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Defence National International Industry. International UAE. Saudi Arabia. US Elections Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is not only a kafir who is murtad, his teachings are misleading and could lead people astray from the real teachings of Islam.
The following extracts from the book is clear proof that he is not Muslim and no longer an adherent of the religion.
Apart from these statements, there are other statements and declarations made by Ghulam Ahmad which proves that he is no longer a Muslim. To do so I did go through some literature produced by orthodox Sunni and Shia ulema and those associated with the Ahmadiyya community during the commotion, but that literature is largely theological.
So I have ignored it because I lack the theological training to comment on it, and anyway, it is hardly helpful in understanding the day-to-day on-ground happenings that led the Bhutto government to turn a demand of his Islamic opponents into a law. Instead, my findings in this respect are squarely based on, and culled from the writings of historians and authors who, I believe, have transcribed the history of the event in the most objective and informed manner.
I have also used a plethora of information available in the day-to-day reporting of the commotion by certain Urdu and English newspapers of the time especially between May and July A series of modern, as well as puritanical reformist Muslim movements emerged after the complete fall of the Muslim Empire in India in the mids.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmed The Ahmadiyya movement was one of them. The Ahmadiyya community was founded in by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed he was under divine instruction to fulfil the major prophecies contained in Islamic and other sacred texts regarding a world reformer who would unite humanity.
He announced to Christians awaiting the second coming of Jesus, Muslims anticipating the Mahdi, Hindus expecting Krishna, and Buddhists searching for Buddha, that he was the promised messiah for them all, commissioned by God to rejuvenate true faith. The Qadianis claimed that Mirza was a prophet, and accused all Muslims who did not accept him as being non-Muslims. Claiming prophethood is regarded to be a major and unpardonable sin by a majority of Muslims, even though the Lahori faction believes that Mirza never claimed prophethood.
Orthodox Muslim sects in South Asia believe that he did. The Barelvis, a less puritanical Sunni sub-sect, responded in kind. Till about , the Ahmadiyya movement was seen as a spiritual and evangelical branch of the modernist reformist Muslim initiatives triggered by the likes of Sir Syed and Syed Ameer Ali.
In fact, for a while, a number of Indian Muslim intellectuals were closely associated with the Ahmadiyya movement and considered Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a modern redeemer of faith in India. Iqbal was a great admirer of the founder of the Ahmadiyya community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, before breaking away from the movement in Zafarullah went on to hold a top position in the Pakistani government after the country's creation in Contrary to popular belief, agitation against the Ahmadiyya movement by the orthodox Muslim sects and sub-sects in India was not an immediate happening that emerged right after the formation of the community in The more vocal accusations against the community first arose 24 years later in when an influential Ahmadiyya leader, Mirza Muhammad Ahmad, began to publicly declare that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a messiah and those Muslims who disagreed with this were infidels.
For example, during the crucial election in the Punjab, the main opposition to the Ahmadiyya came from Islamic groups allied to the Indian National Congress or from Islamic scholars who did not recognise the League to be the sole representative of Indian Muslims.
The League at the time was a mixture of modernist Muslims, secular democrats, pro-Jinnah ulema and even Marxists. This opportunity was further widened by the disintegration of the ruling Muslim League ML that was by then plagued with infighting, corruption and exhaustive power struggles among its top leadership. As Chief Minister of Punjab, Daultana was being criticised for the rising rate of unemployment and food shortages in the province. Daultana did not accuse the Ahmadiyya directly.
Instead, he purposefully ignored and even gave tactical support to JI and the Ahrar who decided to use the crises in the Punjab by beginning a campaign against the community and demand their excommunication from the fold of Islam. The Nazimuddin government with the help of the military crushed the movement and rounded up JI and Ahrar leaders.
It then went on to dismiss Daultana. The demand to throw the Ahmadiyya out of the fold of Islam was rejected. No significant move to reignite the issue was made for the next 20 years. But when the move did come, it took everyone by surprise. Along with the working classes and the petty-bourgeoisie of the Punjab, the Ahmadiyya had overwhelmingly voted for the Pakistan Peoples Party PPP in the province during the election.
On its way to Peshawar, the train stopped for a while at the Rabwa railway station. A religious gathering of the Ahmadiyya in Rabwa in the s. The train then left the station taking the charged students to Peshawar. No untoward incident was reported apart from the slogan-chanting and cursing. However, when the incident was related to some Ahmadiyya leaders in Rabwa, they ordered Ahmadiyya youth to reach the station with hockey sticks and chains when the train stops again at Rabwa on its way back from Peshawar.
After finding out that the students would be returning to Multan from Peshawar on the 29th of May, dozens of young Ahmadiyya men gathered at the Rabwa station. As the train came to a halt, the men fell upon the bogeys carrying the IJT members. A fight ensued and 30 IJT men were severely beaten for insulting the religious sentiments of the Ahmadiyya. A group of Ahmadiyya youth in A non-Ahmadiyya man who witnessed the commotion at the station told reporters that both the incidents the slogans and retaliation were unprecedented.
JI demanded that the culprits of the attack be apprehended or the party would hold countrywide protest rallies. But this did not stop the JI from launching a protest movement. It was soon joined by other opposition parties which included the centre-right Muslim League, the right-wing Majlis-i-Ahrar and even the centrist Tehrik-i-Istiqlal headed by Asghar Khan.
Joining the protests were also various bar associations of the Punjab, orthodox ulema and clerics and the student wing of JI, the IJT.
The protests turned violent and spread across various cities of the Punjab. Mobs attacked houses and businesses owned by the Ahmadiyya and also attacked Ahmadiyya men and women. Dozens of members of the Ahmadiyya community lost their lives, most of them dying in Gujranwala and Sargodah. The leaders of the protest movement then demanded that the Ahmadiyya be excommunicated from the fold of Islam.
On June 4, while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Bhutto refused to allow opposition members to speak on the Ahmadiyya issue. His party had an overwhelming majority in the assembly and protests from the members on the opposition benches were briskly subdued. Then, when the riots escalated, Bhutto gave the Punjab CM the green signal to use force to quell the riots.
The police came down hard on the rioters and managed to reduce the intensity of the turmoil after a week. On June 14, opposition parties called for a wheel-jam strike. On June 19, newspapers quoted Bhutto as saying that the government was committed to protecting the lives and property of all Pakistanis and that his government was even willing to use the army for this purpose.
He was reminding the opposition how the army had brutally cracked down against anti-Ahmadiyya rioters in He said now was not the right time. He said the Ahmadiyya issue had been around for 90 years and could not be solved in a day.
He suggested that the issue be referred to the Advisory Council of Islamic Ideology ACII — a non-legislative advisory body that was formed by the Ayub Khan dictatorship in the early s and was mostly headed by liberal Islamic scholars.
After the June 14 strike, Bhutto allowed the issue to be discussed in the assembly and told the press that his party members in the House were free to vote on the issue according to their individual conscience. Mufti Mehmood demanded that a bill be passed in the assembly that would once and for all declare the Ahmadiyya community as a non-Muslim minority. The centre-right PDP also joined the chorus and demanded that a bill be introduced in the Parliament declaring the Ahmadiyya as non-Muslim.
Opposition parties and clerics again threatened to take to the streets to force the government to introduce the suggested bill. Bhutto maintained that declaring the Ahmadiyya a minority and pushing them out from state and government institutions would be detrimental to the economy and political stability of the country. He also protested that the issue was a religious one and hence the National Assembly should not be used to resolve it.
The religious parties disagreed. They reminded him of the constitution all the political parties had approved only a year ago They told him that the constitution had declared Pakistan as an Islamic Republic so how could he claim that a religious issue had no place in the National Assembly?
It was about this time that some advisors of Bhutto warned him that if the crises was allowed to simmer or be sidelined, the party might lose some members in the Punjab and National Assembly who were sympathetic towards the demands of the opposition.
They agreed to form a parliamentary committee to look into the demands of the parties that were leading the anti-Ahmadiyya movement. The government convinced the opposition members of the committee that the spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya community also be given the opportunity to present his thoughts and opinion on the issue.
A heavily edited version of the report authored by the parliamentary committee. After weeks of intense dialogues among the parliamentary committee, the ulema and the head of the Ahmadiyya community, the committee decided to finally introduce the bill in the assembly.
Sections of the press reported that a majority of PPP legislators were unwilling to vote for the bill. But even though the report that was prepared by the committee was never made public, parts of it were leaked to the legislators and the report allegedly recorded the head of the Ahmadiyya community telling the committee that he only considered those who were Ahmadiyya as Muslims. Though the violence stopped after the passage of the bill, a large number of Ahmadiyya who were actively involved in the fields of business, science, teaching and the civil service began to move out of Pakistan, leaving behind the less well-to-do members of the community who till this day face regular bouts of violence and harassment.
A collage of Urdu newspapers all dated Sept 8, with headlines announcing the excommunication of the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan. In another series of ironies, in , the parties that had rejoiced the excommunication of the Ahmadiyya in were out on the streets again — this time agitating against the very government and the man who had agreed to accept their most assertive demand. Their places of worships cannot be called mosques and they are barred from performing the Muslim call to prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quoting from the Quran, preaching in public, seeking converts, or producing, publishing, and disseminating their religious materials.
Anwar H. Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn. Paracha Published November 21, Facebook Count. Twitter Share. He tweets NadeemfParacha. Read more. On DawnNews. Comments Closed. Popular Newest Oldest. Nov 21, am. Recommend 0. Paracha saab, Allama Iqbal later on began opposing the Ahmediya's on grounds of the finality of the prophethood, or probably he might have been commenting on the Qadianis..
Thanks for your great research work:. Nadeem, you have done it again. Why do you keep writing the truth? Even declaration of Ahmedis as non muslims and killing of Bhutto could not make it any better, so we are out for something more insulting and disgusting.
Very appropriately timed article in the context of rawalpindi incidence. I suugest the liberals to start a movement of declaring certain outfits and persons in pakistan as non-humans , the way the fundos' brand certain beliefs as non islamic. There must be new excommunications from the fold of humanity. Syeda Jafri. Parliament should have the right to declare some one muslim or non-muslim?? Bilal Ahmad.
Kissi muselman ko ghair muslim kehnae wala khud kafir hai. Allah Blessed Ahmadis richly in every aspect of life, the ones who tried to harm them went through pain, suffering, humiliation etc etc.
The only Nobel Prize winner was an Ahmadi too, the world recognized and honored him, but Pakistani people, surprises or maybe it shouldn't surprise anyone, unfortunate. Hasan Siftain. I was always interested in knowing this history and glad to read this.
So Ahmadayya Called every one else kafir and every else called them. Tit for Tat Religion as a whole sucks. Hassan munir. Gutsy effort nadeem. And hatsoff to dawn for publishing this piece. Very nicely written article, with a few very important facts missing; 1: Jinnah's disappointment at the state of Religious parties opposition to the creation of Pakistan and leaving for London in vowing never to return.
And the subsequent role Ahmadiyya community played for his return. An Ahmadiyya source in your research would have been good as well. Nevertheless article is a very brave effort and requires a lot more debate, as it will give us an insight in the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan and the role India and our Politicians has played in it. Asif Ali. Respectfully sir, when u lacks in theologica issues, why u are trying to touch those issues whichu don't know very well.
I think, ur experince may be equal to my age but don't try to intesify the situation. No doubt, Ahmadis bill was passed by bhutto but this was with the consent of religious scholars. Once again sorry for any misbehaviour.
Well written. That Bhutto was not personally bigoted against Ahmadis is well known. Much like Jinnah, Bhutto also believed that those who call themselves Muslims were Muslims. Unlike Jinnah, Bhutto - tragically - did not have the constitution and internal strength to stand up to the Mullahs. As for the Ahmadi leader- his statement was widely misreported. What he had said was that in terms of beliefs, each sect believed their version for the right Islam and so did Ahmadis. However Ahmadi leader, Mirza Nasir Ahmad, was quite clear that the final determinant of who is a Muslim and who is not is a question that is best left to God and that on a community level in a secular sense, the definition of Muslim should be whoever describes himself a Muslim and says the Kalima.
The amendment was the darkest chapter in our constitutional history. However it did not affect the constitutional civil liberties of Ahmadis as citizens. It was the Ordinance that practically stripped the Ahmadis of their civil rights and Zaheeruddin v. Pakistan ultimately would need to get out of this debate if it hopes at some point to redeem itself and crawl out of the sectarian mess which , and have put it in. Ashok R. Nov 21, pm. All of them have made immense Sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan,which no one can deny.
It will be injustice to deny right to Equality to these sects of Islam. So every bad thing Bhutto did was under pressure otherwise he was an angel.
The gradual shift of Bangladesh away from its secular roots, including the increasing Islamization of Bangladeshi politics and society, gives some credence to these fears. Given the alarmingly high levels of communal violence in Bangladesh directed against other minorities, including Hindus and indigenous peoples, further government concessions to extremist religious demands would set a particularly dangerous precedent.
In the overheated, sectarian atmosphere of contemporary Bangladesh, with the ruling government more religiously intolerant than any government since the country's founding, Ahmadis fear that even a tiny spark could unleash a serious and perhaps uncontrollable wave of violence against members of their community. Why are Ahmadis facing such persecution? The Ahmadiyya are a relatively small religious group that considers itself to be part of the larger Muslim community.
However, for doctrinal reasons, particularly their heterodox beliefs see background section below , many Muslims consider Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Ahmadis are seen by many of their detractors in the Muslim world, and especially in South Asia, as a British creation of 19th century colonial India, dedicated to subverting one of tenets of Islam — the "finality of the prophethood of Mohammed.
For those pursuing populist political goals, such as Islamist and conservative parties in Bangladesh, raising the bogey of Ahmadi subversion and persecuting them, ostensibly in order to preserve the faith, provides a fast track to political power. The current national government has taken an increasingly populist stance on religion, pandering to groups that want to change Bangladesh from an officially secular state to an Islamic republic.
A four-party coalition led by the Bangladesh National Party BNP holds a slender majority of the popular vote over its bitter secular opponent, the Awami League. Both junior coalition partners, the J. In February , two top leaders of the IOJ, Maulana Azizul Haq and Maulana Fazlul Haq Amini, were arrested in connection with the lynching of a policeman in violence that followed a ruling by the Bangladesh High Court banning the use of fatwas religious edicts. The IOJ leaders allegedly also threatened the two judges who banned the issuance of fatwas.
In October , a J. The J. Openly anti-Ahmadiyya actors have found a more vocal platform in the IOJ, which is using the Ahmadiyya issue as a vehicle through which to attract public attention and win more votes and power in the government. As a result, the J. Not surprisingly, the J. Further, NGOs are viewed as a powerful secular force in Bangladesh, as the international community has over the years funneled enormous sums of aid through NGOs to deliver key services and sidestep government corruption.
The BNP at times has sought to please its coalition partners J. While the BNP claims it is not a communal party and that it is not leading or instigating attacks on minorities, it has failed to take any serious action against those who carry out attacks or incite violence. The government's capitulation to certain anti-Ahmadi demands, moreover, belies its assertions that if there are any religious fundamentalist groups in Bangladesh they have little power.
This report details acts of intimidation, harassment, and violence against Ahmadis since October The government ban on Ahmadiyya publications and the failure of officials to respond adequately to the attacks constitute violations of the fundamental rights of members of the Ahmadiyya community.
Such acts and omissions violate their right to freedom of religion under the Bangladeshi Constitution, and their rights to freedom of religion and expression as well as their right to be free from religious discrimination under international human rights law, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is party. The government further has an obligation under international law to investigate effectively abuses against Ahmadis and to prosecute those responsible.
Victims of such abuses must be ensured an effective remedy. The government of Bangladesh must act decisively to respect the rights and dignity of members of the Ahmadiyya Community. Human Rights Watch calls upon the government of Bangladesh to:. Investigate thoroughly and impartially attacks on members of the Ahmadiyya community, as well as other religious minorities, and prosecute the perpetrators and sponsors of such attacks.
Ensure that the police register and investigate all cases of communal violence regardless of the religious background of the victim. Ensure that these investigations address the conduct of the local leadership and members of all political parties and party leaders who may have incited, took part in, or were complicit in the planning or execution of religion-motivated attacks. Allow unfettered access to the U. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion in order that she may visit Bangladesh on terms consistent with her mandate with specific reference to the persecution of members of the Ahmadiyya community.
Immediately provide the Rapporteur with specific dates when she may undertake the visit. Take appropriate measures to combat religious discrimination and intolerance in public schools and madrassas. This report covers the period from October to April Due to limitations described below, this report does not purport to provide a comprehensive list of cases of anti-Ahmadi violence that occurred during this period.
Indeed, it could not be, given the routine intimidation and harassment that takes place at the village level, which goes unaddressed by the authorities, and which leads many victims to remain silent for fear of retaliation. In addition, much of Bangladesh is inaccessible to outside researchers and Human Rights Watch was not able to visit all areas where incidents are believed to have taken place.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community the official name of the community is a contemporary messianic movement founded in by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad — , who was born in the small village of Qadian in Punjab, India. In , Ahmad declared that he had received divine revelation authorizing him to accept the baya'ah, or allegiance of the faithful. Members of the Ahmadiyya community "Ahmadis" profess to be Muslims. They contend that Ahmad meant to revive the true spirit and message of Islam that the Prophet Mohammed introduced and preached.
Ahmadis respond that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a non-law-bearing prophet subordinate in status to Prophet Mohammed; he came to illuminate and reform Islam, as predicted by Prophet Mohammed. For Ahmad and his followers, the Arabic Khatme Nabuwat does not refer to the finality of prophethood in a literal sense — that is, to prophethood's chronological cessation — but rather to its culmination and exemplification in the Prophet Mohammed.
Ahmadis believe that "finality" in a chronological sense is a worldly concept, whereas "finality" in a metaphoric sense carries much more spiritual significance.
The exact size of the Ahmadiyya community worldwide is unclear, though there are concentrations of Ahmadis in India, Pakistan, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Gambia. Ahmadis have lived in what is present-day Bangladesh since the early s. Violence towards the Ahmadiyya community in Bangladesh has occurred for almost two decades.
The recent upsurge in the persecution of the Ahmadis can be understood as part of a gradual trend in Bangladesh away from the country's secular roots toward more blending of religion and politics. This Islamization of government can be explained partially by examining the history of Bangladesh. In , Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, fought a liberation war to secede from its union with Pakistan, in order to protect its own Bengali language and culture.
After a brutal nine-month war, the newly independent Bangladeshis created a constitution founded upon four guiding principles: nationalism, socialism, democracy, and secularism.
Starting with Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman in , however, the role of Islam slowly began to increase in Bangladesh's civil society and state apparatus. In , the government replaced Article 12 of the founding constitution, which provided that the principle of secularism should be realized by the elimination of communalism in all its forms, with the assertion that the Muslim faith would be one of the nation's guiding principles. In , Bangladesh moved a step further away from its secular heritage when Islam officially became the state religion through an amendment to the constitution, Article 2-A, which reads: "The state religion of the Republic is Islam, but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in the Republic.
While these constitutional amendments have set the tone for Bangladeshi society, the reversal of the constitutional prohibition on religious parties allowed for the reemergence of the Jama'at-e-Islami and for the formation of extreme religious parties, such as the Islamic Okye Jyote IOJ. The religious parties were able to return to power despite arguing that nationalism is un-Islamic and the secession from Pakistan was unwarranted.
Sporadic attacks and threats against Ahmadis became more systematic in the early s as Bangladesh returned to parliamentary government. The attacks began in earnest during the BNP government , continued through the period of Awami League rule , and acquired renewed vigor as the BNP returned to power in , this time in coalition with the J.
Between December , , the Khatme Nabuwat K. They have threatened that they would attack us if we do not surrender, if we continued to be Ahmadis. On February 29, , several hundred people under the leadership of the Imam Council, a group of Imams from the Helatala and Niral mosques in Khulna, attacked an Ahmadi mosque and mission house on the Nirala Housing Estate in the city. On October 30, , a procession of more than 1, people launched a massive attack on the main Bahshkibazar Ahmadiyya complex in Dhaka.
After ransacking rooms, burning hundreds of books, including many copies of the Qur'an, and looting the building of all valuables, the attackers detonated some thirty-five crude bombs in the building and set it on fire. Police lobbed at least twenty-five tear gas canisters to drive the mob away from the burning complex.
On December 24, , K. Bangladesh held a conference in Dhaka to pressure the government officially to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims, to ban Ahmadi publications, and to remove Ahmadis from high-ranking government posts. The conference was held in two sessions with imams from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and India presiding over each session as scheduled, and representatives from J.
New anti-Ahmadi organizations emerged on the scene in The demonstrators, many of them carrying placards and sticks, raised slogans against the Ahmadis, calling them "kafirs" disbelievers. In March , a group of demonstrators attacked a central Ahmadi mosque in Dhaka. This time, secular activists and members of civil society strongly condemned the attacks. Violence against Ahmadis in major cities outside of Dhaka began to appear in the late s.
On July 23, , members of Touhid Jonota, another anti-Ahmadi group, attacked and destroyed a new Ahmadi office building inaugurated by the local government in Zhinaigati. Three police officers were injured in the attacks. The U.
State Department reported that an Ahmadiyya mosque in Kushtia was forcibly occupied by Sunni extremists in and remained under police control for about three years, preventing Ahmadis from praying in it. In August , the Ahmadiyya community regained control of the mosque.
On October 8, , a bomb killed six Ahmadis and injured severely several others who were attending Friday prayers at their mosque in Khulna. Ahmadis regained control of their mosque and filed a criminal case against thirtypeople allegedly responsible for the conflict. On April 15, , villagers at Kodda and Basudev, spurred by the twin attacks in Kushtia and Kulna, threatened to attack all Ahmadi homes in the area.
Over fifty Ahmadis evacuated their homes and took refuge in the nearby Akhaura district after some thirty five Ahmadi homes were looted and vandalized. On June 24, , members of K. Twelve Ahmadis were arrested and questioned in the incident for allegedly distorting verses of the Qur'an and certain Hadith sayings of the Prophet Mohammed in the translation of their texts. On January 2, , the K. Prominent speakers from Egypt, India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom introduced new fatwas calling for the excommunication of the Ahmadis in Bangladesh.
One Libyan leader at the event, Dr. Abdur Razzak, accused Ahmadis of being part of a British colonial conspiracy. Shortly after the conference, Bangladesh Khilafat Andolen organized a protest procession led by Maulana Jafrullah Khan, who demanded that Parliament declare Ahmadis to be non-Muslim or risk future litigation and disturbance. Saidee declared Ahmadis non-Muslims and called for a complete halt on all Ahmadi activities, describing the Ahmadiyya community as "satanic.
The recent ban on Ahmadiyya publications also has a lineage: since at least the s, Bangladeshi governments have frequently banned publications deemed offensive to Muslims. Such determinations have usually been made to appease extremist groups. For instance, in , the government issued an order banning a book published by the Ahmadiyya community on the basis that it contained passages highly offensive to Muslims, who believe that the Prophet Mohammed is the last prophet of Allah.
The order was unsuccessfully challenged before the High Court in It has also consistently banned books by the Bangladeshi feminist novelist Tasleema Nasreen. Also, in recent years, the government has banned several publications, including Radar and Satellite , which contained reports on human rights violations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Ahmadiyya community has long been persecuted in Pakistan.
What has happened in Pakistan, of which Bangladesh was a part until , is instructive in understanding the nature and potential objectives of those attacking the Ahmadiyya community in Bangladesh. The situation of Ahmadis in Bangladesh suggests a similar pattern of systematic persecution as in Pakistan and a similar trend toward the excommunication of all Ahmadis.
Moreover, there exist clear and specific links between anti-Ahmadi organizations in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since , when the first post-independence anti-Ahmadiyya riots broke out, the relatively small Ahmadi community in Pakistan has endured persecution. In , a new wave of anti-Ahmadi disturbances spread across Pakistan. In response, Pakistan's parliament introduced amendments to the constitution which defined the term "Muslim" in the Pakistani context and listed groups that were, legally speaking, non-Muslim.
Put into effect on September 6, , the amendment explicitly deprived Ahmadis of their identity as Muslims. In , Pakistan's penal code was amended yet again. As a result of these amendments, five ordinances that explicitly targeted religious minorities acquired legal status: a law against blasphemy; a law punishing the defiling of the Qur'an; a prohibition against insulting the wives, family, or companions of the Prophet of Islam; and two laws specifically restricting the activities of Ahmadis.
Ordinance XX undercut the activities of religious minorities generally, but struck at Ahmadis in particular by prohibiting them from "indirectly or directly posing as a Muslim. Pakistani police destroyed Ahmadi translations of and commentaries on the Qur'an and banned Ahmadi publications, the use of any Islamic terminology on Ahmadi wedding invitations, the offering of Ahmadi funeral prayers, and the displaying of the Kalima the statement that "there is no god but Allah, Mohammed is Allah's prophet," the principal creed of Muslims on Ahmadi gravestones.
In addition, Ordinance XX prohibited Ahmadis from declaring their faith publicly, propagating their faith, building mosques, or making the call for Muslim prayer.
In short, virtually any public act of worship or devotion by an Ahmadi could be treated as a criminal offense. The "Blasphemy Law," as it came to be known, made the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy.
The Ahmadi belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is considered blasphemous insofar as it "defiled the name of Prophet Muhammad. While Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, their persecution is wholly legalized, even encouraged, by the Pakistani government.
Ahmadi mosques have been burned, their graves desecrated, and their very existence criminalized. Since , Ahmadis have been formally charged in criminal cases including blasphemy for professing their religion. The offenses charged included wearing an Islamic slogan on a shirt, planning to build an Ahmadi mosque in Lahore, and distributing Ahmadi literature in a public square.
This chapter presents some illustrative cases of human rights abuses against Ahmadiyya in late that directly preceded the government's decision to ban the Ahmadiyya publications As noted above, this is not intended to be a complete chronology, nor do we provide an exhaustive list of incidents.
Limitations on access to certain parts of Bangladesh and the unwillingness of some Ahmadis to speak for fear of retribution have limited what can be presented here. Even so, the cases that follow demonstrate how dangerous the climate has become for Ahmadi's in Bangladesh and illustrate how inadequate the government response has been. The Bangladesh government is obligated under international human rights law to protect the rights of members of the Ahmadiyya community and other religious minorities.
On October 31, at about p. Mohammed Shah Alam, president and local imam of the Ahmadiyya community in Jhikargachla, died from injuries received outside the Ahmadi mosque, which sustained considerable damage in the attack. Imam Shah Alam became an Ahmadi in and brought me to the faith in Now, nothing will happen to us if we beat and torture Qadianis.
It was the holy month of Ramadan and we were all fasting. A big crowd emerged from the neighboring [Sunni] mosque.
They first spoke to me directly.
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