They follow the teachings of the Quran, revere Muhammad as the prophet of Allah and pray five times a day facing Mecca. But in Pakistan, Ahmadis are officially designated non-Muslims, and they suffer what one leader described as “egregious and ongoing” persecution.
Tahira Ahmad was hoping to celebrate this week the end of a 12-year wait to legally call India her home. A September 7 notification issued by the Narendra Modi government has shattered that dream. The home ministry order, for the first time in decades, allows Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis from Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are now in India, to stay in the country indefinitely without worrying about either passports or visas.
The Times, September 25, 1974 The adoption earlier this month by Pakistan’s national assembly of a Bill conferring non-Muslim status on the Ahmadiyya sect, was a depressing victory for religious bigotry. The assembly’s decision must greatly strengthen the hand of the more rigidly orthodox “Ulema” (professional theologians) and the Muslim fundamentalists of Maulana Maudoodi’s politically active Jamaat-i-Islami a group Mr Bhutto once described to me as ” antediluvian and obscurantist “.
When you visit a mosque, you don’t really expect to go through a fence topped with barbed wire and be greeted with men carrying rifles. But when it’s a mosque where dozens of worshipers were gunned down and killed five years ago, it’s become necessary.
Canada’s Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau was in Mississauga Saturday afternoon to address tens of thousands in attendance at Canada’s largest annual Islamic convention organized by Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Canada. Trudeau said it was great to be back at the Jalsa Salana convention and congratulated Lal Khan Malik, the National President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Canada for putting the event together.
Sitara Brooj Akbar is just 15 years old, but oozes confidence rare for children her age. Home-schooled and self-taught as she had to leave school for “asking too many questions”, Sitara will be mentoring Pakistani kids here via a platform that has been set to help children excel. The platform, Pakistan Youth Forum (PYF), will help impart skills that are not being taught in UAE schools.
The man accused of masterminding the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai has succeeded in persuading a court to ban a Bollywood spy thriller in Pakistan on the basis that it would damage his reputation. An Indian movie set to be released next has been banned in Pakistan on the behest of wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who filed a plea in court saying the film contains “filthy propaganda” against him and his organization.
AMRITSAR: Along with the rakhis, this year, Tahira Zahur, a Pakistani woman married in India, has shared her rakhi wish her brothers across the border: to stop encouraging terrorists operating from their soil to play havoc across in India. The terror attack in Dinanagar moved her so much that she has requested them to find a permanent solution for the peaceful existence of their sisters living in India. Tahira is married to Chaudhary Maqbool Ahmad and settled in Qadian, 40km …
An Ahmadi Muslim man has been shot dead by four attackers on a motorbike in Taunsa, a city in the south of Punjab province of Pakistan. 37 year old Ikramullah was in the pharmacy that he owned when four gunmen on motorbikes stormed the store and opened fire. Ikramullah was shot several times and one of the bullets went through his skull.
Literary icon and former Professor Chaudhry Mohammad Ali passed away on Friday, 14th August at his home in Rabwah. He was 98. Ali was born in “Maseetan” a small village in the Firozpur district of Punjab in 1917.He did his M.A. from Government College Lahore and went on to teach at Punjab University where he was a member of the University Senate and Academic Council. He also taught at F.C. College Lahore and served as the President of the Philosophy …
It was August 14, 1984. I was only two-years-old. My father decorated the veranda of our small house with lights and green buntings. My parents were excited, as were my elder brother and I. Though I was too young to remember, pictures of that day bring on a strong sensation of déjà vu. Yet, and sadly, before the following Independence Day, we had to leave Pakistan. Persecution, which gained momentum under President Ziaul Haq, forced many Ahmadis to leave for …
At least three suspected terrorists were killed late Wednesday night in an alleged police encounter, while two managed to escape. According to a police spokesman, policemen were taking two men Muhammad Hanif and Raja Iftikhar Ahmad accused of orchestrating attacks on Ahmadiyya Mosques, to recover hidden arms, when four to five armed men opened fire at the police party on Indus Highway near Taunsa Bypass.