Source: huffingtonpost.com

My name is Kashif Chaudhry. I am a Pakistani immigrant to the United States. Currently, I am completing a Cardiology fellowship in Boston. While speaking at Yale a few days back, Ayaan Hirsi Ali declared war on me. But why?

To provide some perspective, I am a Muslim who belongs to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the single largest community of Muslims worldwide, with tens of millions of members in over 200 countries, all united under His Holiness, the Khalifa of Islam. Established in 1889, we have a 125-year history of demonstrating — not just claiming — that Islam promotes universal justice, freedom of speech and free exchange and criticism of ideas. We promote peace through dialogue and support universal freedom of conscience for people of all faiths — and of no faith. We are at the forefront of humanitarian service throughout the world. We run schools to impart secular education, hospitals to treat the sick and lead charity projects to provide food and water etc. across many parts of the developing world. In the United States alone, we collected 30,000 bags of blood to commemorate 9/11 victims in the last three years. We also recently took our fight against hunger to the American Congress. We condemn violent Jihad, reject apostasy and blasphemy laws as un-Islamic and champion the separation of Church and State.

The inspiration for all our work is Islam. We get our inspiration — to place Humanity first — from the teachings of the Koran and Prophet Muhammad. But in doing so, we invoke the curse of Hirsi Ali, who declares war on us for the crime of following the Koran.

I followed Hirsi Ali’s speech on social media. Here is what I have to say her… read more at huffingtonpost.com