Radio free Europe: One of the many religious minorities whose plight is documented in the latest U.S. State Department report on religious freedom is the Ahmadiyya community, or the Ahmadis.
The Ahmadis consider themselves Muslim, but that is a view rejected by mainstream Islamic sects. And in Pakistan, as RFE/RL correspondents Daud Khattak and Frud Bezhan report, Ahmadis have come under assault not only from extremist religious groups but also from the government.
Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi sect has become the target of rising sectarian violence, with its burial grounds, mosques, and homes coming under assault.
Authorities have done little to stem the attacks, with the government still refusing to grant the community equal status.
Those were the findings documented by the U.S. State Department’s 2012 International Religious Freedom Report, which was released on May 20. The report said Pakistan’s Ahmadis, who number between 2-4 million, are being harassed, detained, and banned from practicing their faith.
Under Pakistani law, the Ahmadis cannot refer to themselves as Muslims or engage in any Muslim practices, including using Islamic greetings, calling their places of worship mosques, or participating in the hajj, or holy pilgrimage. Ahmadis risk imprisonment for up to three years and a fine if they break those laws, according to the report.
According to Ameer Mehmood, who is a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community, the Pakistani government’s “anti-Ahmadi laws” have helped foster a climate of violence with authorities doing little to stop attacks against Ahmadis.
Categories: Ahmadis And Pakistan, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Asia