7th September, a horrifying day for Pakistani Ahmadis

Today is 7th September, 2013. 40 years ago, on this day, Bhutto took the step of declaring the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan to be non-Muslims and forcefully turning them into a minority, according to the wishes of all the religious extremists, regardless of the fact that Ahmadis had sacrificed their life, blood and honour for the making of Pakistan. 

Ahmadis, after this declaration, were not allowed to offer prayers or call their prayers Namaz. They were not allowed to call their places of worship 'mosques'. They were not allowed to say or print words like 'InshAllah' 'Bismillah' 'Allah' 'Muslims' etc. They were not allowed to preach or carry out their religious activities. They were not allowed to call their Holy Book 'Quran'. They were not allowed to recite the Kalima Tayyaba. Basically, to summarise it, they were not allowed to say or do any thing which would make them look like Muslims. If they made the mistake of doing so, they would have to pay a heavy fine or be imprisoned for 3 years. 

After this horrifying declaration, there could have been protests, there could have been violence by the Ahmadis, there could have been bloodshed. But.. There was nothing. Every Ahmadi was asked to pray vehemently, every Ahmadi was asked to kneel down to Allah, who was the Only One who could help them. And not one Ahmadi objected to that, every Ahmadi was so united under the orders of the Khalifa and the love for Ahmadiyyat, that they did exactly what they were ordered, no questions asked.  This situation was not an easy one to go through, but not one Ahmadi raised a voice of protest. 

40 years later, here we stand. The message of Ahmadiyyat has reached the corners of the Earth and millions of people convert to Ahmadiyyat every year, new countries discover this message of peace and love. All except Pakistan. Pakistan remains the same, proud and arrogant of declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Instead of trying to tone the hate speech, they have heightened it to a level of insanity. Famous journalists, anchors and talk show hosts are inviting people, especially religious extremists to their shows, to promote hatred against Ahmadis. Ahmadis are publicly declared Wajib ul Qatal on television and national newspapers. Banners are seen throughout the country, declaring anyone who talks to Ahmadis or shakes hands with them, to be a non-Muslim as well. Notices are hung outside shops, announcing that Qadianis (a degrading word used for Ahmadis) to not enter their shop because they will not be entertained. Question and answer sessions with religious extremists declare a nikkah of an Ahmadi void. 

This does not end here. Ahmadis are being threatened constantly. In the last 15 days, three Ahmadis have been martyred in Karachi. In 2010, during two attacks on mosques in Lahore, 86 Ahmadi Muslims lost their lives while hundreds more were injured, while the police stood and watched, without providing any assistance. The Tehreek-i-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack however nothing was done to catch the culprits. In the talk shows that aired afterwards, instead of showing sympathy to the Ahmadiyya Community, the talk show hosts mercilessly degraded the Community and pestered the Ahmadiyya spokesman with questions which were not even related to the attacks. 

Even the dead are not left in peace. In the Ahmadiyya graveyard of Lahore, many graves were exhumed, grave stones were broken. On the grave stone of Dr. Abdul Salam, the Nobel Prize winner from Pakistan and a proud Ahmadi, the word 'Muslim' was chalked. Ahmadis are constantly being threatened that they should convert back to the 'real Islam' or they will have to suffer the consequences. Pamphlets have been spread asking people to not buy goods from Ahmadi companies or they will not be considered Muslims. 

This is just a basic oversight of the life that Ahmadis have to deal with. And yet they do not protest. They do not kill, rape, kidnap or torture anyone because of it. They do not even hate anyone because of it. Why? Because their motto is - Love for all, hatred for none. And regardless of how many abuses, taunts and mockery has been thrown onto them, they will always reply will love and peace, no matter what. Try it and see for yourself, if you don't believe me. 

At the end, I would just like to say something here - we, Ahmadis, we have our Allah to pray to, we have our Holy Prophet (saw) to follow, we have the Holy Quran as a code of conduct for us to act on, we have the Promised Messiah (as) to bring us back to Islam, we have Khilafat that binds us together tightly, that unites us all from all over the world. What do you have? Curses, abuses, killings, torture, hate speech is not going to get you anywhere. And if you say it's in the name of Allah, then know that Allah commands nothing of that sort. It is your own minds and hearts that want to do this, but you just want to brainwash the nation into thinking it is Allah's act. 

So, instead of spewing profanities and hatred on us, just pray and do what your religion commands you to do. It is for Allah to decide who is wrong and who is right, and that decision will be made on the Day of Judgement. You are not anyone to declare who a Muslim is or isn't. You do not know what is in the hearts of anyone. As the Quran says - for you your religion, for me my religion. Let it be. And let Pakistan live in peace. Let us live in peace. You may take away all of our rights from us (most of which you already have) but you will never be able to take our love for Islam Ahmadiyyat away from us. You will never be able to take our love for Allah away from us. And He is the Only One who is Watching and He is the One who will punish the evil-doers. Peace.