Ahmadis/Qadianis: The Most Persecuted Minority in Pakistan

Atif Mian, whose removal from a government post stirred a new debate in Pakistan about the extent to which Muslims can show leniency towards Ahmadiyah community

    In July, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan held its first general elections in five years. PMLN (Pakistan Muslim League [Nawaz]) and PPPP (Pakistan People's Party [Parliamentarians]), the two classical political parties that had been ruling the country since 1988 - with the exception of Musharraf's military regime - were ousted by PTI (Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf [Pakistan Movement for Justice]), a small group that had risen to great heights before the 2913 general elections and had succeeded in winning voters from KPK provine.

    After the election results and some months before it, analysts had been speculating that PTI chairperson Imran Khan - former cricker captain of Pakistan cricket team - would become the Prime Minister, a dream he had started pursuing in 1996, the year of PTI's foundation. In August, Khan was elected as Pakistan's new Prime Minister and his political party created its government federally and provincially in Punjab, KPK and Balochistan. In Balochistan, PTI had no majority but had affiliated itself with the local Baloch political movements. Only the province of Sindh was handed over by its inhabitants to PPPP for the fourth time in a row. In Punjab, PMLN had been pushed back into the opposition chambers, as well as in the national assembly. Khan installed his own handpicked CMs in Punjab and KPK and, in September, succeeded in having his own President. Dr. Arif Alavi, a dentist by profession and Khan's two decades old friend, was elected as the President of Pakistan, an office which he had never even dreamed of.

Correction: Ahmadis are also not considered Muslims just like the Druze community

    But weren't we talking about the Ahmadis? Actually, it was quite necessary to elaborate on Khan's vision of the Naya Pakistan (New Pakistan) in which everyone will be treated equally. Khan's mission and his struggles had been in order to eliminate corruption and redeem the respect our green passport deserved in the past. Then an economic council was created in which Atif Mian, an economist, was included. Problem was that he was an Ahmadi and, in Pakistan, Ahmadis are considered to be non-Muslims. But isn't a non-Muslim a provincial minister in Sindh? Mukesh Chawla is a Hindu. Non-Muslims have also been judges and still are elected in national/provincial assembelies. Then what is the problem with an Ahmadi being a member of a government council?

    The truth is that Ahmadis believe they are Muslims but other Muslims accuse them of apostasy because they imagine the founder of their fringe movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (India), to be a prophet. Muslim doctrine states that Muhammad was the final prophet and, if anyone claims to be a prophet after him, that person deserves death penalty. Mirza was a Sunni scholar of pre-Partition India (he died in 1908). After the creation of Pakistan, Mirza's followers were legally declared to be non-Muslims because of their rejection of Khatm e Nubuwwah (Finality of the Prophecy).

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (left) and Muhammad Ali (right)

    After the death of Mirza, his friend Nuruddin was elected as his successor and the first caliph of the Ahmadiyah community. He died shortly in 1914 and then there came the great split. It wasn't so great because 99% of Mirza's followers kept sticking with his son Mirza Bashir who became the second khalifatul-Masih (Caliph of the Messiah). Only a small faction of Ahmadis got separated. They made their own church under the leadership of Mirza's another friend, Maulana Muhammad Ali (d. 1951). They are known as the Ahmadis of Lahore and the reason why they left the mainstream Ahmadiyah movement was because they believed that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad never claimed to be a prophet! Shocking, right?

    You can go to the website of these Ahmadis from Lahore who represent not even 1% of the total Qadiani population of the world; they hate the term "Qadiani". They insist that Mirza only wanted to offer himself as a saint and a mujaddid (reformer/renewer) of Islam, not a receiver of wahi (revelation). The mainstream Ahmadis also believe in the Finality of Prophecy but their definition of it differs widely from that of the orthodox Muslim one. The Ahmadis of Lahore agree with the orthodox one, though. Prominent Muslim scholars have also accepted the status of these Ahmadis from Lahore as true Muslims but never of the mainstream Qadianis.

    Many prominent Pakistanis have been Qadianis. Sir Zafarullah Khan was a high-ranking government officer in Jinnah's administration, the man who founded the country. In Ayub Khan's regime, many Qadianis served their country. The first Pakistani Nobel laureate (there have been only two), Dr. Abdus Salam, was a Qadiani who left the country when his coreligionists were declared non-Muslims. He was later disgraced when the word "Muslim" was erased from his death stone.

   Just like antisemitism, Pakistan is experiencing anti-Qadianism. Just like Jews were hated in Europe during the Middle Ages, Ahmadis are distrusted by the fundamentalists who perceive them as enemies of Islam and Pakistan. A religious extremist from Pakistan views that all Ahmadis are conniving and conspiring to destroy his religion and his country. The wave of hatred has even forced the Saudis to forbid entrance of Ahmadis into their country but that does not stop them from entering the country to perform hajj. Ahmadis cannot preach their religion. They cannot call themselves Muslims. They cannot build "mosques" for they have to name them prayer halls. They cannot write the kalimah ("No god but God and Muhammad is His messenger") on their death stones. They cannot be elected. They cannot hold public offices. The fanatics do not even wish to let them live. It is not novel to hear slogans regarding boycotting Qadiani products like Shezan whatever. Their blood is deemed worthy to spill. That is just the same thing fanatics tried to do to Shiites but they failed. In Iran, the same treatment has affected the Baha'i Faith.

Dr. Abdus Salam (left) and current leader of the mainstream Qadianis (right)

    There is not a shred of doubt that Qadianis are non-Muslims for they reject the doctrine of Finality of the Prophecy. It is just like the Nation of Islam is outside the pale of Islam for they believe that W. F. Muhammad was Allah and Elijah Muhammad received divine revelations. They also use the name of Islam. But that does not mean we start murdering them. First, just like not every single Jew is prepared to destroy Islam (Jews are people like us who have to feed their family so they have little time to think about destroying rival faiths) and just like not every Muslim is a terrorist, not all Qadianis are conspirators. Let them live!

    If Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, Parsees, Christians, Buddhists, Kelash and other non-Muslim communities are given equal rights in Pakistan, why so serious about Ahmadis? Just because they call themselves Muslims? What if an Ahmadi gets a public office? We did not accept Atif Mian as a Muslim nor did we let him preach his doctrines when we asked him to become a member of the government. We used wanted to use his expertise. Just think about the treatment Muslims receive in the West. How can you ask for equal rights for Muslims in the West when, in your own country, you persecute rival religions? How can you ask the West to respect the Prophet of Islam when you have no respect for fellow citizens? How on earth do you think you can justify your criticism of Trump when you are doing the same to other people in Pakistan? How can you possibly condemn Modi to persecute Muslims when you have no sympathy for a poor Qadiani child who is a non-Muslim because he was born like this? Is it his fault that his parents reverted from Islam? We see these fanatics mourn over those innocent Muslims who were killed by terrorists on suspicions of cow slaying. You wish to slay an entire community because they believe in a false prophet? And look how easily I just called Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a false prophet! I am just saying that if you want to be treated equally, first learn to treat others equally. Islam has not allowed you to treat someone with contempt because he has deviant beliefs.

    I am a Muslim and just like we Muslims have always stood up against religious discrimination against non-Muslims by non-Muslims, I hope we will do the same for these Ahmadis/Qadianis.