“The right to celebrate Eid and other Islamic traditions has been snatched away from us because they are associated to Islam and since we have been declared non-Muslim we can not celebrate” In 1974 Pakistan declared the Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority using a constitutional amendment. Since then they have been stopped from celebrating “Muslims Holy Festivals.” 60-year-old Ijaz Ahmad is a resident of Rabwah and works in a small company. He says like every year he likes to celebrate Eid …
Four years ago, Asif Khan took his wife and two children and fled Pakistan, where as an Ahmadiyya Muslim he was part of a heavily persecuted minority group. Yesterday, Mr Khan said he thanked Allah for bringing him to the other side of the world as he celebrated Australia Day among a peaceful sea of red, white and blue at the Masjid Baitul Huda Mosque in Marsden Park in Sydney’s northwest.
Two Pakistani clerics have come to blows at a meeting of the religious establishment over the fraught issue of the status of Ahmadis, a Muslim sect that hardliners want declared apostates. A scuffle broke out on Tuesday between the two at a gathering of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) when the chairman, Mohammad Khan Sherani, called on the group to consider whether Ahmadis, who are declared non-Muslims by the constitution, should be considered murtads that have rejected Islam.
A tiny Indonesian province has banned a minority Islamic sect from conducting religious activities, a move activists say raises concerns over intolerance in the Muslim-majority nation. The move by Bangka-Belitung, made up of two main islands off South Sumatra, is the latest in a series in which religious minorities including Christians and Shi’ite Muslims have faced harassment and complained of a lack of protection.
An Australian man will turn to the Australian Government for help after his 81-year-old Ahmadi Muslim father was imprisoned in Pakistan last month. Khalid Ahmad’s father, Abdul Shakoor, who owns a bookshop in Pakistan where the Ahmadi faith is outlawed, made international headlines when he was jailed for eight years in December for selling books deemed hurtful or hateful to another religious group’s beliefs.
In an odd move Indian Muslim leaders have criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sending greetings to Muslims. In a letter written on 21st December 2015 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for its religious tolerance and universal brotherhood. He wished success to ‘Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya Centenary’ celebrations which are taking place in Qadian this month. Thousands of Pakistani Ahmadis are also taking part in the celebrations.
An American University Professor has exposed a Pakistani University’s secret hiring policy that prohibits hiring of Ahmadiyya Muslims. The professor is a member of an external committee that reviews applications of faculty candidates at Pakistani Universities.
My family moved to Lahore in early 1970s. We rented the lower portion of a house in what was still called Kirshan Nagar, despite being renamed Islampura, probably after the 1965 war. It was an old style house with an open central courtyard. There were two front rooms both having an opening onto the street. The owners lived in the upper portion but they purposefully kept one of those front rooms. They would hold a weekly religious gathering in that …
The Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JA) will not partake in the forthcoming local government polls to register its protest against what it calls the step-motherly conduct of the state towards it. These elections have separate elections only for Ahmadis, says a letter written to the Election Commission of Pakistan, a copy of which was made available to the media. It is strange that Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians are included in one electoral roll and only Ahmadis are registered in a separate …
A documentary featuring testimonials and stories of minorities was screened at the Jinnah Institute (JI) on Friday. Titled ‘Strangers in their own land’ and ‘اپنی زمین پر اجنبی’ for English and Urdu segments respectively, the documentary is an initiative of the institute. It was screened at a closed-door event and was attended by its filmmaker Ali Aftab Saeed, human rights activists, and researchers, who opened the floor for discussion and encouraged feedback post-screening.
Speaking to a Friday congregation, Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who is the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference and chief of Muttihda Majlis-e-Amal Ameer said the ‘Ahmadis won’t be allowed to spread tentacles in Kashmir’. Mirwaiz warned people to beware of the expansionist plan of the Ahmadis in Kashmir and foil their nefarious designs. “Earlier, Christian Missionaries were trying to spread their tentacles in Kashmir by offering monetary benefits and now it was Ahmadis who want to do the …
The combined Opposition in the Pakistan Parliament has demanded that the Government should declare the Ahmadiyya sect, a non-Muslim minority, remove all its members from influential and sensitive offices, and arrest Mirza Nasir Ahmad, who describes himself as third Caliph of the sect. The demand, which came yesterday, even from parties professing to be secular, followed a week of anti-Ahmadiyya agitation in Punjab. Today Opposition members walked out of the National Assembly after tear gas was used to disperse 2,000 …