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Pakistan

Twitter bans extremist accounts, Supports ‘True Islam’ campaign

This week Twitter announced that it has removed an additional 235,000 twitter accounts, “in order to maintain a safe environment for users on Twitter”. The company said that the accounts were banned for their links to terrorism, while some were suspended for violating twitters policies on supporting extremism. In total the San Francisco-based firm has banned over 360,000 accounts, saying the rate has gone up to 80 percent since last year. Twitter also highlighted it’s own efforts to counter violent …

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau sends Independence Day greetings to Pakistanis

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement in recognition of Pakistan’s Independence Day: “Today, we join the Pakistani community – here in Canada, in Pakistan, and around the world – in celebrating Pakistan’s 70th Independence Day. “I look forward to working with Prime Minister Sharif to further strengthen the relationship between our two countries, and to working together on global issues including, peace, security, and development cooperation. “On this day, I invite all Canadians to recognize the …

What we should keep in mind while celebrating Pakistan Day

“May the nation, the country, and the state, Shine in glory everlasting! Blessed be the goal of our ambition. The Flag of the Crescent and Star Leads the way to progress and perfection…,” These are just a few lines from Pakistan’s beautiful national anthem, which will be on the lips of many on August 14th, Pakistan’s Independence Day. With awe inspiring lyrics, poetic rhythm, and powerful imagery it never fails to captivate the hearts of many Pakistanis. However, there are …

U.S. criticizes Pakistan’s treatment of Ahmadis

The U.S. State Department has criticized Pakistan’s treatment of Ahmadiyya Muslims in its annual international religious freedom report. During the report launch on Wednesday Deputy Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken said “When a government denies religious liberty, it turns citizens who have done nothing wrong into criminals, igniting tension that breeds contempt, hopelessness, alienation.” While speaking at the reports’ launch, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein said: In Pakistan, the government continued to enforce blasphemy laws, for …

UK Home Office to deport Ahmadi asylum seeker

Britain will deport a man its immigration services believe his life would be threatened if he returned to his home in Pakistan. The UK Home Office is to deport an Ahmadi Muslim, Ali Adnan Munir from the United Kingdom next week despite his outstanding application for asylum in the UK. Munir has been in detention at the Verne Immigration Removal Centre in Dorset since 29th July, he’s now been informed that he’ll be deported to Pakistan on 9th August, unless …

Am I not Australian enough ?

I like to think that I’m just as Australian as the kids that I went to school with, as the teachers that gave me my education and as the students I share my lecture theatres with. I come from a different country, so I guess it sounds strange to call myself an Australian. My skin is different to yours, the way I talk isn’t exactly how you do, I speak a different language at home and the biggest of distinctions, …

Diplomatic Council appoints German-Pakistani as Business Ambassador

The Diplomatic Council has appointed a German-Pakistani entrepreneur Jamal Ahmad Qaiser as it’s Business Ambassador and UN Commissioner. In a statement the Diplomatic Council said the 44-year-old was nominated because of his outstanding achievements and tireless efforts for international understanding. Qaiser, who was born in 1972 is a member of the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim sect which faces severe persecution in Pakistan. He started off as market trader and ended up starting his own private equity firm. In 2014, he graduated …

Ahmadis fleeing Pakistan and seeking asylum in Thailand

Bangkok is a city celebrated for its beauty and tradition, and also one notorious for a nefarious underbelly, driven largely by the same tourist market that buttresses the Thai economy. It’s an unfair reputation that has ignored or quickly forgotten the human lives that stay there, beneath the gloss and grit filtered into movies and documentaries, among the outskirts. The first part of this series covered the lives of Christians, who fled persecution in Pakistan, and are staying in Thailand …

Pakistan Police arrest 12-year-old terror victim for terrorism

Police in Pakistan’s southern district of Badin have arrested a terror victim for terrorism after he was injured in a terror attack. 12-year-old Imran Gurgez was arrested along with 4 of his family members after a pipe bomb was thrown at their house. Gurgez belongs to the minority Ahmadiyya sect of Islam which is heavily persecuted in Pakistan. Imran’s uncle Akbar Gurgez said “Imran was sitting on the roof when a plastic bag was thrown onto the roof, the bag had a …

Rabwah – No, it’s not safe

‘No, it’s not safe,’ my mother used to tell me when I asked to join her as she taught the Holy Qur’an to small children in remote areas of Rabwah, Pakistan. I wondered what exactly was not safe. Innocently, I believed it was just an excuse so she would not have to take me with her. One particular evening I begged my mother to take me with her, and she finally submitted to my request. I recall sitting in a …

Hamza Abbasi faces death threats over support of Ahmadiyya Muslims

Pakistani film and television actor, Hamza Ali Abbasi has landed himself in hot waters after calling for equal rights for the country’s minority Ahmadiyya Muslims during his Live show on AAJ TV and is facing death threats after questioning Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadiyya laws. During his Ramadhan show on Pakistan’s AAJ TV, Hamza Ali Abbasi said “I want to say on Live TV that I will be discussing two things on the last day of Ramadhan; One will be the Ahmadi community and …

Ahmadi man shot dead in Karachi

A Man from the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has been shot dead in Pakistan’s seaport city of Karachi. 49-year-old Chaudhry Khaliq Ahmad was a doctor of Homeopathy and was was tending to his patients at his clinic in Gulzar Hijri area of Karachi when unknown gunmen opened fire. Two bullets hit him in the head and he died on the way to the hospital. The assailants managed to escape. Karachi has seen a rise of violence against Ahmadis, 55-year-old Dawood Ahmad …