Rights group demands release of Ahmadiyya detainees

---Daily News, Egypt

Rights group demands release of Ahmadiyya detainees

By WillIiam F. Zeman/Daily News Egypt
   
May 16, 2010, 5:05 pm

CAIRO: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) demanded nine Egyptians detained under the emergency law for holding unorthodox religious views be released Sunday, in a message to Minister of the Interior Habib El-Adly.

The nine detainees are being held due to their adherence to the Ahmadiyya branch of Islam, according to the EIPR.

Adherents to the Ahmadiyya community follow the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a 19th Century religious figure in India who claimed to be Islam’s Messiah in 1891.

Article 98 of the Egyptian penal code makes “contempt for the Islamic religion” a punishable crime. As Ahmadis are perceived to revere the teachings of a prophet coming after the Prophet Mohamed, the Egyptian government believes them to be punishable under Article 98.

The nine detainees have been held for the last two months. They were arrested on March 15, 2010, and held by the State Security Investigation in Cairo, Qalyoubiya, Minya, and Sohag governorates.

Four others were also arrested, but later released. In addition, the State Security Investigators confiscated books and computers belonging to the accused.

The detainees are being held in Tora Prison, according to the EIPR.

“We were only made aware of the case recently,” Soha Abdelaty told Daily News Egypt Sunday. “Once we found out, we began taking [these actions.]”

The EIPR’s message to El-Adly called for the interior minister to “order an end to the Supreme State Security Prosecutor’s investigation of all detainees on charges of ‘contempt of religions’ and hold to account those officials responsible for the arrest and interrogation of citizens solely for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of belief and expression,” according to a press release.

Abdelaty told Daily News that the EIPR had not received a response from the minister.

In addition to petitioning the minister, the EIPR has begun attending interrogations of the accused, according to Abdelaty.

“They [the accused] are still being interrogated,” she said. “They haven’t been brought to court yet or indicted.”

On May 12, State Security officers arrested the wife of one of the nine detainees. An EIPR lawyer observed her interrogation the following day.

“The sort of questions the accused are being asked are specifics about their religious beliefs,” Abdelaty said. “The people acknowledge they belong to this faith [Ahmadiyya beliefs.]”

The EIPR lawyer present at the May 13 interrogation said questioning the suspect about her religious beliefs “violated constitutional protections for freedom of belief and personal freedom, upheld by Articles 41 and 46 of the Constitution,” according to the EIPR.

Prosecutors then released the suspect, but scheduled another interrogation for May 16. EIPR lawyers again were present with the suspect.

“The use of the emergency law to detain citizens because of their religious affiliation blatantly contradicts government claims that the infamous law is used solely in crimes involving terrorism or drug trafficking,” said the EIPR’s legal officer, Adel Ramadan, in a prepared statement.

“The government must immediately stop punishing people because they hold certain religious beliefs.”

“The Public Prosecutor should issue clear directives to all prosecutors banning the use of the notorious charge of ‘contempt of religions’ to interrogate individuals about their religious beliefs,” Ramadan added. “This is a flagrant violation of their right to freedom of religion and belief … this runs counter to the constitution and Egypt’s international obligations.”

Article 46 of the Egyptian constitution guarantees “the freedom of belief and the freedom of practice of religious rites” while Article 41 states “individual freedom is a natural right and safeguarded and inviolable.

Save for the case of being caught red-handed, no person may be arrested, inspected, detained or his freedom restricted or prevented from free movement except under an order necessitated by investigations and preservation of the security of the society.”

However, Article 2 does declare Islam to be Egypt’s principal source of legislation.

URL: www.thedailynewsegypt.com/index.php?option=c...catid=1&Itemid=183

PAKISTAN — Ahmadi property grab alarms minorities

---Union of Catholic Asian News, Hong Kong

PAKISTAN - Ahmadi property grab alarms minorities

Published Date: January 25, 2010

Ahmadis outside their place of worship in Rabwah

RABWAH, Pakistan (UCAN) — An Ahmadi place of worship has been seized by authorities in what minority religious communities fear is a further erosion of pluralism in the country.

Concerns were raised after a large police contingent handed over a disputed worship venue in Rabwah to the majority Sunni Muslims on Jan. 14.

The place called Bait Noor had been sealed in 2003 to prevent clashes between the two Islamic groups over its ownership.

Many Muslims regard the Ahmadis as a heretical Islamic sect.

Catholic human rights activists have condemned the recent anti-Ahmadi move.

“It is a sad happening under the elected government of Punjab province. The sheer negligence of authorities is threatening the freedom of religion,” said Alvin Murad, executive secretary of the major religious superiors’ justice and peace commission.

Peter Jacob, executive secretary the Catholic bishop’s National Commission for Justice and Peace, agreed.

“We disapprove of such treatment of minorities. Some political figures, belonging to the mainstream, are accused of backing this decision,” he said, adding that the authorities have once again proven to be insensitive to religious diversity.

“It is indeed the whittling of pluralism in the country. Extremism has many manifestations and discrimination is being institutionalized,” Jacob told UCA News.

Saleem-ud-din, the Ahmadi community spokesperson, demanded justice from authorities in a Jan. 21 press release.

“This is a blatant display of the weakness of administration, and lawlessness. We had presented legal documents of the late Ahmadi who built [the worship venue] on a piece of land he owned and various local politicians had submitted written statements supporting our stand,” he said.

“The management of Bait Noor was under the Ahmadi community for 20 years after it was built in 1983,” he told UCA News. This was the 15th forcible occupation of an Ahmadi place of worship since the promulgation of Ahmadi-specific laws by President General Zia ul-Haq in 1984.

Under these laws, Ahmadis are prohibited from engaging in “anti-Islamic activities,” including propagating their faith, and using Muslim worship practices and greetings.

The Ahmadi movement was founded in the late 19th century by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

While all Muslims hold Jesus Christ in high regard as a prophet, the Ahmadis have the unique belief that he survived the crucifixion and traveled to India to continue his ministry among the Lost Tribes of Israel. They claim that a tomb containing his body has been discovered in India.

URL: www.ucanews.com/2010/01/25/ahmadi-property-seizure-alarms-minorities

Malaysia: The non-Muslim Muslims

---The Nut Graph, Malaysia

The non-Muslim Muslims
25 Sep 09 : 8.00AM

By Shanon Shah
shanonshah at thenutgraph dot com

IN April 2009, the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (MAIS) officially forbade the Ahmadiyah community in the state from performing their own Friday prayers. This news, however, did not make headlines — after all, there are at most only 2,000 Ahmadiyah in all of Malaysia, and at most only 600 in the Klang Valley. But from the panic-inducing headlines in the Malay-language press, one would think that the Ahmadiyah were an insidious fanatical sect bent on destroying the faith of Sunni Muslims in Malaysia.

The Ahmadiyah sect started in Qadian, in what is present-day India, in the late 19th century. They were inspired by the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. However, there emerged two sects of the Ahmadiyah movement after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s death in 1908. There is the Lahore Ahmadiyah movement, which is inspired by his teachings but does not regard him as a prophet. Then there is the Ahmadiyah Muslim Community (AMC), sometimes referred to by other Muslims as “Qadianis”, which regards him as a prophet and messianic figure.

Majoritarian Islam does not have problems with the Lahore sect, but sees the AMC as heretical. Overall, there are nearly 200 million Ahmadiyah followers around the world. Ahmadiyah in Malaysia are part of the AMC.

The Ahmadiyah movement in Malaysia began shortly before the Second World War. Persecution began almost immediately. In the 1950s, the sultan of Selangor had an audience with the community’s leaders together with other Muslim leaders. However, things did not come to a head until 1975, when the Selangor Fatwa Council issued a fatwa declaring Ahmadiyah as non-Muslims. The fatwa called for them to repent, failing which they should be put to death by the ruler.

Malaysia is not the only country in which Ahmadiya face problems. Pakistan and Indonesia have seen a rise in violence and state persecution of Ahmadiya, too. Ironically, Ahmadiya thrive best in secular, Western countries such as Canada and the UK, where they are visited and protected by prominent ministers and members of Parliament.

URL: www.thenutgraph.com/non-muslim-muslims