The metamorphosis of Imran Khan: From the cornered tiger to a cornered rat

courtesy dawn.com

Updated: 30 Jun 2018 - With Imran Khan starting his 2018 election campaign by the infamous 'prostration' at Baba Fareed's tomb, and his wholesale induction of the corrupt turncoat 'electables' into his party, this article is even more relevant. (if I say so myself).




Imran Khan has never been known for his wit. His two major achievements in life were to be good at cricket/winning a world cup and building a hospital in his beloved mother’s memory.

His foray into national politics was expected, but in the early 90's, he always dismissed such suggestion and said 'I am no politician'. 

Then he became a politician. What he unleashed upon an expectant nation was a mediocre intellect hiding behind mere charisma. He added to this an increasingly vulgar rhetoric and his fan club followed suit.  His detractors, both mainstream politicians and mullahs have called him a Zionist, for his first wife was a Goldsmith; an Indian and/or a western puppet, as he has admirers in those nations and more recently, a Qadiani agent.  But one cannot find even a remotest link between him and the persecuted reformist Ahmadiyya sect derogatorily referred to as Qadianis in Pakistan.

One reason could be that he had initially given some indication of his intentions to champion the rights of minorities in Pakistan. This face of Khan was only shown while he was fundraising in the west.  This raised hopes for some who saw Khan as the change Pakistan needed.


What followed in the years to come was an ugly creature crawl out of this cocoon of false promises of reform and justice. Khan had fallen from grace at the very first hurdle. He didn't even try to scale it. The cornered tiger turned out to be a cornered rat.

He was so aware of the toxicity of the Qadiani label that during the last general elections, Imran Khan issued multiple statements to reassure the religious right that he was as bigoted about Ahmadis as them.

A few months ago Captain Safdar took to the floor of the national assembly and made an impassioned speech on the conspiracies being hatched by the Ahmadis against Pakistan. There was no apparent cause for such speech.

It became clear later that it was a pre-emptive strike against what was to come. In a matter of days, the whole country was gripped in the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat controversy.  We have seen the emergence of the colourful Sunni Barelvi maulvis. They seem set to run a huge campaign in the next election on a sectarian, anti-Ahmadi agenda. Imran Khan needs the same vote bank to succeed.

His recent maneuverings to woo the working class religious voter should cause some concerns over his capacity to radicalize his followers.  Recruiting Amir Liaqat Hussain is another piece of evidence that Khan has completely sold his soul to the devil. And this has been a long time coming.

Take for example his recent speaking engagements. One at a shrine near Islamabad called Golra shareef. The shrine is the ancestral seat of holy men of a sufi order, well known in Punjab with a significant following in the immigrant diaspora across the western world. The shrine hosts a ‘Khatme Nabuwwat’ conference every year, which is well attended by the Barelvi clergy and holy men.

With the next general elections looming, Muslim League (N) has had its day.  The Sharifs are trying desperately to make peace with the military and knowing their track record, it should never succeed. Nominally liberal People’s party has no spine, no principles and no hope. With no other major contenders in sight, Khan seems to be the only option left for the military establishment, but he cannot win Punjab without the religious vote.  Whoever wins the populous, economically strong Punjab province will form the government after the next elections. But he also needs Karachi. With MQM in disarray, PTI may be able to gather enough support  to make some inroads into the MQM strongholds.

Khan hasn’t stopped at Golra. On 22nd of March,  he attended another Khatme Nabuwwat conference, this time in Lahore. His reputation has taken a hit due to his recent marriage. His new wife,  Ms. Maneka  is a faith healer of some description. In the past, Imran Khan has been a willing disciple to such self-made suburban Sufis. A late bloomer in religious zealotry, Khan has kept clear of the puritanical clerics until now. He prefers the populist version of Islam, the simpler variety through which he can placate his zealous followers and disarm his opponents with rhetorical piety. 

He often begins his speeches with quarter of a verse from the Quran, something which the more learned Muslims find a bit naïve, even in poor taste. His new wife’s teachings or faith-healing methods are not known, but it has been widely reported that the lady has prophesised Khan’s ascent to the PM house if he married her.  With the marriage out of the way, Khan has to undo the damage by replacing the lost votes from the educated class with the rural Barelvi votes that are easily mobilized by the clerics.

It seems that there will be more Khatme Nabuwwat conferences, especially in KPK to rally support from a religiously conservative province in the coming months. His yobs have contributed to the lynching of Mashal Khan who was declared an Ahmadi by his opponents. 

It will come as no surprise if Amir Liaqat Hussain, who has a history of anti-Ahmadi hate speech , may use the same tactics in Karachi to appeal to the religious right. All the indications are the Khadim Rizvi and his henchmen are being put on the back burner for now.  But come the general elections they will be unleashed  to break the backs of any politicians who harbour any democratic ambitions.  Imran Khan is not one of those politicians.

In fact, Imran Khan is no politician. He is a narcissistic, ageing sports hero who can't let go of fame.

Muslim Council of Britain - The Islamist Big Brother

Muslim Council of Britain has many affiliates. Shia, Sunni, Wahabi, Salafi, progressives as well as orthodox; the council does seem to strive to represent the interests of British Muslims.

We can safely assume that theological differences among various sects are put aside while dealing with key issues which affect all Muslims alike. i.e., Islamophobia, community tensions, discrimination at workplace, mosque applications getting refused on flimsy grounds etc.

It doesn't matter to the council for example if a shia  muslim holds a theologically distinct position regarding the superiority of Imams over the Prophets, a belief which is fiercely contested by the Sunnis. But why should it matter?

Your local council, or a fiery UKIP candidate, or your boss don't need to know these intricacies while judging you to be a person of concern around the place. Your beard, hijab or the need to go for prayer breaks will be sufficient to provoke prejudice against you.

Similarly, it doesn't matter for the MCB if a certain proportion of their membership is barelvi sub-sect of sunni Islam. Barelvi's tend to be more devotional towards the saints and sufis of the past and their present day successors. They find it much easier to prostrate themselves before their holy men and indulge in mystical music and dancing. An observant barelvi will spend much of his life in certain social and religious practices which are shunned by the wahabi/salafi sect of Islam. Wahabi/Salafi Muslims are strict monotheists. To them, barelvis are 'Mushrik', polytheists. The act of 'shirk' is enough to condemn a person to eternal hell!

Both wahabis and barelvis are proud members of the MCB, and why shouldn't they be? As it doesn't matter to the local residents to protest against a mosque project if it is going to be a barelvi or a wahabi mosque. We all look and sound the same to them, right?

Why should then the MCB go out of its way to say that Ahmadis cannot be called Muslims?

According to their statement the MCB feels that muslims are unduly pressurized to refer to Ahmadis as muslims.

In my experience, it is infact the ordinary mainstream Muslims who are being pressurized unduly to boycott Ahmadis and consider them non-Muslims. Most of my muslim friends consider me a muslim like themselves. But if some of them unfortunately cross paths with a takfiri Mullah, they change their views. Not all of them, but some of them. And when I confront them about their views their standard reply is that 'I am not expert in such things, but the Maulvi knows much more than I do.'

A famous slogan goes 'whoever doesn't believe them to be kafir is a kafir himsef'.

Hate filled pamphlets called for the boycott of Ahmadis are common sight in the UK threse days.

We should sympathize with those poor souls who are being held hostage by the enemies of freedom of belief and expression. The MCB is playing big brother for UK muslims, just like its proud affiliate, the Majlis Tahaffuz Khatme Nabuwwat, AMTKN, a well funded organization which is responsible for Ahmadi persecution worldwide.

Imam Ibrahim Mogra of the MCB, a polite and well-spoken muslim faith leader, spent an hour on the BBC Asian Network trying to explain to the audience what it is that gives him and the MCB the right to say such an absurd thing.

Imam Ibrahim Mogra. Image courtesy ukasian.com

Mogra cites the two fundamentals of Islam, 1) Belief in Allah as the only God and 2) Belief in Muhammad as the final messenger of God.

He says that because Ahmadis do not believe in the finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad and they hold a distinctly unislamic belief in another prophet after him, therefore they cannot be Muslims.

A number of Ahmadi callers to the show refuted the Imam's assertions by stating that almost all muslims are awaiting another prophet to arrive any day now, hence his stance is not only illogical but against the commonly agreed doctrine of the majority of Muslims.

I could go into more details on this fine and nuanced theological debate, but it should be sufficient to say that Ahmadi Muslims believe in a messiah, namely Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecy regarding the awaited prophet. Others however believe that Jesus who is in heavens will descend on a minaret in Damascus and conduct a worldwide holy war against all non-believers.

My point is that whereas shia belief challenges the fundamental concept of prophethood of sunni Islam, and whereas the barelvi practices clearly contravene the fundamental idea of the oneness of God as held by the non-barelvis, both these groups are muslim in the eyes of the MCB. Ahmadi Muslims do not hold any beliefs that cannot be interpreted from the words of Quran and the sayings of the Prophet. Then why display such malice against a persecuted, peaceful minority? 

I know the answer, and it is time that you know it too.

Ahamdiyya Islam has challenged the orthodox establishment in Islamic countries for over a hundred years. Whether it is the concept of violent jihad or the place of science in the muslim society, women's rights or interfaith relations, rejection of political Islamism or the use of modern methods to defend Islam against the missionary onslaught in the colonial days; Ahmadiyya Islam has been winning hearts and minds all around the world. And this does not sit right with the orthodoxy.

The early opponnets of Ahmadiyya Islam were great scholars in their own right. They still hold revered status among the orthodox Muslims today, but most of them accepted the Ahmadi Islam as a part of Muslim polity. They may have declared them 'kafir' in a theological sense, but they did not dare deny them their identity.

It is only when in 1974 Pakistan a Saudi backed conglomerate of mosque and Parliament took the ill-fated step of enforcing jealousy and hatred as a law. Yes, such laws exist. They were jealous of the advances the Ahmadis had made in all spheres of life in Pakistan and abroad. Statesmen, businessmen, scientists, military heroes, diplomats and economists, Ahamdis had proven their true value to the nation and the Muslim world as a whole. In fact, most new converts to Islam were because of the Ahmadiyya missionary work around the world.

After causing hundreds of targetted killings in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, when the same jealousy and hatred spills over to the UK with the scholars and Imams of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, people like Asad Shah get murdered in Glasgow.

And the same hatred and jealousy is the cause of such statements to be made which reek of complicity and guilt.

Ahmadi Muslims do not need a certificate of approval of their faith. But as a political entity, Muslims who self-identify as Muslims must stand united, regardless of theological differences. If MCB is failing thousands of Muslims in this country like this, I am happy to join any other council which does what it says on its label.

My faith, My crime.

I remember clearly the moment when I realized for the first time that I was a criminal.

It was the autumn of 1993 in Rawalpindi, where I went to college. It was the living room of a friend of mine. We must have been having our usual contests of who can impress the other with the best trivia and unusual facts as teenager do, when my friend triumphantly stated

'If an Ahmadi says Azan (the Muslim call to prayers) he can be jailed for three years'.

I must have left a long gap between his trivia and whatever astonishing fact he expected me to return.

'Its in a book in my father's library'. He said. Obviously thinking that I didn't believe him. 'Its in the Pakistan Penal Code.'

I changed the subject. I must have thought of something to say. I can't remember much from that day, apart from a sense of anxiety that I usually felt in certain situations.

My friend did not know that I was an Ahmadi.

I told him about my faith a few months later. Surprisingly enough, he was OK with it. He was one of the rare few who remained my friends after knowing about my faith.

Such situations came way too often in my life. My family had to move from town to town due to my father's job. And each new move brought with it new classmates, new neighbours and new friends. All of whom would start wondering why I don't go to the nearest mosque for prayers. I suppose the grown-ups soon figured out the reason. It was however far too tricky for us children.

Most of my friend found out about my faith through gossip. I seldom had to volunteer the information and not many asked me directly. Being an Ahmadi in the post-Islamization Pakistan was dangerous. You could get beaten up or bullied in schools, by both the teachers and your classmates. I remember a classmate who would just casually walk up to me and punch me in the back saying that it was an act of 'sawab' (to be rewarded by God) to hit a 'kafir' (infidel). It was of course done as a crude joke, so I did my best to avoid him.

In another school, our science teacher would spend a whole hour explaining to us that Qadianis (Ahmadis) are kafirs. He knew fully well that there was a Qadiani 12 year old in his class. Fortunately, not many in my class knew that it was me. Funny thing is, that I liked that teacher because I like science and he was good at teaching it.

I knew that the dictator, General Zia had passed laws against us Ahmadis, and due to these laws, our 'Huzoor', the Khalifatul Masih had to leave Pakistan. We used to listen to his sermons through audio-tapes which were played at various prayer centers and Mosques that we used to attend for our Friday prayers.

But I was not aware of the real implications of these laws until I heard my friend pronounce the three year jail term for reciting the Azan.

I must have recited the call to prayers hundreds of times in my childhood. It is one of the first things we Ahmadis are taught as children. A Muslim must know the words as without the Azan, a congregation cannot offer any of their five daily prayers. I also learnt how to read the Quran, even memorizing some long passages. I offered my prayers in the manner no different to my Sunni friends. I went to the Ahmadiyya Mosque which looked no different than the Sunni Mosques. Our Imams read the same Arabic prayers before and after their sermons. We had two Eid celebrations, a month of fasting which started and finished with all the other Muslim sects.

But according to the Pakistan Penal Code, I was a criminal since April, 1984. I was a non-Muslim for the purposes of the Constitution by birth, thanks to Bhutto's 2nd amendment in 1974.

It would only require one police report to ensure I was thrown in Jail. At 17 years of age, I was a habitual criminal. I broke the Pakistani law on a daily basis. This realization dawned upon me on an autumn day while I was having a cup of tea in my friend's living room. This realization did not leave my mind for the next decade or so. I finally got free of its burden by leaving Pakistan.

You can understand that I was never a fan of General Zia, The architect of Afghan 'jihad' and the benefactor of the monstrosity that we now call the Taliban. He took it upon himself to rid the country of this 'cancer' of Qadianiyat which was a threat to both his version of Islam and his idea of Pakistan. The 2nd amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan had already paved the way for his ordinance XX. His aim was to decapitate the Ahmadiyya organization by going after the office of the Khalifatul Masih, the worldwide spiritual leader of the Ahmadi Muslims. The verbage used in the law was obviously aimed to target the Khalifatul Masih. His plans were foiled when Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IV, Mirza Tahir Ahmad left the country before a reason could be created for his arrest.

Zia died in a plane crash in 1988. But his laws survived the plane crash and the democracy which followed. No one dared touch any Islamic laws that Zia had enacted, including the notorious blasphemy and the Hudood laws. Even the liberal dictator, General Musharraf left these laws well alone. A dictator can suspend the constitution as many times as he likes, but its Islamic clauses remain valid at all times.




Some so-called liberal Pakistanis think that these laws have no real impact on the majority of the Ahmadis living in Pakistan. How wrong they are!





Since 1984, no new Mosques have been allowed to be built by the Ahmadis, hundreds of criminal cases brought against them for using the Islamic greetings or other Quranic texts in speech or in writing. Many more cases have been registered against Ahmadis for 'hurting the feelings' of the Muslims. Hundreds of Ahmadis have been murdered and their murderers walk free in most cases. These laws have made it impossible for Ahmadis to seek or even expect Justice in the courts of law.



In addition to this, Ahmadis are fair game for the notorious blasphemy laws too. An Ahmadi, just by being an Ahmadi is automatically guilty of blasphemy. How dare they believe in a prophet after the Last Prophet? How dare they believe in revelation after the Quran?

 Ordinance XX bars me from defending myself when such allegations were thrown at me. Any attempt to explain my beliefs were to be taken as proselytisation, which is a crime.

We cannot print books or sell and distribute them to non-Ahmadis. We cannot hold debates or seminars to share our ideas with others. We cannot print advertisements in newspapers or even expect them to print unbiased news regarding us. Even when we are massacred in our hundreds, the press struggles to report it as a human tragedy. But all care is taken to ensure that our mosques are not referred to as mosques in their reports.

Ahmadis have been relegated to a sub-human category of creatures in Pakistan.

I often think what will it take for Pakistanis to take a decisive step in correcting this grave injustice in their name? I think of all my non-Ahmadi friends I left behind in Pakistan and wonder what they thought about these laws really. Not many had the courage to condemn these laws. They thought that this was a religious matter and should never be discussed between good friends.

But this is not a religious matter at all. These laws were the menifestation of demagoguery of the clergy and arrogance of a ruthless dictator. If anything, these laws are an insult to the religion of Islam.


To help repeal these unjust laws, I urge you to sign this petition.

On Iqbal day, 2010

Growing up in Pakistani educational system in the eighties, I was made aware of Allama Iqbal from the first day when I heard "lab pe aati hay dua" being recited in the school. The poem is prayer by a child that God may make his life a guiding light for others. Iqbal teaches the child that he must stand by the poor and help those in need. To be honset, children at school assembley just followed the tune. We had no idea what it meant. This was a generation which will grow up to live the democracy of post-Zia era and post-democracy Musharraf times. And now post-Musharraf democracy. We learnt that our collective lives were not a glowing beacon for people to follow, neither were we a generation to help our nation's poor and downtrodden. Iqbal's first dream is being broken every single day in Pakistan.We have seen enough carnage of racial, sectarian violence, a war in Kashmir, an insurgency in Baluchistan, a mutiny in tribal areas and the rise and further rise of terrorism. We have suffered natural calamaties of Biblical proprotions. Iqbal's prayer, recited by millions of Pakistani children remains unanswered.
During my middle school years, I was told that Iqbal was the person who saw the vision of Pakistan and Quaid e Azam fulfilled his dream. I imagined Iqbal, the wise sage, waking up from his dream in his candle-lit quarters, looking for a piece of paper to write down the description of this Divinely inspired vision. It turned out that this "dream" was a well thought out speech in a political conference, and later explained in a letter to the Daily Times, London. In these days, I became fond of Iqbal and borrowed his poetry books from the library and tried to memorize many of his poems. His Shaheen Momin was my hero, my ideal. His rhetoric of superiority of a praciticing Muslim and his message of revolution was very appeasing to me. At that time, I was also a keen reader of Naseem Hijazi, Barbara Cartland of urdu literature. Except for he was a man, and wrote novels around the glorious Muslim conquests in Middle-East and Europe. The comparison with Barbara Cartland is due to his fixation with just one era and with one aspect of history.
Iqbal's portrait appears in many offices across Pakistan. In many of his protraits, he appears in a contemplative pose with an eagle soaring in the background. The eagle or falcon represents a true Muslim. A soldier of Islam who is proud of his Islamic heritage and superior understanding of the world around him. To us, Iqbal was one of these super-Muslims. How bravely did he stand up to the British and Hindus to guide the Muslims to find their pride and recover their prestige. And Muslims of India did just that by creating Pakistan. I read about Captain Sarwar, Major Aziz Bhatti etc. and thought of them as personifications of Iqbal’s Shaheen. In the 80s, Gen. Zia’s american Jihad was taught in school books. India was always evil, Israel a mortal enemy and Russian was the official language in Hell. Iqbal’s selective poetry in school books, and many religious sunni teachers, no wonder Pakistanis have such a one-sided view of Iqbal.
Then I found Ghalib and Meer. Iqbal’s poetry did not seem as brilliant when I compared them. I discovered in college, that to consider Ghalib better than Iqbal was to confess that you preferred wine and women over your faith. But Ghalib’s poetry agreed with my thoughts more than Iqbal. Ghalib’s honesty and humour had much more to offer than Iqbal’s dry slogans. But when it came to politics, I was still in agreement with Iqbal. Muslims needed the strength of character, the military advantage to win their place in the world. Ghalib was always busy ruing his bad luck and failures. Meer was crying himself to sleep. But Iqbal was challenging the accursed satan himself. He even went as far as questioning God's Wisdom on why Muslims were in decline.
But then I found Faiz. Ghalib had a match. Iqbal was No. 3 in the list. Faiz teaches us to be stubborn in the face of adversity, but he also keeps one foot in the dreamland. He trusts God's Wisdom and accepts that pain and persecution is all a part of our collective experience. He may have been a communist, but his metaphors are more closely connected to the Holy Scriptures than Iqbal's.
What was my reason to demote Iqbal from my list of literary heroes? (He still is on the list.. but somewhere at number 25 or below). I read a comment once that Ghalib resorted to writing Qaseedahs for the British Monarch. I also found a lament Iqbal wrote at the death of Queen Victoria, where he equated the day of her death to Muharram. I have no problems with people writing praises for the Kings and Queens. Both did what they though was right. But Iqbal’s deep study of Greek and modern European philosophy had an impact on his own thinking. He was a student of history, but was not such a great revolutionary as portrayed in the books. He himself denied in a letter that he never wanted a separate homeland for muslims, but was only throwing options to ensure peace in India. I think muslims in India made Iqbal into a celebrity too soon. As soon as he returned after his overseas education, he was treated like a leader. His poetry was lauded as the best in the whole country. But was his phiolsophy as sound as his linguisitic abilities? I find that today, everyone claims Iqbal to be one of them. Secularists love him because he condemned the mullah. Mullah quotes him as he was a Jihadist. Scholars like Ghulam Ahmad Pervez (of Tolu-e-Islam) claim that Iqbal was a rationalist like Sir Syed. Indians revere him, Pakistanis claim the ownership over Iqbal. What was Iqbal? I think, he was a poet, who could never make up his mind.
A freethinker like he was, Iqbal dismissed orthodoxy for most of his life, until he required guidance (or was pushed to seek it) by the Ahrar. In 1935, just three years before his death, Dr. Iqbal felt the urge to oppose the Ahmadiyya Sect, despite his four decades long active relationship with them. His close relatives were Ahmadis. His eldest son, Aftab Iqbal was sent to Qadian to study in the Ahmadiyya boarding school. These last three years of his life, gave Iqbal the popularity among the ultra-orthodox Ahrar, and later Jamaat e Islami and other deobad and even salafi-wahabi movements.
I would like to believe that Iqbal’s vision was a federation of fucntioning muslim provinces who followed rationalist Islamic ideology like his. But who can tell? Our Jihadis find the ailing, angry and vindictive Iqbal more agreeable.

Pakistani Mullah and the tragedy of 28th of May, 2010

Courtesty, BBC URDU

میں یہ کس کے نام لکھّوں

میں یہ کس کے نام لکھّوں جو الم گزر رہے ہیں
مرے شہر جل رہے ہیں مرے لوگ مر رہے ہیں

کوئی غنچہ ہو کہ گُل ہو کوئی شاخ ہو شجر ہو
وہ ہوائے گُلستاں ہے کہ سبھی بکھر رہے ہیں

کبھی رحمتیں تھیں نازل اسی خطّہء زمیں پر
وہی خطہء زمیں ہے کہ عذاب اتر رہے ہیں

وہی طائروں کے جھرمٹ جو ہَوا میں جھولتے تھے
وہ فضا کو دیکھتے ہیں تو اب آہ بھر رہے ہیں

بڑی آرزو تھی ہم کو نئے خواب دیکھنے کی
سو اب اپنی زندگی میں نئے خواب بھر رہے ہیں

کوئی اور تو نہیں ہے پس ِ خنجر آزمائی
ہمیں قتل ہو رہے ہیں، ہمیں قتل کر رہے ہیں

عبید اللہ علیم

Error of their ways; Where Muslims have gone wrong.

Promised Messiah, and Imam Mahdi, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (a.s) writes;

"It is a remarkable coincidence that Christians erred with respect to the rights of God, while Muslims erred with respect to the rights of human beings. That is, the Christian faith raised a humble man to Godhood, thereby compromising the obligations due to the All-Powerful, All-Sustaining Being Who has no equal in heaven or earth. But Muslims violated human rights by unjustly raising the sword and calling it jihad. In short, Christians adopted one path of violating rights, and Muslims adopted the other. Unfortunately for this era, both of these groups consider their own transgressions to be desirable. Each therefore emphasizes its own doctrine, certain that this alone is the straight path and best way to Paradise. Although violation of God’s rights is the greatest of sins, it is not my intention here to discuss this dangerous offense of which the Christian people are guilty but rather to make Muslims aware of the transgressions that they are committing against their fellow human beings.

It should be remembered that today’s Islamic scholars (who are called maulavis) completely misunderstand jihad and misrepresent it to the general public. The public’s violent instincts are inflamed as a result and they are stripped of all noble human virtues. This is in fact what has happened. I know for certain that maulavis who persist in propagating these blood-spattered doctrines are in fact responsible for murders committed by ignorant, egotistical people who know nothing of why Islam was forced to fight battles in its early history."

British Government and Jihad, Published more than 100 years ago.

Ahmadis being persecuted even when the country drowns in a Biblical flood!

The politics of relief: Aliens in their own land

MUZAFFARABAD: The government and local clerics refused to shelter around 500 flood-affected families belonging to the Ahmadiya community in South Punjab’s relief camps. Not only that, the government also did not send relief goods to the flood-hit areas belonging to the Ahmadiya community, The Express Tribune has learnt during a visit to the devastated Punjab districts of Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.
For its part, the government claims that all relief goods are being distributed among survivors without discrimination. And that all survivors have been sheltered in relief camps without distinction. The flood-devastated families from the Ahmadiya community have strongly criticised the government’s “discriminatory attitude” even at a time when the entire country is reeling from the ravages of the worst flooding in living memory.
Of the 500 Ahmadi families, 350 belong to DG Khan, 60 to Muzaffargarh and 65 to Rajanpur district. According to Ahmadiya community leaders, over 2,500 members of their community have been displaced and are now living with their relatives while some of them have left for Rabwah, the community’s headquarters.
Aziz Ahmad Khan, a local leader of flood victims from the Ahmadiya community in DG Khan, told The Express Tribune that all members of his family have complained of discrimination in DG Khan. He said 200 families from Basti Rindan and Basti Sohrani, 60 from Chah Ismaeel Wala, three from Rakh Mor Jangi, 18 from Ghazi Ghat and 12 from Jhakar Imam Shah of Ahmadpur. Khan alleged that 200 families, who have been displaced from Basti Rindan and Basti Sohrani by flooding, took shelter in a state-run school at Jhok Utra but within days the local administration forced them to leave the school. He said the local administration later told them that people from the surrounding areas did not want the Ahmadis in the relief camp. And that the administration could not allow them to stay at the camp as it could create a law and order situation.
“So we left our cattle and other belongings in the area and took refuge in the homes of our community members on higher grounds,” he said, adding that some of them even migrated to Chanabnagar.
Muhammad Iqbal Sohrani, a member of the Ahmadiya community told The Express Tribune that around 40 Ahmadi families who took shelter in a state-run school at Jhakar Imam Shah near Sumandri, some 40 kilometres from DG Khan, have not received any relief either from philanthropists or from the government. He alleged that relief packages were being distributed through local lawmakers who have been told by the district administration that the Ahmadis are not eligible for any support.
Saleem Chandia, another Ahmadiya community member, said that he along with 40 other community members rented a house but after two days their landlord was forced by local clerics to evict them. Chandia said they were offered help by their own community members after wandering for several days in search of shelter.
Mansoor Ahmad, a resident of Muzaffargarh, told The Express Tribune that over 800 members of the Ahmadiya community were displaced from Bait Nasirabad, Masroornagar, Hussainwala and Shahjamal. At least 100 members of the community, from Hussainwala and Masroorabad, were trapped at Shahjamal. He claimed that they had asked the district police officer (DPO) and the district coordination officer (DCO) to provide them a boat or to rescue the trapped people but they did not take notice.
Ahmad claimed that the trapped Ahmadis were rescued by their fellows on a broken boat. He said local clerics have issued an edict that the Ahmadis should not be provided help.
Naseem Ahmad, from Rajanpur, told The Express Tribune that their 500 community members from the areas of Basti Lashari, Basti Allahdad Dareeshak and from Basti Azizabad were displaced. Their houses were washed away and the government and local clerics ignored them. He said that they were not allowed to stay in state-run schools or in camps, therefore the majority of them were living on the rooftops of their inundated houses.
“The Ahmadiya community itself rescued trapped people and delivered relief to them,” community spokesperson Saleem-ul-Din told The Express Tribune by phone.
He said that the community did not want any relief package from the government for its members. However, the government should protect the property and livestock of the Ahmadis.
Hassan Iqbal, Commissioner DG Khan, told The Express Tribune that he would check the situation. He asked the Ahmadis to directly approach him if they face discrimination anywhere in the district. However, DCO Muzaffargarh Farasat Iqbal said that the Ahmadis have not contacted him.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2010.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/40435/the-politics-of-relief-aliens-in-their-own-land/

A Letter to Abbas Ather. Daily Express Pakistan.

Dear Abbas Ather sahib,

AssalamoAlykum,

I saw you on Point Blank where Ahmadiyya spokesman was invited for the first time in the history of Pakistan media to speak for our community. I thank you for taking part in such an historic programme and congratulate you on your bravery and honesty. May Allah protect you and all those who are supporting the Ahmadi right to citizenship of Pakistan.

While reading your Urdu column Ahmadiyon ka masla, I was disappointed to see that you considered Ahmadiyya spokesman's effort to answer Shami sahib as Tabligh (proselytizing). Mujeebur Rehman Shami is a known anti-ahmadi who published a whole issue of Urdu digest against the Jamaat, and his questions (rather comments) were loaded with prejudice. When confronted with such questions, neither I, nor any ahmadi can leave them without answers because the ordinary listener takes the impression that we indeed ridicule Islam or consider them "kafirs".

I have no problems with your assertions that there can be no punjabi nabi. My problem starts when it is implied that Ahmadis do not love or respect the Holy Prophet (saw) like other Muslims. This misconception has been exploited by the mullah to stir hatred against us in Pakistan and I urge you not to fall prey to such fallacies. Attaulla shah Bukhari used to repeat the same trick in every speech, so did all his colleagues in Ahrar, which resulted in murders and agitation across the country. May I also remind you that barelvis say that wahabis and deobandis are disrespectful of Holy Prophet (saw) and vice versa. In fact, I believe that it is only Ahmadis who know and believe in the true status of Holy Prophet (saw), and follow his example in the truest manner.

Ahmadis believe that Tabligh is the Jihad of our times and thus, this email is also a form of Jihad. I also don't mind if you think that Ahmadis take every opportunity to do tabligh. I may disagree with some anecdotal evidence you provided in your articles as I am personally not aware of "a house in paradise" for those who become Ahmadis. Yes, I do know that their lives in Pakistan become hell if they accept Ahmadiyyat.

I also know that many Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who claim asylum in the West are not Ahmadis but claim to have been converted and now face death. Infact, it is believed that a majority of asylum applications in these countries are from those who pretend to have converted. You will understand that any ideological movement can not accept "fake" members who have been lured into becoming members. This simply doesn't work and you may have seen from the reaction by the Jamaat in Pakistan, that Ahmadis are Ahmadis by conviction and not due to promise of a better life in Europe or North America.

You have mentioned the "prophecies" about the death of Bhutto and Zia. If these prophecies are tabligh, then I am afraid this tabligh continues. Our Khalifatul Masih has prayed that all the enemies of Ahmadiyyat will be punished by the truth of Kalima we recite. InshaAllah. Lets be witnesses of this in the coming days.

May Allah protect ordinary Pakistanis from the punishment that these extremists are bringing on to themselves. Maybe it is people like you who can spread tolerance which may save Pakistan one day.

wassalam,

Lutf ul Islam.