Dr Masud Ahmad, a member of the Ahmadiyya community, with British and Pakistani dual citizenship, was jailed in Lahore last year for reciting from the Koran.
Source/Credit: Australia Broadcasting Corp
By Sen Lam | April 28, 2014
A British man who was jailed in Pakistan and charged with blasphemy, says he has not intention of returning to Pakistan.
Dr Masud Ahmad, a member of the Ahmadiyya community, with British and Pakistani dual citizenship, was jailed in Lahore last year for reciting from the Koran.
Pakistan in 1974 declared the Ahmadis as non-Muslim, banning them from reciting the Koran in public, or identify themselves as Muslims.
Dr Masud, 73, was eventually granted bail, after which he fled Pakistan.
Dr Masud is now with his family Glasgow, and planning a visit to Australia to see two of his adult children.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Masud Ahmad, member of Ahmadiyya community jailed in Pakistan for blasphemy
MASUD: The British diplomatic mission helped me a lot. While I was in the prison, they came to see me and they gave me some papers to sign, which I did, and when I came out from the prison, after 65 days, they really helped me and made me travelling documents within four hours which was an emergency passport.
So I safely arrived in Glasgow on the 6th of February.
LAM: So did you manage to get any local assistance at all when you were in Pakistan?
MASUD: Ah, no, no, not at all. Actually, all the mullahs who were after me, they are grinding their teeth and they are wondering how have I escaped from their teeth.
LAM: Now that you're back in Glasgow, do you feel free from any threat? Do you feel safer now?
MASUD: I'm really happy in that my children are here. I don't feel any disappointment in any way. But really, I do miss my country, because that's my motherland, but I can't go back, this is the reason.
LAM: You mentioned your children. You have a daughter here in Australia?
MASUD: Ah, yes I have two daughters in Australia and one son that I speak to everyday. We are all the time in conversation right now. Well, I'm coming to Brisbane to see my two daughters and son. I have already booked a seat and I got the British passport permanent now, so I will be most probably seeing as you well.
LAM: Well, we'll look forward to that and we wish you a very safe and pleasant journey.
MASUD: Yes, thank you very much.
LAM: But you're back in Glasgow now and you've said that you do feel safe. Do you hold concerns for the safety of your Ahmaddiyah friends who are back in Pakistan?
MASUD: Well actually, as there's long stance which is part of the Constitution, every Ahmadi can be prosecuted and sent to jail anytime, even if he is posing as a Muslim, not saying anything. I was sent to prison, just for reciting a verse from the Koran, nothing else, no other criminal charges at all.
LAM: But has it not been clearly stated in the law that Ahmadiyyas are not meant to recite in public the Koran?
MASUD: I wasn't in the public actually, I was in my clinic and this mullah came to me. He asked me for medical advice. I wrote him a text and then he engaged to some arguments, especially religious arguments, and used, started to use foul language. Secretly, he was making a video by his mobile phone, which I didn't know at that time.
Actually, when I went to the police station, even the Inspector of Police said, there's nothing in the video that we can have any guilt against you, but they insisted that we know, he should be prosecuted.
LAM: Why do you think you were targetted in this way?
MASUD: I don't know really. I have lived in that place, in that clinic for the last 35 years and nobody has any complaint against me.
LAM: So during all that time, you never felt threatened at all by the people around you?
MASUD: Never, because I have all my neighbours, they are very friendly to me and still they are friendly. I don't know really at three-and-a-half months before this incident, they targetted my shop and my car and they put a black mark on it and at that time I knew they're going to do something, but I never knew they were going to do this thing.
LAM: Do you think you might have been targetted by the Mullahs because you hold British citizenship, that it might highlight their cause?
MASUD: Actually, they never knew that I had a British nationality, which I took in 1974 actually, 40 years ago.
LAM: You must have been aware of hardline attitudes towards Ahmadiyyah community in Pakistan. Were you surprised by the anger that was directed against you during your trial?
MASUD: Well, I wasn't surprised, because in 2010, my first cousin was murdered in the mosque, with the other 90 peoples as well. So I was thinking perhaps they will shoot me, but they said we have changed our policy. We are going to send you to the prison.
They are very aggressive and they are actually I think ignorant, rather than anything else. They planned it, they especially trapped me in that. Actually, he was never a patient at all. I can't go back, I love my country, but there's no place for me there and I will be always be an Ahmidi.
I will propagate it (Ahmadiyyah) as much as possible, in an honourable way. I'm not forcing anyone, but I still a practising Ahmadi, so if anybody asks me, yes, I will tell him.
I wouldn't tell everybody as I said before, but if anybody ask me what happened and what the condition for the Ahmadiyyahs are in Pakistan, yes, then I will tell them.
I'm not going to preach everybody that what has happened to me and what has happening to the Ahmadiyyas.
Read original post here: Radio Australia: Blasphemy accused tells of Pakistan jail ordeal
This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Ahmadiyya Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.