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| Shoes scattered at the scene of Lahore Ahmadi mosques attacks |
Source/Credit: The Columbus Dispatch
By Meredith Heagney | July 16, 2010
I met a remarkable man this morning who has endured a lot of oppression -- including barely surviving a terrorist attack that killed his brother -- and at age 76, is still working on behalf of his people.
His name is Mobashir Latif Ahmad, and he's a Pakistani lawyer. He's also an Ahmadi Muslim, which means that his native country is a dangerous place for him.
Muslims in the Ahmadiyya movement maintain that the messiah prophesized by Muhammad was an Indian man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. That is considered blasphemy by the Pakistani government, which does not consider Ahmadis Muslim and either directly participates in or condones their mistreatment. Blasphemy laws in Pakistan carry a possible death penalty.
I spoke to Ahmad in Lewis Center today, at the home of his daughter, Saima Malik, and her husband, Rafi. Ahmad is visiting for a bit but will soon return to his homeland.
I wrote about him back in May, when he narrowly survived a mosque attack aimed at Ahmadis. He spoke of that day, and other hardships of life in Pakistan.
On May 28, Ahmad was in the main prayer hall of a mosque in the Model Town neighborhood of Lahore, Pakistan, when he began to hear explosions outside. Then the gun shots came.
The man leading prayers told the group to "'Be calm. Be quiet. Keep busy with silent prayers,'" Ahmad said.
He and a friend hid behind a pillar, and then against a wall, as bullets ricocheted around them. The hall filled with smoke.
"Bullets were just like showers. Unending, from all sides," he said. "All the time I was keeping my eyes closed with prayers. I didn't want to see what was going on."
His white pants were soaked in blood up to the knee from the people injured and killed around him.
His friend, lying in front of him, died of a shrapnel wound.
When he opened his eyes, "I saw a very dreadful scene," he said. "Dead bodies scattered around."
The three or four terrorists responsible for the attack were walking around the hall looking for survivors to shoot. Ahmad held as still as he could, and miraculously, they didn't notice him. The gunmen were firing at people whose cell phones were ringing in their pockets, Ahmad said.
His younger brother, Sajid Tanveer, 58, did not survive.
Ahmad broke down several times while telling his harrowing story, and went on to tell of other pain the Ahmadis have endured. He has been a lawyer for 55 years and has taught many of the nation's most prominent judges. But he cannot be a judge because of his religion.
He represents Ahmadis who have been accused for blasphemy, which he says is very easy to claim under Pakistani law. Just saying they are Muslim, or uttering a Muslim phrase is considered blasphemous because they are Ahmadi.
Ahmad defended a man charged with blasphemy because his daughter's wedding announcement bore Islamic phrases. The father was sent to jail for "five or six months," Ahmad said.
He spoke of another case in which two men murdered an Ahmadi -- one held him still, and the other one stabbed him with a dagger. The man who held him got off scot-free, and the man who stabbed him was sentenced to seven years in prison. Both died a few years later of heart attacks, Ahmad said, which he considered "natural justice."
Clerics in Pakistan have said on television that anyone who kills an Ahmadi goes straight to heaven, Ahmad said. Ahmadi women don't go to mosque because it's considered too dangerous.
Last year, I spoke to Akbar Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim who formerly served as ambassador from Pakistan to the United Kingdom. The discrimination is so severe that, to get a Pakistani passport, the applicant must sign a declaration that Ahmadis are not Muslim, Ahmed said.
Christians are in danger in Pakistan too. On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against Pakistan's blasphemy laws, saying they are a pretext for violence, according to The Associated Press.
Ahmad said he knows that, in his homeland, "every minute, my life is at stake."
So why doesn't he leave, as his children did, for America or another country?
"My heart is always there," he explained. "Heart cannot come out."
Read original post here: For this 76-year-old man in Pakistan, every day is life or death
Jinnah and the religious right
ReplyDeletehttp://tribune.com.pk/story/104683/jinhttp://tribune.com.pk/story/104683/jinnah-and-the-religious-right/nah-and-the-religious-right/
Old gentleman's work is tremendous.It is the world,where religious differences are forgotten.What is the necessity of maintaining sect difference ?
ReplyDeleteSunny,
ReplyDeleteI think you are not living in this world. The differences are natural, but to say, to explain yourself is not prohibited in any good society. If this old man explains himself, about his feelings, the others are answering him with the bullets. This has become the norm of the unfortunate society where he is living. You are lucky that you are not living there. The motto of his sect is "LOVE FOR ALL, HATRED FOR NONE". If you want to know about his community more, please go on the website, alislam.org - This community believes and follows all Islamic tenets but the others say no, we know that you are not Muslim.
Mirza
Sunny: I am not sure if the old man has a lot of choice in 'maintaining sect difference' - for two reasons. First, he wants to be known among those who reject extremism, terrorism, and sympathy for the Bin-Ladin-type philosophy. There is not a single defined group or a sect that fit this man's criteria for peace. As you may have noticed in Pakistan's recent 'Blasphemy Law scandal, 90% of all those who claimed to be liberal, progressive, moderate, and even secular; all collectively joined with the extremist against abandoning the draconian laws and the other 10% are hiding underground fearing for their lives. This old man belongs to that 10% class. And, same is the case in other Muslim-majority countries where the mullah are allowed to run amok.
ReplyDeleteSecond, while he does want to be known as a Muslim, claims that he practices all tenants of Islam, and many accept him and his fellow 'Ahmadis' as far better human beings than the conservative in the Muslim world who officially label themselves as Muslims, yet they collectively deny this old man the right to call himself a Muslim.
So, there is a 'sect difference.'
--IUJ