Ahmadis: Pakistan's persecuted 'others' struggle for recognition and rights

Ahmadis in Pakistan society suffer from social, religious, economic persecution, hatred and violent attacks. They face constant threats from Pakistani authorities and extremists. Even worse, in death, Ahmadi tombstones are desecrated expunged  of their Muslim identity if not outright destroyed. Besides, criminal charges are brought against its leadership in Pakistan and  abroad . In one such incident, on 26 January, 2024, police under pressure from religious extremists destroyed the tombstones of 80 graves of the Ahmadi community in Punjab province. The incident occurred in Daska, some 100 km from Lahore, the provincial capital. According to the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan , “The police destroyed the tombstones of Ahmadi graves even though the graveyard land was allocated to the Ahmadi community by the government of Punjab”. The 500,000-member Ahmadi community is a well-pronounced and mostly neglected religious minority in Pakistan. A decision of the Lahore High Court in August 2023 said the 1984 prohibition on building Ahmadi places of worship did not allow authorities to destroy or alter structures built before then.  Still, such a verdict does not deter the ruthless demolition of Ahmadi mosques and other religious edifices. As written above, police continue to demolish Ahmadi mosques  and graves over allegations against them masquerading as Muslim worship places. Ahmadis are barred from giving the Islamic call to prayer or even displaying “ Muslim names ” in front of their homes. The Pakistani  Constitution formally declares  the Ahmadi sect of Islam to be “infidels” and bars members of the community from “posing as Muslims”. As reported in September 2023, approximately 75 graves and minarets of two worship places belonging to the Ahmadi minority community have been demolished by police and radical Islamists in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Also, it is reported that since 1984, some 4,000 Ahmadis have faced criminal charges because of their faith. Religious bigots who continue to consider themselves as saviours of Islam fail to comprehend that tarnishing graves is not exactly associated with the traditions of Islam . Ahmadis are not even safe in their own neighbourhoods and towns. Since the name of the Ahmadi-majority town- Rabwah is mentioned in the Quran, the Punjab Assembly unanimously agreed to rechristen it as Chenab Nagar, referring to the town’s location along the bank of Chenab river. The change of name happened without the permission of any residents.  This town was built by Ahmadis after partition, when they came from India in 1947 and trusting themselves guided by God, selected an unfertile stretch of land where they hoped to make the Punjab desert bloom. Wealthy and well-educated Ahmadis started camping in tents and mud huts near the river and the railway line. Eventually, making settlements and later houses in Rabwah. The origin of the Ahmadi community goes back to the British-ruled India of 1889. At the time, in the province of Punjab, a Muslim religious leader, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , became disillusioned with what he thought was Muslim which allowed for the embarrassing experience of foreign rule. He was born in the small village of Qadian in Punjab, India. The Ahmadi community is also denoted derogatorily by some as the “Qadiani” (or “Kadiyani”) community, a term derivative of the birthplace of the founder of the movement. The movement, in its initial years, was branded as blasphemous as Ahmad’s claims were also synonymous with the rejection of the essential belief of the finality of Prophet Muhammad (Khatm e Nabuwat). The following decades were to witness the advent of extensive anti-Ahmadi sentimentality after the formation of Pakistan. Opponents of this sect view it as a treacherous deviation from Islam and fall upon Ghulam Ahmad as a false prophet and messiah, who established his sect to serve the British. Many Muslims, therefore, consider the Ahmadi as either Kafir (infidel) or Zindiq (heretic). Nowhere is this more outward than in Pakistan. In independent Pakistan, the first major countenance of anti-Ahmadi sentiment  targeted an Ahmadi, Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan, who held the foreign minister’s post in 1953. Some Muslims disseminated stories that Ahmadis proselytised among Muslims and denoted a Western-supported conspiracy. This provoked riots throughout Pakistan in the year 1953 that led to six deaths. Afterwards , the government  removed all Ahmadis, including Zafarullah Khan from significant government posts. Later during the Bhutto regime , on 7 September, 1974, Pakistan’s Parliament added the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims after months of agitation from religious political parties. The process of ‘othering’ of the Ahmadi community continued with great zeal and eagerness in Pakistan. In 1984, the dictatorship of Zia ul Haq consolidated the state of Pakistan’s stand against the Ahmadi by the issuance of an ordinance (Ordinance XX) which prohibited Ahmadis from preaching or professing their beliefs. The ordinance prohibited the Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to pose as Muslims. Their places of worship cannot be called mosques. They are barred from performing the Muslim call to prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quoting from the Quran, proselytising in public, seeking converts, or producing, publishing, and distributing their religious materials. They are also singled out in their passports and legal documentation and cannot hold governmental positions without publicly denouncing Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The separate electorate was obliterated for minorities by General Pervez Musharraf in 2002 by  executive order but kept the anti-Ahmadi provisions due to hardliner pressure.  In 2018 , the incumbent Imran Khan government  backpedalled  on the selection of famous economist Atif Mian as financial advisor owing to his Ahmadi faith. The  Islamist rationale : those who are loyal to the Ahmadi beliefs cannot be loyal to Pakistan. The bottom line is since 1985 most Ahmadis have not participated in an election . Casting a vote would require them to  openly denounce themselves as non-Muslims , which would have its consequences. In the year 2002, Pakistan abolished an electoral system in which Muslims and non-Muslims registered and voted in separate categories. The government also formed a separate category for Ahmadis. Since then, all Pakistani citizens have voted according to a single electoral list except the Ahmadis , who vote on a separate list. Sadly, Pakistani laws against the Ahmadi community encroach upon Pakistan’s international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Pakistan sanctioned in 2010, together with the rights to freedom of conscience, religion, expression, and association, and to profess and practice one’s own religion. As the State-sponsored brutality against Ahmadis continues and they go through severe communal segregation, thousands of Pakistani Ahmadis have pursued asylum in other countries. Some Ahmadis have escaped to Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries in search of refuge and international protection with the UNHCR. More than 6,000 Ahmadis are currently residing in these countries as asylum seekers or refugees, with fewer groups dispersed in the Far East such as Korea, China, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Theoretically and also academically speaking, broad social, political and religious reforms are the dire need of time, for securing the future of Ahmadis in Pakistan. But the vital question still remains how many more to die or suffer if something positive actually happens? The author is a Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .