Faith and persecution: Because you are an Ahmadi…

The lesson of grade V Islamiat book is not lost on non-Muslims. They well understand that Pakistan is a theo-mobocratic state and will, thus, protect the rights of orthodox Muslims more diligently than theirs.

Prayers at an Ahmadiyya Mosque in Rabwah.
Photo: Daniel Berehulak/Getty (via Google images)

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Orr Ali | October 15, 2011
                     
Yes, there is no need to drop by every month and remind Pakistanis of the plight of the Ahmadiyya community, especially when they have decided to attend to more pressing concerns (for instance: banning ‘hate spreading’ websites).  But what if, as Andre Gide famously believed, ‘no one was listening’?

The puritan life so many Pakistanis aspire to live doesn’t accept contradictions, subterfuges and dynastic politics, and yet, with the unsurprising exception of the latter, Pakistani state makes much use of all these. One could question Ahmadis’ claim of being ‘Muslims’, but what is not open to question is their right to propagate their belief. This ‘cult’ can be banished from Islam but not from the kingdom of religions. And even if they are judged to be non-Muslims, they should still be able to exercise their basic rights as laid out in the constitution, viz.:

Article 20- (a) Every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion;

To all appearances, however, they can’t since there is another clause which explicitly states that Ahmadis can’t disseminate their beliefs:

298C. Any person of the Quadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves ‘Ahmadis’ or by any other name), who……… preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations………..shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.”

What should one make of it? It only reminds one of Doc Daneeka’s sad confession: “yes, there is a catch, catch-22”.

The baboos, true to their form, have needlessly complicated the situation in an attempt to leave enough room for them to fool the international community. Sadly, they haven’t even been original here, for they only took a note from Romanian dictator Ceausescu’s recipe book (Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Romania):

Article 28: ‘The citizens of the Socialist Republic of Romania are guaranteed the freedom of speech, of the press, of reunion, of meeting, and of demonstration.’ 

Followed by an important pre-condition:

Article 29: The freedom of speech, of the press, of reunion, of meeting, and of demonstration cannot be used for purposes against the socialist system and the interest of the workers.’ 

Sometimes it just shocks me how funny sadist tyrants can be!

The lesson of grade V Islamiat book is not lost on non-Muslims. They well understand that Pakistan is a theo-mobocratic state and will, thus, protect the rights of orthodox Muslims more diligently than theirs. While the law might condemn ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs ‘, it can’t be invoked unless the victim is the orthodox Muslim community. It can’t be invoked when a TV evangelist declares that murdering Ahmadis is a religious duty; when leaders of Wifaq-ul-Madaris al-Arabia call them ‘traitors’; and when a respected religious scholar condemns Ahmadi prophet as a British hireling. It leaves one wondering whether it can ever be invoked. Muslims must have realized this before scrambling to pass that most infamous of all laws: the Blasphemy Law.

If ‘wearing an Islamic slogan on a shirt’ is enough to warrant an arrest of an Ahmadi, the ridiculousness of the whole situation becomes evident. They are incarcerated for ‘planning to build a mosque’; imprisoned for ‘distributing Ahmadi literature in a public square’; boycotted for being ‘enemies of the Prophet’; and lynched for being followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. There would be absolutely no condemnation of this ‘state-sponsored’ religious persecution if it could be proven that Ahmadis are nothing more than insensate object. Since no scientific breakthrough has occurred in the laboratories of Khatam-e-Nabuwat and Wafaq-ul-Madaris in this regard, Ahmadiyya community shouldn’t be left at the mercy of bigoted mobs.

As for the boycott, most of us know which era it harkens back to. In the early 1930’s Nazis would post signs outside Jewish shops which read ‘Don’t buy from Jews’. Eighty years later, Faisalabad witnessed its own version of this atrocious crime against a religious group. In one case, posters were pasted outside an Ahmadi photocopier’s shop warning customers not to frequent it. It’s then not difficult to see where we are heading and that before long we would have crossed the Rubicon.

The solution to this problem need not be religious; it can be political or even legal. When in 1835, five years after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s birth, Joseph Smith, at the ripe age of twenty-five, founded the Mormon faith, there was much hue and cry in the conservative Christian circles. The threat that Mormonism poses to orthodox Christianity is quite similar to one that Ahmadiyya belief system poses to orthodox Islam: both have a new prophet. Still, the Americans were able to find a political solution and today, a Mormon -Mitt Romney- is running for the Republican nomination for President. If Pakistan were to pass laws that would protect the Ahmadiyya community’s basic rights, there is little doubt that things would soon take a turn for better.

Perhaps, someday we too might have a smart devout Ahmadi running for presidency.

Orr Ali is a an engineering student in Pakistan.


  -- Because you are an Ahmadi…….
  -- Ahmadiyya Times
  -- By Orr Ali