said his remarks about Jewish identity being determined through maternal lineage were not directed at any individual or family, after Jemima Goldsmith interpreted the comments as an attempt to target her sons.
In a post on X on Friday, Asif said he had merely been discussing what he regarded as an “interesting, rational religious principle”.
“I just stated an interesting, rational religious principle and had no intent of targeting any individual or family,” Asif wrote.
He added that he had “the utmost respect for all People of the Book”, saying that this was what Islam had taught him.
The exchange began after Asif posted about matrilineal descent in mainstream Jewish tradition, under which Jewish status is traditionally inherited through the mother. He said a person is considered Jewish if their mother is Jewish, irrespective of their father’s religion.
Asif also argued that the principle developed historically because maternity could be established with certainty whereas paternity could not always be determined, particularly before modern DNA testing.
Goldsmith, the former wife of PTI founder Imran Khan, responded that Asif was correct about the maternal-line principle but said its application contradicted what she believed was an attempt to target her family.
She said she had never been considered Jewish by the Jewish community because her mother was a Protestant member of the Church of England. She added that, by the same reasoning, her father would not have been considered Jewish because his mother was French Catholic.
“As ever, in attempting to undermine my sons, Pakistan’s Defence Minister has scored an embarrassing own goal,” Goldsmith wrote on X.
Asif subsequently clarified that any perception that his remarks were aimed personally at Goldsmith or her family was unintended.
He said that if his original post had created the impression that it was “directly or indirectly a personal remark or finger-pointing”, that had never been his intention.