Faith and Freedom: Violence sanctioned by Pakistan

It is well documented that, for over four decades in different areas of Pakistan, many prominent members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have been killed - doctors, professors, teachers, engineers, civil servants and lawyers.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff |  Opinion
Source & Credit: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
By Imam Shamshad A. Nasir | June 13, 2010

On May 28 in Lahore, Pakistan, thousands of Ahmadi Muslims gathered to offer their Friday prayers. In two of these Ahmadi mosques, terrorists attacked with grenades, automatic weapons and explosives. Eighty-five innocent Muslims were killed and more than 125 were injured.

Vicious attacks by Islamic extremists are launched on a regular basis against differing Muslim groups, and especially against Ahmadis, Christians and other religious denominations in Pakistan.


As Ahmadi Muslims we feel pain for all these people who are suffering as we are from religious persecution. But the case of the members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is quite different from all the others.

And that is because of the tacit and often open support by the government for the terrorists. Violence against Ahmadis has been going on for well over a hundred years, but it was never given legal sanction until 1974, when the government of Pakistan acquiesced to the demands of fanatic religious groups and amended its constitution to officially declare Ahmadis "non-Muslim." A series of anti-blasphemy laws were enacted a decade later in 1984 that legitimized violence against all non-Muslims and all Ahmadi Muslims.

Marginalized religious groups were now "open targets" of state-sanctioned extremist attacks - especially Ahmadis, who are cited by name in Pakistan's Ordinance XX as being non-Muslims and therefore "deserving of death."

It is because of these laws that religious extremists and terrorists are given the "green light" to attack Ahmadis and others deemed "non-Muslim" and kill them with impunity. This is what happened May 28 at two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore.

The terrorists know they have the support of the Pakistan government and justification for their acts under the constitution and penal codes, and that nothing will happen to them.

It is well documented that, for over four decades in different areas of Pakistan, many prominent members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have been killed - doctors, professors, teachers, engineers, civil servants and lawyers. These people were serving the people and building the country of Pakistan, and for that they were murdered.

Their killers are hardly ever arrested and if they are, they are seldom prosecuted or given any punishment at all.

You will be shocked to know that after the incidents in Lahore, the religious extremists held press conferences and rallies and raised slogans against Ahmadis encouraging the masses to go out and kill even more Ahmadis because they were all "deserving of death."

The solution of this problem is that there should be separation between religion and state in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan must repeal the 2nd amendment of the Pakistan Constitution that was adopted in 1974 which declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims and 1984's Ordinance XX and other anti-blasphemy laws that have legitimized the persecution and murder of religious communities in Pakistan, including Hindus, Shias, Christians, Sikhs and Ahmadis. Otherwise, the terrorists will thrive in Pakistan.

The other thing is, if these people, the terrorists, call themselves Muslims, they must not know, or do not care, that Islam does not allow the killing of innocent people on the basis of their religious beliefs. Rather, it allows complete freedom of faith. The Holy Quran says quite clearly in chapter "Kafirun": "For you, your religion, and for me, my religion."

His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, spiritual head of the 160-million-member Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, advised his followers during his Friday sermon from London that they should follow the Quranic teachings and the example of the Founder of Islam, the Holy Prophet Muhammad. That teaching is to seek God's help with patience and prayers. These are the best instruments we are allowed to wield.

His Holiness also said that our reaction is not that we will ever take to the streets in violence, destroying property and causing civil unrest. We will be the embodiment of peace.

We want to make it clear to each and everyone that we are the ambassadors of love and peace. This is the Islamic teaching and the desire of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. He always sought peace, not war ... love, not hate. Even our Ahmadi children raise the slogan "Love for All - Hatred for None."

We urge all people who love peace and religious freedom and who deplore evil and the murder of innocents to demand that Pakistan eradicate the cancer of its terrorists operating in the name of Islam. The first step toward that goal is that Pakistan must repeal the 2nd amendment to the Pakistan constitution and repeal all the anti-blasphemy laws that are the cause of so much bloodshed and tears.

Shamshad Nasir is imam of Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino and Southwest regional missionary for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

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