يرتبط إبراهيم الصوفي، شاب يمني ينتمي إلى الطائفة الأحمدية، إحدى الفرق الإسلامية الحديثة، بعلاقات جيدة مع محيطه الاجتماعي ذي الغالبية السنية والزيدية في اليمن، لكنه لا يخفي تعرضه لانتقادات كثيرة بسبب معتقداته الدينية المخالفة لهذا المحيط. يقول الصوفي (39 عاما)، والذي يعمل مدرسا في مدرسة حكومية بصنعاء “مشكلتنا هي في جمود عقول كثير من اليمنيين، إذ لا يتقبلون أي نقاش حول الفكرة التي نؤمن بها”. والأحمديون هم طائفة إسلامية أسسها ميرزا غلام أحمد، الذي ولد في بنجاب (شمال الهند) …
Girl from Rabwah scored big at the 13th annual Spelling Bee regional competition organized by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper. The competition was held on October 28th at the Ali Institute of Education in Lahore. Mikail Faisal Ejaz of Aitchison College Middle School, Lahore, Vaneeza Salman Mokal of Bloomfield Hall School, Lahore and Sania Ayala of Maryam Siddiqa Higher Secondary School, Rabwah got top positions in the age 9 to 11 age group. As many as 1,000 schools from across the country …
A documentary on the experience of Pakistani refugees in Nepal will be featured at the Human Rights Film festival in Barcelona on November 18th. The film covers the plight of Ahmadi refugees from Pakistan who escaped persecution in the Islamic republic and sought refuge in the Himalayan city of Kathmandu. There are around 350 Ahmadi refugees in Nepal who have been granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The emotional documentary provides an insight into …
Hiding behind the religion card has always been the strategy of many politicians in Pakistan who are guilty of their hideous sins of corruption and misconduct. This time it was Safdar Sahab. Capt (r) Safdar Sahab, My apologies I can’t greet you with Salam, the constitution doesn’t allow me to do so. Hope you are relaxing in one of your mansions, contended after playing the religion card to veil your own wrongdoings of corruption and dishonesty. But let me tell …
On Monday the Indian Vice President awarded an officer from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community with a Vigilance Excellence Award. The Vice-President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu awarded Shri Munawar Khursheed, the Former DIG of India’s Railway Protection Force with the Vigilance Innovation award for his “Outstanding contribution in Vigilance Innovation”. Rasheed who currently serves as Chief Vigilance Officer of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited was credited for implementing an Integrated Fuel Management System which has brought about 100% transparency in fuelling, …
A Canadian-Pakistani newspaper is set to host a senior Pakistani politician who ran Jihadi camps from his farmhouse. Sheikh Rasheed, President of Awami Muslim League ran a training camp for Kashmiri separatist militants from his farmhouse on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad. Rasheed who is a member of Pakistan’s national parliament is set to speak at Swagat Banquet Hall in Mississauga on October 30th. The event is being hosted by Urdu Times, a weekly Urdu language newspaper which came …
In a statement, six U.S. Senators including former Presidential candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL) have urged the State Department to declare Pakistan a country of particular concern (CPC). CPC is a designation given to countries for severe violations of religious freedom. If the Secretary of State designates a country as CPC, the U.S. Congress is notified, which can then use both non-economic policy options or economic sanctions to bring about stop severe religious freedom violations. In a letter dated October 27, …
Residents of Pakistan’s only Ahmadi majority town of Rabwah have voiced concerns after thousands of gathered for a two-day conference against the followers of the minority sect. The two-day conference was organized by Aalmi Majlis-e-Tahfuze Khatm e Nabuwat, in an area known as ‘Muslim Colony’. The area once owned by Ahmadis was forcefully taken over by Islamist clerics and has since been a hotbed of anti-Ahmadi conferences in the area. The conference which ran from 19th to 20th October attracted thousands …
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has condemned a Pakistani court’s decision to award the death penalty to three Ahmadis accused of blasphemy. The Ahmadis who were arrested in 2014 after they were accused of committing blasphemy by tearing down posters against them. Daniel Mark, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated that: “Pakistan must repeal its blasphemy laws and immediately release all those imprisoned under those provisions. Blasphemy laws and the horrific acts …
A Pakistani parliamentarian’s speech has garnered international attention after he announced plans to table a resolution that will bar non-Muslims from holding public office and exclude them from the country’s armed forces. On 10th October 2017, MNA Captain (R) Safdar, a former Army Captain and son-in-law of the recently dismissed Prime Minister made a fiery speech against the Ahmadis. The Ahmadis are a persecuted Islamic sect which has been declared “non-Muslim” under the country’s constitution. During his speech Safdar said: …
On 7 September 1974, the long unfulfilled dream of Pakistan’s religious conservatives finally became a reality with the passing of the second constitutional amendment which declared Ahmadis non-Musim. For the man who spearheaded this movement, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, it was a singular moment of glory and as he left parliament on the day of its enactment he was met by jubilant crowds who hailed him as a hero. A theological dispute sold to the people as a struggle …
U.S. has thanked Pakistan for helping secure the release of a Canadian man, his American wife, and their three young children. In 2012, the family was taken hostage by the Haqqani network. Their three children were subsequently born in captivity. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said: I applaud the innumerable lines of effort from across the U.S. Government. I’m particularly proud of Ambassador Hale and his Mission Islamabad team for their engagement with Pakistan. These …