Tracing hate
-Photo Courtesy Ayesha Vellani/White Star
It is believed that Pakistan’s descent into the quagmire of violence, partaken in the name of religion has its roots in 1974 when the otherwise ‘secular’ government of Z A. Bhutto declared (through legislation) the Ahmadi community as a religious minority.
Many Pakistani political historians have also correctly pointed out that the Bhutto government’s move in this regard set off various other scenarios that set the scene for its own dramatic downfall in 1977.
Without getting into the theological debate of whether the Ahmadi community deserved excommunication from the fold of Islam in Pakistan or not, one can, however, reach a political conclusion that this issue has triggered the demise of democratic and non-religious forces that sided with those who originally initiated legislative action against the Ahmadis.
The following examples in this context should also be taken as a warning by democratic parties on both sides of the ideological divide that their ‘pragmatic’ association with fundamentalist and sectarian outfits is akin to digging a hole for themselves.
For example, in hindsight one can suggest the Bhutto regime deluded itself by believing that ousting the Ahmadis from the fold of Islam would appease the religious parties that were constantly criticising the government of being ‘un-Islamic.’
The Ahmadis’ ouster saw the Bhutto government increasingly cornering itself and offering more and more concessions to the religious parties in spite of the fact that most of these parties had been routed in the 1970 general election.
Simply put, parties that were rejected by the electorate in 1970 were actually strengthened by Bhutto’s policy of appeasement; a policy he thought was a clever and pragmatic ploy on his part to co-opt them.
This unwitting and unintentional strengthening of the religious parties by Bhutto was one of the main reasons why these parties managed to unite on a single platform during the 1977 election and then, rather ironically, unleash a violent protest movement against his government that culminated in the declaration of Martial Law by General Ziaul Haq.
What is also ironic is the fact that Zia’s aggressive ‘Islamisation’ process throughout the 1980s was largely built around the unsuspecting blueprint of Political Islam that the Bhutto regime had begun to outline from 1974 onwards.
But before we set out to find exactly what happened in 1974, it would also help to reanalyse the first major movement against the Ahmadi community in 1953.
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In one of the most thorough books written on the rise of religious radicalism in Pakistan – ‘Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism,’ – author Hassan Abbas has painstakingly researched and detailed the 1953 incident.
At the time of the creation of Pakistan in 1947, fundamentalist outfits such as the Jamat-i-Islami (JI) and the Ahrar had been discredited and sidelined due to their stand against Jinnah and the creation of Pakistan (both had labeled Jinnah as ‘Kafir-i-Azam’ or the leader of infidels).
But in spite of this, both the parties’ main leadership had decided to migrate to Pakistan.
In 1951 due to a failed ‘communist coup’ attempt by some left-wing military men in league with the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) and a group of progressive intellectuals initiated an intense governmental crackdown and bans against left-leaning officers in the military, the CPP and affiliated trade and labour unions.
This created just enough of a void for some radical rightist forces to seep in.
This opportunity was further widened by the disintegration of the ruling Muslim League (ML) that was by then plagued with in-fighting, corruption and myopic and exhaustive power struggles among its top leadership.
In 1953-54 after smelling an opportunity to reinstate their political credentials, the JI and the Ahrar gladly played into the hands of the then Chief Minister of Punjab and veteran Muslim Leaguer, Mian Mumtaz Daultana, who was plotting the downfall of his own party’s prime minster, Khuwaja Nizamuddin.
With a burning ambition to become the Prime Minister after former Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan’s enigmatic assassination in 1951, Daultana was bypassed when the ML government chose the Bengali Nizamuddin as PM whom Daultana considered to be incompetent.
As Chief Minister of Punjab, Daultana was being criticised for the rising rate of unemployment and food shortages in the province.
Anticipating protests against his provincial government’s failure to rectify the economic crises in Punjab, Daultana began to allude that economic crises in the Punjab were mainly the doing of the Ahmadi community.
The Ahmadis had played a leading role in the creation of Pakistan and were placed in important positions in the military, the bureaucracy, the government and within the country’s still nascent industrial classes.
Daultana did not accuse the Ahmadis directly. Instead, he purposefully ignored and even gave tact support to JI and Ahrar who decided to use the crises in the Punjab by beginning a campaign against the Ahmadi community and demand their excommunication from the fold of Islam.
As JI and Ahrar members went on a rampage destroying Ahmadi property and personnel in Lahore, Daultana was able to shift the media’s and the nation’s attention away from his provincial government’s economic failures.
But his ‘victory’ was short-lived. The Nizamuddin 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 Ahmadis out of the fold of Islam was rejected.
Veteran Muslim League leader, Sardar Nishtar (left) in a meeting with General Azam Khan in 1954. General Azam was instrumental in crushing the anti-Ahmadi riots in Lahore in 1953 and arresting JI and Ahrar leaders.
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After the failure and crushing of the 1953 movement, the anti-Ahmadi sentiment receded to the fringes.
However, some religious parties like the JI tried to reignite it many years later during the campaigning of the 1970 election. But there were no takers and the initiative quickly dissolved.
In his book, ‘Bhutto, Zia & Islam,’ Syed Mujawar Shah suggests that JI’s move during the 1970 election was related to the overwhelming support the Ahmadi community had exhibited for Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in West Pakistan – a party that was being labelled by the JI as ‘atheistic’.
Almost all religious parties and even old conservative outfits such as the many factions of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) faced rousing defeats during the 1970 election.
But in 1973, fearing marginalisation and a possible exit from the political process, these parties once again decided to repose the ‘Ahmadi question.’
The first shots in this regard were fired in the Azad Jamua Kashmir Assembly in April 1973 when some right-wing members of the Assembly floated a resolution to declare the Ahmadis as non-Muslims.
The resolution did not carry much weight.
Undeterred, the same year religious party members and those belonging to PML floated similar resolutions in the Punjab and Sindh assemblies but these too were shot down by the PPP MPAs who were in the majority in the two assemblies.
Then, when Bhutto was about to host a mammoth summit of Muslim heads of state and government in Lahore, he was approached by Ahmadi religious leader, Mirza Tahir, who told him that religious parties were planning to use the Summit to demonise the Ahmadi community.
Bhutto assured Tahir that nothing of the sort would happen.
A month after the Summit, an organisation called the Rabita Alam-i-Islami that was founded in Saudi Arabia in 1962, passed a resolution declaring the Ahmadis as non-Muslim.
Having the backing of the Saudi monarchy, the resolution also stressed that people of the Ahmadi faith not be allowed to enter Saudi Arabia.
A delegation of Pakistan had also become a member of this organisation and it did not hesitate to sign on the resolution. Bhutto did not think much of it, though.
Unable to make a dent in the assemblies, the religious parties decided to pour out onto the streets.
In 1974 they launched a full-fledged campaign against the Ahmadis. Once again Punjab was the main battleground as the anti-Ahmadi sentiment remained weak in the other three provinces of the country.
The religious parties even managed to obtain fatwas from some well known Saudi Arabian clerics to back their demands to excommunicate the Ahmadis.
One of the founding members of the PPP and a minister in the Bhutto regime’s first cabinet, Dr. Mubashar Hasan, recently went on record to claim that the government knew that the Saudi monarchy was encouraging the campaign.
He suggested that since from 1974 onwards Bhutto had begun to push Pakistan closer to oil-rich Arab monarchies, he largely remained silent on the issue.
Cheered on by the ‘ulema’, mobs in many cities of the Punjab began attacking Ahmadis and their property.
Eight religious parties led by the JI, including the Deobandi Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) and the Barelvi Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP), and the conservative Pakistan Democratic Party (of Nawabzada Nasarullah) and PML factions, formed an organisation called the Qadiyani Muhasbah Committee (Committee for Exposition of Qadyanism).
Islamic Scholar and founder of the Jamat-i-Islami holding a press conference in 1974 demanding that the government declare the Ahmadi community non-Muslim.
The organisation vehemently criticised the Bhutto government for ignoring ‘the aspirations of the people’ by not heeding to the calls of the ulema.
The ‘people’ in this case, of course, were the raging mobs led by local clerics and student-wings of the religious parties rampaging across the streets in the Punjab committing murder and arson.
Shaken by the sudden, but well orchestrated violence of the mobs, in June 1974, 37 MNAs in the National Assembly moved a resolution demanding the excommunication of the Ahmadis from Islam.
It should also be kept in mind that the Punjab in the 1970s held the PPP’s largest vote bank and support base.
Prime Minister Bhutto soon broke his silence and decided to allow the National Assembly to debate the issue.
At the same time a government delegation led by Kausar Niazi, held a series of meetings with the ulema belonging to Sunni (both Deobandi and Barelvi) sub-sects, and the Shia sect.
The parliamentary committee that came into being after the talks agreed to listen to the leaders of the Ahmadi community who wanted the committee to hear their side of the argument as well.
Bhutto’s hand in this context was also influenced by the fact that by 1974 his regime had begun to forge a series of economic and political links with oil-rich Arab monarchies.
These monarchies had begun to assert themselves with the help of the rise and pouring in of ‘Petro-Dollars’ after the 1973 Arab-Israel War and the oil crises that followed.
Z A. Bhutto (right) with Saudi king, Shah Faisal at a banquet in Karachi.
After going through the report on the meetings the government’s team had had with the Sunni and Shia ulema, Bhutto finally gave the green light to the PPP majority in the National Assembly to approve the passage of the anti-Ahmadi resolution.
Soon, the excommunication of the Ahmadis became part of the 1973 constitution (Second Amendment).
The 1974 National Assembly report on the ‘Ahmadi question’ and a montage of newspaper headlines announcing the assembly’s decision to ouster the Ahmadi community from mainstream Islam.
The Ahmadi community that had overwhelmingly supported the PPP was shocked.
Though the violence stopped after the passage of the resolution, a large number of Ahmadis 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.
In another series of ironies, in 1977, the parties that had rejoiced the introduction of the Second Amendment were out on the streets again – this time agitating against the very government and man who had agreed to accept their most assertive demand.
In the final act of this irony, in April 1979 the same man was sent to the gallows (through a sham trial) by the military dictatorship of Ziaul Haq, who decided to stay on to ‘turn Pakistan into a true Islamic republic,’ and would go on to explain how Bhutto had become ‘a danger to both Islam and Pakistan.’
In 1984 the Zia dictatorship further consolidated the state of Pakistan’s stand against the Ahmadis by issuing an ordinance (Ordinance XX), which prohibited Ahmadis from preaching or professing their beliefs.
The ordinance that was enacted to suppress ‘anti-Islamic activities,’ forbids Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to pose as Muslims. Their places of worships cannot be called mosques and Ahmadis are barred from performing the Muslim call to prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quoting from the Qur’an, preaching in public, seeking converts, or producing, publishing, and disseminating their religious materials. These acts are punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.
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As a new generation of Pakistanis is growing up amidst the still on-going violence against the Ahmadi community, many of them have emerged with a number of questions, especially on social media.
The following are some of the questions being asked: How exactly was Islam and Pakistan saved by what happened in 1974? How did all this help Pakistan become a better place and a more robust democracy? And are not the Muslim sects and sub-sects who all joined in to throw the Ahmadis out of the fold of Islam now trying to do the same with each another?
But to me the most pertinent question remains, what were all the revolutionary leftists, secular liberals and progressive Muslims up to when all this was going on?
One must remember that till the late 1970s, the left and the liberal in Pakistan had far more influence in educational institutions, political parties, the media, and the bureaucracy, even in the armed forces than ever.
The Muslim League and the generation of Pakistani leaders and the military that took the reigns of the country soon after its creation in 1947, were steeped in the ‘modernistic and progressive Islam’ of scholars like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Alama Iqbal (The Aligarh Generation).
They might have been vehemently opposed to leftist ideologies, multi-party democracy and multiculturalism; they were equally suspicious of the more radical strains of both political and social Islam.
That’s why its response to the 1953 Anti-Ahmadi riots is now a well documented (and quotable) part of history.
Not only did the government and the military crush the riots, it sent the main perpetrators packing.
Some of them were even given death sentences, including JI’s Abul Ala Maududi (though he was later pardoned).
Then to determine the claims of the anti-Ahmadi clergy and scholarship, the government chose a respected, learned and neutral judge to hear them out, Chief Justice Munir.
After hours and hours of holding interviews with a number of Sunni and Shia ulema, Justice Munir concluded that each one of his interviewees had their own, unique interpretation of who or what a good Muslim was.
The ulemas’ demand to declare the Ahmadi community as non-Muslim was rejected on the findings of the lengthy report that Munir produced from these interviews (called the Justice Munir Report).
This might be explained as the liberal response to the issue. But what was the left’s response?
The left in Pakistan that would reach a peak in the late 1960s, and was fond of understanding politics and society based on thorough Marxist analysis, failed to gage the impact the religious parties would go on to have in the coming political struggles in the country.
The focus of the Pakistani left at the time remained to be the elimination of feudalism in Pakistan by infiltrating left-liberal bourgeoisie parties that would then be ideologically redirected and used to overthrow the resultant capitalist order with a communist revolution.
In fact it was in the late 1960s that the Pakistani left for the first time got down to also seriously analyse the role of the religious parties in its study of class struggle in Pakistan.
The trigger in this respect was the appearance of anti-left literature bundled out by the fundamentalist JI.
The JI had declared socialism to be ‘an atheistic conspiracy against Pakistan and Islam’
Leftist intellectuals like Safdar Mir and Hanif Ramay while writing for progressive Urdu weekly, ‘Nusrat,’, retaliated by describing the religious right in Pakistan as being ‘agents of imperialist forces (the US)’ and ‘lackeys of feudal lords, military generals and capitalist exploiters.’
‘Nusrat’ also reproduced old articles written by Maududi in which he had attacked Jinnah and denounced the creation of Pakistan.
Then in 1969 famous leftist poet and author, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, took the Pakistani left’s analysis of religion a step further by writing a fluent treatise on the culture of Pakistan.
He dismissed the religious right’s wish to turn Pakistan into ‘an abode of Islam,’ and also its claim that ‘secularism was like the Trojan horse from which anti-Islam forces wanted to infiltrate Pakistan and break it.’
Faiz suggested that Pakistan did not have a monopoly to define Islam.
In his paper he insisted that Pakistani culture was not just Islamic, but a mixture of many ethnic, sectarian, religious and western cultures that it had inherited after 1947.
Famous poet, author and intellectual, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Nevertheless, by the early 1970s much of the affective political and intellectual left had been co-opted by the PPP.
So when in 1974 Bhutto began to concede vital ground to the religious right, many leftists mostly remained quiet (sectioning their leader’s so-called pragmatic manoeuvres).
Those who opposed him (like Meraj Muhammad Khan and J A. Rahim were beaten, arrested and thrown into jails), while others had become just to fragmented due to the petty ideological battles between the Stalinists, Maoists, Trotskyites, Leninists, etc. This was a petty display of leftist sectarianism.
By the time Zia issued his Ordinance XX in 1984, both the left and the liberal were too embroiled in fighting the dictatorship on many fronts.
And anyway, his Ordinance seemed softer compared to the laws he would go on to enact in the name of Islam.
But one can’t really separate all these laws. They are eventually a legacy of the 1974 move.
They are sides of the same coin. A coin that has only grown in value and currency, sapping the genius and energy from things like democracy, pluralism and multiculturalism can infuse in a society.
Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
“The Devil Devours it’s own.” After the Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians, it is now the turn of the Shias.
The same Shias who participated in the expulsion of Ahmadis, or at the least were complicit in it by their silence, are now facing the same Devil of hatred who is killing them in the name of pure Islam.
I like to pose the question to my Shia friends,”How does it feel?”
This religious madness must stop or Pakistan, a proven mistake by now, can still rott further.
Jinnah is rolling over in his grave and Allah is shedding tears of blood looking down at Pakistan.
AHA: Greetings
(I have tried to post twice in response to your query, so I am posting it on its own.)
LOL
Oh yes. I have been “moderated” out more than you think.
I have learnt to know my limits, learning the craft at the Toronto Globe and Mail where I have been posting for some 10 years. Any mention of the deeds of the Yehud, and you are sure that the post will be zapped within minutes (the moderation is post-facto). The NY Times pre-post moderation, and is even worse. “We are Americans and we know the truth” but that makes the debate boring, to say the least.
Dawn readership is much more erudite than the Canadians and the Americans. And our learned Indian friends make the debate even more lively. We should be grateful that they participate in the debate. I wonder if they could tell us how it is to debate in the Indian newspapers. Are the Indian forums as lively as Pakistani ones?
Yes its lively, there is really hot arguments going on on hot issues in Indian newspapers online.
I am pleased to hear that in Indian print media there is a lively debate. I should try my hand on that sometimes. Can you recommend me one please.
In Pakistan there is no shortage of TV talk hosts. In India there is one of the Khan actors. How do you explain this lack of debate on the TV in India?
Bhutto, Shah Faisal & Zia all did great service to Islam by declaring them non muslim. They are real sons of Islam as they solved almost 100 year old issue. Allah must have been happy too with their service to His religion but I don’t understand that why did each of them saw a dreadful end;
Bhutto was hanged by his own people, Shah Faisal was shot point blank by his nephew, and Zia blown in the air
Just trying to understand if this is the way Allah ends life of His dear ones. or may be its a coincidence
The liberal forces in Pakistan for most part are more into democracy and rule of law and want to discuss and work out the issues facing the country, they are mostly drawing room activist who want to follow a democratic process. The religious fanatics on the other hand believe that they have the backing of the “God”, and what they are doing is God’s commands, they are unwilling to negotiate anything that they think is God’s command, these people are really willing to die for their cause as evidenced in today’s Pakistan. A group of opportunist Mullah have joined them also as there is a lot of money in it in the form of petro dollars.
I do not see any tangible force in Pakistan at the moment who can fight and overcome these forces of Ignorance and bigotry. I hate to say it but these forces will remain strong in Pakistan in the the foreseeable future. I think this mentality will keep fighting the Ahmadi’s, Shias, and among themselves.
This will harm our country and the majority of people who are just bystanders in this game of religion, money, power and politics.
Mansoor Khan
USA
OMG
A Great piece of work. You must have spent weeks and weeks in its preparation.
A brief and precise recap of our ongoing downfall.
I wish if our actual political elite could read this article (at least those who can eventualy read).
I must say that I’ve learnt a lot from your articles (and still learning).
Your fan
Religious political parties are neither religious and purely political playing on people’s fears and pitting one against the others. They should be banned in any civilized country.
leftists are equally responsible for economic and social diseases of Pakistan. Faiz was allegedly card carrying communist.
Sadly ZAB used Islam to destroy minorities, and at the same time used socialism to destroy economy, banks, schools, and factories.
An extract from Munir Kiyani report ( 1954 ) “Provided you can persuade the masses to believe that something they are asked to do is religiously right or enjoined by religion, you can set them to any course of action, regardless of all considerations of discipline, loyalty, decency, morality or civic sense.”
Fascinating read in this article about the demise of the social fabrics as such , the blame for this disintegration and the mess the nation is now engulfed in , lays farily and squarely , at a Grave site in Ghari Khudabaskh . that is half the story listed here .
The other half i.e the territorial breakup of the Pakistan of Jinah , is also been explained with factual data in a very frank way being wriiten in nother article of which 2 parts have been eye poping realities , where the blame fairly and squarely lays at the door steps of Muslim Leaguers who came after the death of Jinah , with the covert support of blue eyed civil/militry power hungry looters .
People quite wrongly blame ZAB for the break up of the country in 1971 , his crime is even of a bigger proposition than that symbolic slogan attributed to him ” ither ham uther tum ” , as illustrated in this article . BRAVO NFP yet the leftists were cowards pussycats , we needed more of Merajs and JA Rahims perhaps , only then the nation could have escaped this mess !
Unfortunately, when I think about Pakistan my attention goes towards Islamists not on liberal Pakistanis like NFP.
Yes, because you have been fed this. When you will get your thinking back, you will end up on something different
People say : Bulleh is an Infidel (Kafar)
and an idol-worshipper.
But in the Lord’s court, both the Momin and Kafar
(Believer and un-believer) are treated alike.
It is still not late, if leadership of PPP realises the mistake it made in past ,by bowing down to religious parties.Now they have to give some sacrifice, may be by accepting their mistake they will not get power very soon but they can put country back on the track of success. They have to distance themself from these Petro-dollars. Although they is change going on all arab world, hopefully we will get rid of these arab monarches very soon, who are resposible for spread of this brand of Islam in our country.
religion of peace
All religions propagate peace. Its the followers who cause the rot.
An excellent perspective NFP. Is there a party in Pakistan of today with the courage to say that we will correct the wrongs done by previous generation? Be it the genocide in Bangladesh (East Pakistan) operations in Baluchistan and Kashmir or killings of Ahmdis, Shias , Hindus and Christians, there are two common themes in all that . One that no Pakisttani feels ashamed of all that rather they will start justifying them on one or other pretext. Second JI seems to be at forefront of all these. Bangladesh has learnt a lesson and banned this outrageous group of fascists but it may take probably decades and countless more lives before Pakistan’s social conscious will wake up and get rid of this psychology.
JI is not banned in Bangladesh. However, right now trials are going on in Bangladesh of people who collaborated with the Pakistani army in 1971 and tortured or killed people. Most of these criminals belong to JI.
I ask NFP to write and article about “Roots of Communalism”,How did the religious bigotry started in Pakistan,which eventually let to sectarianism.
No need to write anything.Bhutto and Bhutto only sowed the seed of Cummunalism in Pakistan.
Do you have someone like NFP in India you can ask how the Indian caste system got started? I bet there is no such freedom in India.
Bhutto was not trying to appease the religious parties, he actually was trying to save the Ahmadi’s by declaring them non-Muslims. Just prior to that particular declaration, a large number of armed men, actually a small army, had gathered in Punjab and were about to attack Ahmadis and kill them for being apostates. Bhutto then declared them non-Muslims so that he could save them from the bloodshed.
Really?
You don’t save someone by passing laws against them.
ZAB should have used full force of the state to put down anyone breaking the law and destruction of private property.
But he unfortunately chickened out and ended up appeasing the anti-Pakistan Mullahs.
That is difficult to believe. If that be the case, he should have prevented the mob from harassing a peaceful community rather than declare the community kafirs, which they resisted with all their might. It’s the same argument the current minister of religious affairs in Indonesia is giving about the Shias; that if they become Sunni, they will not be bothered… Please stop making excuses.
But sorry to say, no body could save Bhutto.
M.J let me remind you as an Ahmadi, we created this country against the wishes of Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious parties. We are the most disciplined and organised people in Pakistan. We can defend ourself if we need to. We, as a policy, do not take law into our own hands at all regardless if it is designed against us, you cannot quote an example in 65 years of history refelcting on our highest discipline and educated approach. We will not do this ever. We didn’t need Bhutto’s help to protect us, he should have acted according to law to protect all citizens of the country.
Yesterday I sent you my comments about the wrong photo of Chief Justice of Pakistan which happened to be of 3rd Gov Gen of Pakistan.You were quick enough to remove the photo but you didn’t put up my comments or drop me a small mail of thank for correcting this error. Have a nice day.
I am not sure but 100 % of my thoughts come from watching Pakistani News and TV shows. It seems that Pakistan also started teaching its school children to hate HINDUS and India. It always lied to its people about all the wars with India blaming India for them where as they are the ones who started them. It also lied to them about loosing those wars.
“The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust
our own government statements.”
— Senator James W. Fulbright
Mr. Patra;
reading the comments on Dawn, it sure looks like you Indians are behind none in hate. As Allama Iqbal said:
Apnoon se nafrat kerna to ne button se seekha.
Pakistanis are survivors and we will survive no matter what . We are destined to rise and people from entire world cannot stop that from happening. Enough is said about we being ignorant, but what is being done around the world by most civilized nations, is also not a secret. Stop worrying about us as we know our ways out and start worrying about yourself, as your days are near.
Please get up from your Sofa and enlighten us how. Animals are also surviving from centuries but their life is not the life one want to live.
wishful thinking. history tells us that people who dont learn from their mistakes are finished as a result.
(Pakistanis) “…start worrying about yourself, as your days are near…”
First the Pakistan government must fall and then the World.
This is a failed mad Japanese idea.
All hail the Islamic Republic of NATO.
A detailed research article from writer, the beauty of this article is, its written in a way that a new generation could think at least once what’s the core reason behind the movement of declaring Ahmedis Non Muslims, and how Mullahs of every decade earn fame through this issue and hiding the truth from the people to spread hate against the Ahmedis.
A Country born of the inability to live with others , has no HOPE it will live with its OWN, What can you say about pakistanis, in one sentence,, Pakistan’s roof is leaking, leaking with Ignorance, your Karma is catching up with you guys.
interestingly he keeps calling qadiani’s “Ahmedi’s” even when quoting the National assembly report on qadiani’s….. also no mention of what creed one must adhere to in order to be called a ‘muslim’, only mentioning what some ‘ulema’ believe in their opinion, is required to be ‘good muslim’…. good muslim or bad muslim is irrelevant to the whole debate… which is based on whether qadiani’s actually are muslim or not…. there are good and bad people in every religion, caste, colour, faith creed, society, etc etc…. good and bad is subjective…. the issue raised is whether qadian’s are muslims or not….
if you want to dehumanize people then please do so…for that is the matter between you and Allah…but please have the manners of calling people with their true name..members of Ahamdiyat Community call themselves Ahamdis…not Qadiayanis….and anybody who has knows urdu will know that Qadiayanis are those who live in Qadian..just as Islamabadi are those who live in Islamabad and same is the case with Faislabadiz, lahoriz etc..so please have some sense…this county has enough of its social ills as it is…do not be a cause of instigating others…
if you want to be one of those who dehumanize people just on the basis or their race, religion, language etc…then please do so….for this matter is between you and Allah. but atleast have enough manners to call people by their true names….Members of Ahamdiyya community call themselves AHAMDIS. Not Qadianiz…and anyhow…people who know urdu should know that Qadianis are those people who live in Qadian…just as Pakistanis are those who live in Pakistani and Indians are those who live in India and so forth….so please..Pakistan already has its full share of social ills as it is….but please be aware that your one comment can be the cause of death of a HUMAN BEING and a life of misery for that human beings equally human family.
Just the beginning of the rise of The Islamic Nazi Party in Pakistan.
Saddam played the Irai Sunnis for fools and murdered as many Shias and Kurds as he could get away with.
Sadam sent 500,000 Iraqi men to their deaths against Iran. Certainly the Islamic Nazis of Pakistan can kill at least 1,000,000 Pakistani solders in India.
you should read the Justice Munir Commission Report and you will get your answer. Justice Munir asked Mullas, what is the definiin of Muslim (not good muslim). One responded that give me 2 weeks, justice Munir replied, if you couldnt get an answer in 14 centuries how will you get one in 2 weeks. It is people like you who are pushing this nation into the dark ages
please enlighten us all of the principles to label a person muslim vs non muslim ….
Really simple.
“There is no god except Allah, and Mohammad pbuh is his messenger”.
That’s all you need. Everything else is a practice.
A Pakistani Muslim is a man who would rather kill hundreds of people than eat a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, and a non-Muslim is the one trying to get away from him.
The people turning Islam into an international joke.
I dont see any problem here. He calls them Ahmedis simply because they call themselves Ahmedis. As simple as that. Your so-called name is Ak18. What if I say to you , you are not Ak18 but AK47 (no pun intended). Its not my business telling you what you would like to be called is it? Remember Jam Sadiq always used to refer to BB as Benazir Asif . He made a complete fool of himself since she herself always liked to be knwn as Bhutto. Get my point?
Excellant analysis of how petrodollars for oil rich arab countries belonging to one ideology of Islam has been able to use Pakistanis,with willing politicians and military, to polarize and persecute one community against another and destroying Pakistan and its economy. When will Pakistanis wake up and realize the great injustice done to minorities in the name of Islam, the first religion that accepted any minorities and tried to protect their human rights. No one has the right to decide who is a true Muslim. “Let the one with no sins cast the first stone”
Pakistan depends upon them for monetary help. So they have to listen to what the donors want.
Saudi Arabia will own Pakistan, with God’s help. Then there will be no borrowing from the IMF, and the Pak Army can be the official Army of Saudi Arabia.
Problems between Indian and Pakistan can then be sorted out with Saudi money.
It is the perfect solution. Corrupt Pakistan officials will have their hands chopped off.
You get American money you tow their line. Its happening in your backyard.
i wish we start seeing things the way they are..atleast now, after so much damage has been done. the fabric of society has been thoroughly mutilated by the religious rights. it was never about declaring Ahmadis non muslims. it was a politically motivated struggle by the rightists to stay in the fold and claim a lion’s share in the long run. the religious groups (both shia and sunni) who played their role in declaring ahmadi’s infidels are now at dagger’s drawn to declare each other infidel. this is not going to end. yesterday it was ahmadi’s who faced the burnt of fundamentalists, now it is shias who are facing similar ordeals. tomorrow , you never know, there will be a struggle to pass a legislation in this regard just like it was done it 1974. it won’t end here..you may live to see similar chantings to declare a barelevi group and vice versa.
the only solution is to forge an environment of religious tolerance, supporting the causes of multi ethinism, pluralism and diversity!
may God be with us!
Mr. Irfan,
You are absolutely right no sane person can oppose your assertions. it was a black day when our Parliamentarian took over the roll of Allah and decided that who was Muslim and who was not and this encroachment in the authority of Allah has now turned into curse for this nation and now every sect is calling other sect Infidel (Kafir) in the hope that they will get the other sect declared Infidel (Kafir) from the Parliament
“The only solution is to forge an environment of religious tolerance, supporting the causes of multi ethinism, pluralism and diversity!”
How is that different from India ? Sir, your statement is a slap on the 2 nation theory and the very creation of Pakistan.
Modi is more than enough to remind both sides about the very reasons that a partition was required. India is also a third world country with equal share of extremist mind set and it will be proven once Modi becomes the PM or a cabinet minister.
Tolerant and peaceful Pakistan is good for India. You Sir do not need to go back 60+ years to express your hatred for the idea of Pakistan. Look forward towards peace instead of looking backwards for hate.
Thank you
The idea of Pakistan is to have a secular society but with a Muslim majority. Thats how it is different to India. Your reaction suggests that it is a slap on your face rather than on the 2 nation theory.
“I wish we start seeing things the way they are.”
.
“Intelligence is the ability to see things as they are.”
George Santayana
This is the man who also wrote, “Those who refuse to learn from the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them.”
IGNORANCE is our desire to see things the way we want them to be regardless of facts.
People are waiting to be welcomed to Paradise after committing murder and every other sin because they are the ignorant. It is the other fellow who needs punishment.
Bhutto made his biggest mistake when he tried to appease the Mullahs of his time and accepted their demands whereas masses had rejected the Mullahs and elected the secular Bhutto & PPP but unfortunately later on those Mullahs with outside monetary support revolted against Bhutto and brought down his government and eventually took his life with the help of Zia there is a lesson for every Politician especially those who are in power that they should not try to appease extremists of their time as they were not chosen by extremists / fanatics they were elected by the masses and the masses have given them the mandate of tolerance and humanity not to bow down or to cave in under the pressure of extremists / fanatics.
Very well said.
When you are impure in the land of the pure, you have no choice but to go to the hammam! When their is so much impurity you do not have enough numbers of hammams!
to clean away the impurity
You can never appease tyrants.
Democracies spent most of the mid-1930’s appeasing Hitler, and he kept marching on.
The religious tyrants are even worse.
well said :100% correct
MR.BHUTTO contradicted the very bendiction of Mr.jinnah that pakistan’s state affair will not dictated by clergy men
“…they should not have tried to appease the extremists of their time…”
Appeasement is always the mark of weak men. Leopards can smell fear.