WSJ blogs: Rights groups welcome Pervez Musharraf-era reforms to Pakistan’s electoral system, which helped put religious minorities on an equal footing with Muslims. But Ahmadis say they were left out, and some other religious minorities say they still don’t have adequate representation in Parliament.
“We want to be part of the mainstream, but they [the government] won’t let us. Theyare keeping us out of elections,” a spokesman for Pakistan’s Ahmadi community said.
Muslim extremists in Pakistan persuaded the government to pass a constitutional amendment in 1974 declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates there are at least one million Ahmadis in the country.
Ahmadis follow the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a late 19th Century reformer who they consider a prophet. Most orthodox Muslims believe there were no prophets after Prophet Muhammad.
Categories: Ahmadis And Pakistan, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Americas
Thank you Mr Umar Farooq for bringing to limelight the plight of Pakistan’s Ahmadi Muslims on one hand, and the state of sham democracy perpetuated by the rulers in succession. Unfortunately the media and the civil societies are playing to the galleries, and are mute spectators of this gross injustices, perpetrated in the name of Islam. It is high time the country’s intellectuals come out from their self-centered shell, and speak out against the injustices made in the pretext of protecting Islam.