Toronto Sun: When Zakria Nasrullah Khan heard the third gunshot, he realized it wasn’t a tire bursting or a car backfiring.
It was two men shooting at him and his mosque, the one that his father and 6-year-old son had just entered. The one he and other security volunteers were guarding, unarmed. The one the terrorists barricaded from the inside as they shot worshippers.
“I haven’t felt more desperate than that point in time,” he said.
The May 28, 2010 attack in Lahore, Pakistan lasted for hours, complete with grenade and suicide bomb explosions. More than 60 people were killed, including Khan’s father and several friends. His son, now 8, survived with no injuries.
A month later, Khan received death threats: one text message was two mock headlines announcing his death and his acceptance of mainstream Islam.
The message ended with: “Now you choose which headline you want to become.”
Another time, a gunman chased him and shot at his car. He barely managed to escape.
Three months ago, Khan arrived in Canada with his mother, wife, and two children. He is one of many from the Ahmadiyya Muslim community forced to leave Pakistan, a country that once had an Ahmadiyya Muslim as its first foreign minister. That was Khan’s grandfather.
Why are Muslims fleeing an Islamic country? They’re not seen as Muslims by other sects, due to a difference in beliefs about the coming of the messiah.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who followers of the movement believe is the promised messiah, founded the Ahmadiyya sect in 1889. Today, his successor is the fifth spiritual leader of the community.
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Americas, Belief, Crisis, Discrimination, Pakistan, Uncategorized
Thank God he,with his family, managed to reach Canada safely.We are family and lived in the same neighbourhood.He is a brave young man and the whole story of what happened on May28,2010 is too traumatic to be described again and again by even a brave person like Zakria.The event has lent him a maturity rarely observed in men of his age.We lost a great man in Ijaz Bhai who possessed an unflinching faith and subtle humour to carry off any group of people any time.He was more of a friend to his son than a father.It is a big loss to the family,community and friends alike. May God accept his sacrifice and bless his lineage with more strength, commitment and all the best things in life! Amen.