Express Tribune: Editorial
The demolition of six minarets by the police at an Ahmadi place of worship in Kharian says a lot about the continued official discrimination against the beleaguered community and our culpability in this discrimination. The spate of attacks on Ahmadi places of worship and the continuous assault on their property and business has made life intolerable for them. Meanwhile, every time we sign a form specifically singling out the Ahmadi community as not being Muslim, we are quietly adding to the many problems it faces in the country. It is our acquiescence to the treatment meted out to Ahmadis that allows injustice to continue and even intensify. Essentially, in Pakistan, Ahmadis have been declared an outlawed community, one that is not only undeserving of protection, but in whose case law-enforcement agencies do nothing if vigilantes target the community.
Since the government has shown absolutely no inclination to protect the Ahmadi community from trumped-up attacks, it will be up to those few human rights campaigners and others, who care about the plight of downtrodden communities, to chronicle and reveal the many cases of violence against them. In Kharian, the complaint was that the Ahmadi place of worship should not have minarets since that would make the place of worship resemble a mosque.
Categories: Asia, Discrimination, Extremism, Human Rights, Pakistan
Thanking you ‘ET’ for your timely, really very painful (and forceful, too) editorial, ‘An act of bigotry’ (July 13,2012), and I wish it goes into the heart and soul of the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and they perform their duties and discharge their functions as required under the law and the constitution,and rectify/correct themselves from such illegal,immoral, inhuman, unthinkable cruel treatment against the highly educated, civilized peaceful and peace-loving Ahmadiyya (constitutionally created minority) community is most condemnable.In view of all this prevailing shameful situation, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, is requested to take ‘sou moto’ action and order immediate reconstruction of the demolished minarets of the Ahmadiyya place of worship of God, located in Kharian town. Such a positive, consoling, consolidating/repairing act must be done at once,without any delay, if you have faith in Islam (a religion of peace and ‘salamati’ for all) and feel the fear of God Almighty in your heart, then do the needful as dutiful rulers of our beloved motherland, Pakistan.