Ahmadis’ Pakistani plight

In a famous policy speech given to the public in 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah — the alcohol-swilling, pork-consuming, secular founder of Pakistan — said, “You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”

If Jinnah were alive today to walk the summer-sizzling, dust-blown streets of Lahore, he’d surely have nothing but contempt for the Pakistani government, its flawed constitution and its abdication of responsibility for the recent terrorist attacks on the Ahmadi Muslim community.

On May 28, terrorists attacked two major Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, killing 93 people and injuring several more.

Three days later, four terrorists dressed as police officers entered Jinnah Hospital, where one of the captured terrorists from the mosque attacks was being treated, and began firing wildly, killing 12 people. Some police officials said that the attack might have been meant to kill or secure the release of the captured terrorist.

Subsequently, the police and security officials have become suspected of facilitating the terrorist attacks and are being investigated.

Who were these terrorists? Officials and news sources now suspect the Punjabi Taliban of carrying out these attacks.

Although I personally lost my grandfather, retired Major General Nasir Chaudhry, in these attacks, I don’t blame or bear any ill will toward the piteous, misguided terrorists, who were likely inculcated with hatred from an early age.

Instead, the responsibility for these attacks rests wholly on the shoulders of the Pakistani government, whose own laws and practices engender hostility and discrimination toward the Ahmadi Muslim minority population.

The Ahmadi Muslim movement was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be a reformer of Islam. The community holds controversial beliefs — such as a belief in the status of Ahmad as a reformer and a peaceful interpretation of jihad as a personal, internal struggle. These beliefs have inspired repudiation and condemnation by countless religious leaders, who deny the legitimacy of the community.

Pandering to these increasingly powerful mullahs, Pakistani politicians have passed significant legislation against Ahmadi Muslims. In 1974, the Pakistani parliament amended the constitution to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims.

Later in 1984, General Zia-Ul-Huq, then the military ruler of Pakistan, promulgated Ordinance No. XX, which prohibits Ahmadi Muslims from identifying themselves or posing as Muslims.

As such, Ahmadi Muslims are not allowed call themselves Muslims, identify their places of worship as mosques, proselytize in any way, call for prayers or even recite the Kalma — the Muslim declaration of faith in one God and in Muhammad as his prophet. Violators are punishable with three years in prison.

So, if this column were to be published in Pakistan, I could be imprisoned for violating the ordinance by referring to Ahmadis as Muslims and their places of worship as mosques.

Pakistani laws not only beleaguer the Ahmadi Muslim community but also sponsor the very terrorism that is ravaging its members and the rest of the country.

As Americans, our government has been pouring funds into Pakistan — funds that have been misused by politicians to fill their coffers, bankroll mullahs and finance backward madrases.

As such, we are complicit in this strife and violation of basic civil rights.

For our moral souls, we must insist that Pakistan treat its citizens civilly and humanely, lest we fund violations of the freedom of religion, one of our nation’s founding principles. Either that, or we turn off the tap completely and let the country slip further back into the dark ages.

Although it might be difficult, we must follow in John Winthrop’s steps and act “as a city upon a hill — the eyes of all people are upon us.”


E-mail: yzchaudh@indiana.edu