Pakistan persecutes a Muslim minority

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Protesters were enraged by the thought that Pakistan may weaken its longstanding commitment to oppressing the Ahmadis, arguably already the most persecuted religious minority in South Asia.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Wall Street Journal
By Sadanand Dhume | November 30, 2017

You may expect a country created as a homeland for Muslims to celebrate the homegrown sect that gave the world its first Muslim Nobel laureate in physics (Abdus Salam), and the first Muslim Oscar winner (Mahershala Ali). But when it comes to Pakistan’s treatment of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community—less than 2% of the country’s 208 million people—celebration is the last word that comes to mind.

Hostility toward Ahmadis sparked the latest crisis to grip the Islamic republic. On Monday, the army brokered an end to a three-week standoff between the civilian government and about 3,000 Islamist protesters armed with sticks and iron rods who had blocked a major highway leading to Islamabad. Two days earlier, a botched attempt by police to clear the protesters left seven people dead and nearly 200 wounded.

The hard-line religious party leading the protest, Tehreek-i-Labaik, seeks to “protect the honor” of the prophet Muhammad. Put differently, protesters were enraged by the thought that Pakistan may weaken its longstanding commitment to oppressing the Ahmadis, arguably already the most persecuted religious minority in South Asia.

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The full article can be read here, at The Wall Street Journal

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