Dr. Mahdi Ali - An Ahmadi cardiologist martyred - 26th May, 2014

A US based cardiologist, Dr. Mahdi Ali, visiting Pakistan to provide free healthcare was shot down a few hours ago today near the Ahmadiyya cemetery (Behashti Maqbara), Chanab Nagar (Rabwah), Punjab. He had just finished paying his respects at the graveyard, when he was shot down by unknown assailants while coming out of the graveyard. He was murdered in front of his wife and toddler son. He has two other sons as well, a 5 year old and a 17 year old.

Dr. Mahdi Ali just recently came to Pakistan as a volunteer to serve in rural areas of Punjab to provide free healthcare of poverty stricken people. Dr. Ali was providing his services at Rabwah's famous Tahir Heart Institute.

Dr. Mahdi Ali was martyred after Fajr prayers. Why? Had he done ill to someone? Had he committed a heinous crime? Had he committed illegal acts? No. His crime was being an Ahmadi. His crime was belonging to a faith which is not socially acceptable for the people of Pakistan. His crime was being a known cardiologist from the Ahmadi sect, who came to Pakistan to provide free treatment to the poor and the needy. His crime was that he was not violent. His crime was that he was true to his faith. His crime was faith in Allah.

Dr. Ali was shot in front of his own and a toddler son. How will his wife forget the bloody image of his body out of her head, how will she stop thinking about the gunshot that took her husband’s life? How will Dr. Ali’s three sons carry on knowing their father was murdered, knowing they must now live a life without him?

Do the killers have no remorse? Or guilt? How do they expect to live with blood on their hands, how do they live with a face of the victim in their minds? Does it not haunt them? Don’t the cries of the deceased’s family not push them to the edge of insanity? Doesn’t the face of the toddler, whose father they snatched away too early, make them feel any remorse? How can a man be so brainwashed as to not feel all this?

Furthermore, what do these killers hope to achieve by murdering Ahmadis? Do they get some reward out of it? Has God promised them some special, secret reward that none of us are aware of? Do they instantly get closer to Heaven each time they take a life, no matter whose it is? Does that strengthen their faith? But then, how can killing a person strengthen anyone’s faith? Isn’t faith strengthened by prayers and meditation and fasting? As far as I remember, I was never taught to kill people or to torture them in order to get some special treatment from God.

Islam was chosen to be the last religion on Earth because it promoted peace. It never provoked anyone to go out to war, it never demanded any man to take the life of an innocent man, and it never commanded its followers to put on the armor of God and rule this world, when obviously they are not meant to do so. Islam teaches peace, not violence. Islam teaches harmony, not cacophony. Islam teaches love, not hatred. Then why are Ahmadis hated so much, when they have always promoted peace and love? Isn't it funny to see how these so-called Muslims are teaching people Islam, these "Muslims" who kill other Muslims? These Muslims who murder innocents in the name of God, and end up being a disgrace to the entire Muslim community? These Muslims who do not even KNOW the meaning of Islam, let alone be its delegates.

The killers and the murderers and the oppressors need to open the Quran they so claim to know all about, and they need to read its translation, and they need to understand what God wants them to do. Killing Ahmadis will not strengthen their faith, murdering innocent people will never ever grant them what they claim they have already gotten. After all, Allah is ever-Watchful. He knows what is in every man’s heart, and He is the One who will give justice to the oppressor and the oppressed. Allah is Watching.

May Dr. Mahdi Ali rest in peace, and may his family bear this loss with strength, grace and dignity, and may the killers of this innocent, innocent man be punished for the heinous crime they have committed.

Aspiring to be a journalist in Pakistan

I started writing at the age of 9. I remember my essays and stories back in 3^rd grade, some of which even won me some prizes. I have been meant to write, to express, to let my feelings flow into words. I have always loved how words could beautifully express a person’s feelings at a specific point in time, how they could send you in a completely different world, away from reality. The main thing that amazed me was how much words could make you feel.

I started writing again a few years later, but it was more real than fictitious, based on current affair and human rights. Mostly, I wrote about Ahmadis and how their rights have been violated by the so-called Muslims of Pakistan. It was then I decided (a little bit too late) that I wanted to be journalist. I couldn’t possibly study it but I could try and write, learn some tips, get more recognition.

Everyone around me has been asking me to stop writing. Close friends, family, acquaintances, and even some people on Twitter. Not because I am a horrible writer (God forbid) but because they are scared for my life. They know what happens to people who speak out, who voice their opinions, who are blatantly honest. They kept telling me to go abroad and start writing there but for as long as I’m in Pakistan, I should just remain quiet. Or I should use a pen name. Something, anything, which would protect me.

This is the situation of journalism in Pakistan. People who speak the truth, who create awareness in people are being slaughtered like animals. People who dedicate their life to the country are being attacked. People who are doing what they have always been passionate about are being blown to bits and pieces. Is the truth so hard so hear that you’d rather kill someone than hear it? How brutal can you really be?

I have wanted to be a journalist for a long time. I have wanted to serve my country through my word, even though being an Ahmadi, I will always be discriminated. I have wanted to create awareness about the rights being denied to minorities in specific and humans in general, all over Pakistan. But I also know that if I get published in a paper that would be it. Being an Ahmadi AND a journalist? Double treat for the illiterate, inhumane terrorists residing in our country.

I didn’t write this post because I’m scared for myself. I wrote it because I’m afraid for the hundreds of journalists who are brave enough to step up and speak the truth, and end up getting murdered in cold blood. How long will we tolerate this? How long will the government keep hiding murders and condemn them dutifully and forget about them an hour later? This terrorism can’t go on forever, journalists shouldn’t be targeted.

All I want to say here is this. Killing journalist does not hide the truth. If one dies, another will take his place. The truth will always remain. No amount of murders will hide it. The terrorists will only be adding sins on their accounts instead of virtues.

Stop killing journalists.

Stop killing honesty.

Stop killing.

Just stop.