Piers Fuller

November 6, 2024

Travelling through the mountains of northern Pakistan in the late 1990s, I was struck by the friendliness and generosity of the Pashtun locals.

I remember an occasion when the driver of the van I was travelling in left his seat and came back to sit with my girlfriend and I to talk about Islam. For expedience sake, I lied and told him we were Christian and that we were married.

I said I was keen to learn about Islam, which was true. Though I’m not a subscriber to any particular religion, I’m intensely interested in what they mean to others and how religion shapes human societies.

I went to Christian schools, but with 13 years soaked in the dogma, they couldn’t convince me that there was one true god, and we were right while everyone else was wrong.

Later in our travels through Pakistan I visited an Islamic Madrasa (religious school) near Lahore, but as soon as they talked about separating the two of us, I realised that it was not something I was comfortable with.

I’m kind of glad I didn’t spend some time there because this was pre-9/11 and I probably would have ended up on some watchlist somewhere if the United States ever found out.

As most people are aware, in Islamic countries the universal greeting is As-salamu alaykum (peace be upon you).

The Muslim Pakistanis which have found a new home in Masterton as part of the refugee resettlement programme were forbidden from using this ubiquitous phrase in their homeland.

Why? Because according to the Pakistani state/religious authorities, they are “non-Muslims”, and therefore shouldn’t be able to use these religious phrases.

The reason they are persecuted is because their Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at sect has a 19th Century prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad whose teachings they follow, which according to many other Muslims, is against the rules. Ahmadiyya’s recognition of Ahmad as a prophet has been characterised as heretical by mainstream Muslims, who believe that Muhammad was the final prophet.

The supreme holy text of Ahmadiyya Muslim community is the same as all other Muslims worldwide, the Holy Quran. The local group held an exhibition in Masterton last weekend inviting people to come and understand the book that is at the heart of their way of life.

The irony was that when I was in Pakistan, the locals would accept me as a “Christian” much more readily than they would accept their own brothers and sisters as adherents of a slightly modified form of their own faith.

Another irony was that Pakistan, and Bangladesh, were expressly created as a homeland for Muslims in the very bloody and painful partition from India as the British Imperial rulers left, and now they wouldn’t accept a certain type of Muslim.

This is not is crack at Islam, it is a crack at the illogical nature of human prejudice. Let’s not forget Christians have been perpetrating this kind stuff forever as well. Catholics and Protestants, I’m looking at you.

With over 100 new Pakistanis former refugees in our community, we have become a more diverse and colourful place.

Although they have the freedom to be themselves in New Zealand, that doesn’t mean life here is easy.

Many found it difficult to get trades or qualifications in Pakistan because they were ostracised and discriminated against, so they come here with nothing but a willingness to make a go of it any way they can.

Most refugees spent lengthy periods in intermediate countries such as Thailand before being granted refugee status in countries such as New Zealand.

They have come to settle in a provincial town in a western English speaking country where Muslims are still a tiny minority and that has got to be tough.

One of the biggest factors that will make it easier for them to carve our a new life here is that we help provide opportunities.

This a real chance to show that we are tolerant and supportive for those who might feel like strangers in a strange land. Religion does not have a monopoly on kindness.

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source https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360473959/editorial-refugees-strange-land