Religious Leaders Imply Ahmedis not Victims

Home » Blog Row, The Water Cooler

Religious Leaders Imply Ahmedis not Victims

By Talib Qizilbash                                          10 JUNE 2010

Drowned in sorrow: Men console each other after the deadly attacks on Ahmedi places of worship on May 28. Photo: AFP

First they condemned the attacks. Religious parties got together after the May 28 attacks on the Ahmedi places of worship and termed them un-Islamic (while tempering their criticism with some conspiracy theories). The News reported this:

Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan termed the attacks on the Youm-e-Takbeer a conspiracy to trigger a civil war in the country and justify the US interference in the country. He said Islam strongly prohibited persecuting minorities and causing any harm to their worship places. He said the minorities in the country had always been secure and Islam made it a state responsibility to protect them.

Of course, everyone knows that minorities have NOT always been secure in Pakistan, but at least the religious parties agreed that the attacks on the Ahmedi community “were uncalled for and condemnable”.

But clearly it was false sympathy and crocodile tears. The view that the attacks were also, as reported by The News, a foreign “conspiracy to malign the country in the world in order to put more pressure [on Pakistan] regarding a change in the blasphemy laws” came with a sickening twist yesterday.

A BBC Urdu article reported on a Lahore meeting of leaders of the Muttahida Tehrik-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwat where the attendees concluded that the May 28 attacks on Ahmedis were part of a conspiracy to repeal the laws against them and challenge the finality of the Prophethood. There is an inherent insinuation that Ahmedis were an active part of the conspiracy; that Ahmedis hired terrorists to kill other Ahmedis in order to garner attention because they want to remake Islam. So, Ahmedis are not the real victims here?

This is like 9/11 conspiracy theorists: Americans killed Americans to launch a crusade against Islam.

Further, a Dawn.com report referencing the BBC article said that “the gathering was attended by leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat-i-ulema-i-Islam Fazlur Rahman group, Jamaatud Dawa and Markazi Jamaat-i-Ahl-i-Sunnat among others” and that “Maulana Ilyas Chinioti, a member of the PML-N and the Punjab provincial assembly, condemned Nawaz Sharif’s statement in which he had sympathised with the Ahmadis and called them his brothers.”

Maulana Chinioti seems to be openly preaching that non-Muslims are lesser humans: only certain Pakistanis who are brutally massacred are worthy of pity. Our religious leaders believe Allah to be the most compassionate and merciful (and expect Him to show compassion towards them) but do they not believe they have a duty to love and show compassion in their lives (or even try to show compassion) to all people of all faiths. The people killed and injured on May 28 were innocent people, harming no one, only kneeling before God in peace. What about the verse from the Quran that says “killing one innocent person is regarded as the equivalent to killing all of mankind?”

The US, Israel and India (and whatever other foreign agents are at work) do not have to do anything to “malign the country in the world.” These religious and political ‘leaders’ are doing a fine job themselves.

Talib Qizilbash has been freelance writing since 2003. He joined Newsline in 2006, working as both a writer and editor. He is currently the magazine’s online editor.

URL: www.newslinemagazine.com/2010/06/religious-leaders-imply-ahmedis-not-victims/

Editor’s Note: June 2010

Home » Editorial, Opinion

Editor’s Note: June 2010

By Rehana Hakim                                                   10 JUNE 2010

Pakistan is fast becoming a state that will be habitable only for extremists: religious bigots who hold the view that only Muslims (as defined by them) have the right to live in this country – and that all non-Muslims are kafirs, infidels who are wajib-ul-qatl or deserve to be killed. Further, that all those who kill them are guaranteed a place in heaven, replete with houris and streams of milk and honey.

It’s criminal that those who harbour such hatred are being allowed to operate with impunity, to spout venom from the pulpits of mosques, to train in the Punjab government’s backyard while the head honcho feigns ignorance, even as his own law minister is seen hobnobbing with the Sipah-e-Sahaba at an election rally in Jhang.

Is it any surprise then that two dastardly attacks are carried out in broad daylight on Ahmedi mosques in Lahore, killing 95 people and injuring a 100 more. This is followed by yet another strike by the same terrorist group at a government hospital – to kill or secure the release of an accomplice recuperating in the same emergency ward as the victims of the earlier attacks.

How does this reflect on the intelligence and state of preparedness of this country’s security network that still remains ‘unaware’ of the hideouts of these elements, who have been making life intolerable for Pakistan’s small minority communities for several years now?

Ahmedi mosques, Christian churches and Hindu temples have been vandalised, their properties burnt or seized illegally; additionally, forcible conversions and marriages have taken place. And the culprits have always managed to escape the (not-so-long?) arm of the law.

Ironically, it is these very characters who have been quick to use the controversial blasphemy law to implicate minorities in false cases and make sure that they are lynched by charged mobs or left to rot in jails forever. Any attempts to make amendments to this law have met with stiff resistance from them, forcing the government to back off.

Consequently, the perpetrators of these hate crimes are getting bolder by the day. Three days after the attacks on the Ahmedi mosques, a father and son from the community were stabbed by a fanatic in Narowal wanting to convert them. The father died instantaneously. The hate crimes against the Shias have not ceased either. Yet another young doctor was gunned down – a stark reminder of the murder of 74 other Shia doctors in Karachi between the early 1990s and 2002, which remain unresolved to this day.

Likewise, the victims of the Gojra and Shantinagar incidents in which several Christian families lost their family members and property are yet to get any justice. There are no accused to hold to account – and the few who were arrested have been acquitted for “want of evidence.”

What evidence would be needed to prove an “identified” accused’s culpability? Only recently, Maulana Aziz and his entire family were acquitted of charges of illegally occupying a children’s library in Islamabad for lack of evidence.

Wasn’t this “illegal occupation” one of the causes that had sparked off the whole Lal Masjid furore in the first place? This fact was reported in the country’s major newspapers at the time. If these reports were inadmissible in a court of law, why couldn’t the police find any witnesses to substantiate the charge? Was it the threats from extremist forces or orders from some relevant quarters at the top that made the police and the prosecutor back off?

Rehana Hakim is one of the core team of journalists that helped start Newsline. She has been the editor-in-chief since 1996.

URL: www.newslinemagazine.com/2010/06/editor%e2%80%99s-note-june-2010/

‘Attack on Ahmedis conspiracy to repeal laws against them’

PAKISTAN

‘Attack on Ahmedis conspiracy to repeal laws against them’

Wednesday, 09 Jun, 2010

People from Ahmadi community prepare to bury a casket containing a victim of an attack by militants, at their graveyard in Rabwah, some 150 kilometres northwest from Lahore, May 29, 2010. — AP

LAHORE: A gathering of the leaders of 13 religious and political parties in Lahore claimed that the attack on Ahmedis on May 28 was part of a conspiracy to repeal the laws against them, BBCUrdu reported.

The meeting was held in an office of the Majlis Ahrar Islam in Lahore’s Muslim Town. The parties concluded that a conspiracy was in place to debate the laws against Ahmedis, the report said.

Maulana Zahidul Rashdi, who is a founding member of the Muttahida Tehrik-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwat and also the Secretary-General of the Pakistan Shariat Council, read the joint statement at the meeting’s conclusion: The attack on Ahmedis is being used as an excuse to generate suspicions regarding the concept of khatm-i-nabuwat.

The gathering was attended by leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat-i-ulema-i-Islam Fazlur Rahman group, Jamaatud Dawa and Markazi Jamaat-i-Ahl-i-Sunnat among others.

During the meeting, Maulana Ilyas Chinioti, a member of the PML-N and the Punjab provincial assembly, condemned Nawaz Sharif’s statement in which he had sympathised with the Ahmedis and called them his brothers.

The meeting’s participants demanded that Nawaz Sharif immediately withdraw his statement.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved

URL: www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-libr...us-groups-qs-08