Persecution of Religious Minorities In Islamic Countries

President Ahmadinejad called Israel a “stinking corpse” that was doomed to fail (New York Times May 9, 2008). This message of love was delivered on the 60th birthday of Israel.

It was September of 1974, we were glued to Radio Pakistan when it broadcasted Zulfikaqar Bhutto’s announcement that the Constitution of Pakistan has been amended to declare Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority of Pakistan. I was a young boy, and this was the first time I remember seeing tears in my father’s eyes, with his hands clinched above his head. He was a Muslim earlier in the day, and now he was not. My mother had no visible emotions (or if she did, she didn’t want it shown, particularly to her little ‘uns.). It’s a vivid memory that I will never forget. My parents are proud Pakistanis, as men and women of their generation are, who are old enough to remember the birth of Pakistan.

In May 1974, a group of students from Multan, on their way back from a trip to the north, were beaten up at Rabwah (an Ahmadi Town in Punjab) train station by a group of Ahmadi men. The student side claims that they were roughed up without any reason, while the Ahmadis maintain that the beating was in response to the students showing disrespect towards Ahmadi women. Whatever the reason, the students were beaten severely, and some of them had to be rushed to emergency treatment. Luckily, no one died. This incidence was the beginning of the hardships and challenges that were to come for Ahmadis of Pakistan and it continues to day. The Rabwah incidence was a spark and the riots spread all over the country. Ahmadi properties were burnt, Ahmadis were murdered in cold blood, while the security forces stood by and did nothing to prevent this.

I was a 6th grader in Multan, and Multan was the epicenter of the rioting, since the students that were beaten at Rabwah attended a medical college in Multan. The kids I knew in my school were looking to beat me up. We couldn’t hide our Ahmadi-ness even if we tried to, as my family was fairly well known in Multan. We bid farewell to Multan, left our house, and moved in with our relatives in Lahore, where my siblings and I continued our schooling before getting the hell out of there. We were refugee in our own country. I hated Lahore, as I missed Multan and my childhood friends too much.

Soon after in Pakistan, persecution of Ahmadis started in Bangladesh, and reached its height there in the late 1990’s. The most recent bad news is coming from Indonesia, where Jemahh Islamiyah is deadest on having the Ahmadi faith be completely “Banned” in Indonesia. Ahmadi mosques have been burnt and their Qurans desecrated. These are the same people who conducted the Bali bombings not long ago. What the hell is wrong with some Muslims? Is that the biggest thrill they can get? Trying to pick on people who don’t makeup even 1/10th of a percent in their countries? There are only roughly 200,000 Ahmadis in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country. That’s like University of California campuses in the entire USA.

If Muslims do not wake up and speak up against injustices afforded to religious minorities in their own countries, they give up any right to complain of special treatment afforded to them by others. Meaningless protests over stupid cartoons do not achieve anything (or save lives). Speaking up against injustices in their own countries does.

My father has never shown any bitterness about what life has sent his way. The stupid old man thinks that it is a test of faith administered by his Allah, just as He tested many civilizations before us.

Why are some people so stupid?