I am an Ahmadi and I love Pakistan

No matter how much I love Pakistan, it is not the place for me to be right now. No matter how much I say I love it, I will always be labelled a traitor in the place I call home. No matter how much I sacrifice for my country, my fellow citizens will always look at me with contempt and hatred. No matter how patriotic I am, I will be punished.. for being me.

I am an Ahmadi. I believe in the Oneness of Allah. I pray 5 times a day. I recite the Holy Quran. I fast during the month of Ramazan. I wish to go and perform Hajj one day. Then why must my religion make me out to be a traitor? Why must my faith decide that I should be murdered? Why must my belief make me so unworthy that even my own country, my homeland, fails to own me anymore?

I was born in and have lived all my life in Pakistan. Despite all the economic and social issues, I have loved Pakistan deeply and have never been able to imagine a life in any other country. Why then has my love for my country been reciprocated with hate? If I have never done anything bad for my country, why has it passed out a death sentence for me?

There are so many questions in my mind. I have been asking them from people who hate “my kind”, religious and non-religious people, and I have never been able to get a proper answer. The main question is this – who gave people in power the right to act like God? I know that the God I know does not give His rights to anyone. There is only One God and there always will be One. And He does not give anyone rights to kill innocent people, to massacre them, to murder them, to desecrate their graves, to makes their lives a living hell.

These people who pretend to take God’s place, they don’t know how Merciful He is, how Compassionate He is, how Gracious He is. Why then do they make Him out to be a God who punishes people for living in peace and for practicing their religion? Why do these people drag my beautiful God’s name when they are killing people like us, people who are not worthy of living in their eyes, minorities like the Shias, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, Hazaras and a hundred others that live in this country, fearing death with each passing second? If they did not deserve to live, why did God create them in the first place?

The flag of Pakistan has two colors – green and white. The green represents the majority, and the white represents the minority. I don’t remember ever reading that the minorities were not to be given equal status, I was never told that minorities were to be looked down upon, or killed, or shot, or raped, or kidnapped, or tortured, or humiliated. I was never told that minorities were not the “official” citizens of Pakistan. I was never told that living as a minority in Pakistan would mean I, or the million other minorities currently residing in Pakistan, would be somehow on a lower status as compared to the “official” majority of Pakistan.

I am a Pakistani. No one can take that away from me. You can shoot me for loving my country. You can torture me. You can kill me. But you will never be able to snatch away my love for Pakistan and my belief in Ahmadiyyat away from me, no matter how hard you try. You say you are “cleaning” Pakistan from all the traitors, but I say this. It is traitors like you, killing innocent people, who need to be thrown out to disinfect Pakistan. It is your intolerance that needs to be punished. It is your fatwey that need to stop being published. It is you. It is not us. And as time will tell, it never will be. 

What about the common man?

It has been 3 weeks since the Azadi/Inquilaab March started. Thousands of people came out of their homes to march against the current government for their poor governance. They have been living without proper shelter and sanitation for weeks now. Every night is dangerous for them for fear of attack by the police. And if that isn’t enough, there is frequent rainfall, much of which continues throughout the whole night.

It has been 3 weeks. And these people haven’t even THOUGHT about going back to their respective homes. Why? Because they have already experienced worse conditions and for them, this couldn’t get any worse. They don’t have electricity, gas or water. They’re unemployed. It is difficult for them to even provide food twice a day for their families. How worse could it get for them?

Meanwhile, an egoistic war carries on between Imran Khan, Tahir-ul-Qadri and our very own Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. None of them refuses to back down. None of them refuses to negotiate through talks. At this point, I believe their egos have reached such a high point that maybe they have forgotten about the common man, and just want to win this for the sake of their egos. But what then?

I don’t doubt the honesty of Imran Khan. Regardless of how immaturely he has handled the situation and regardless of how his speech has been a tad bit abusive towards Nawaz Sharif, he still seems to be an honest man. But now, after this egoistic war, it also seems as if his ego has gotten the better of him.

But I rant not for the politicians but for the common man. Who looks after them? Who cares for them? Who provides for their basic needs? They have been sitting in the open air for 3 weeks now, and who knows how long they’re here to stay. Some of them have been beaten up. Some of them have been injured. 3 of the women have even passed away. Did they expect that they would die waiting for this independence that maybe isn’t going to happen? Did they expect they’ll have to sacrifice their lives? I really don’t think so.

I don’t for a second sympathize with the government, because if the protesters were peaceful, they should not have ordered the police to throw tear gas and rubber bullets. Rumors have it that actual bullets were also fired. Blood donors were called from all over Islamabad and Rawalpindi to help the injured, and when they arrived, the police would not let them in. According to some reports, proper treatment was not provided to the injured, and they were being discharged without any medical care. A friend’s mother was also shot when she ran to help a baby girl. There were women in that March, there were so many children. And still the government orders the police to fire bullets.

On the other hand, I don’t sympathize with Tahir-ul-Qadri or Imran Khan either, who make decisions on the spur of the moment, thinking they can win this war and topple the government by their spontaneous decisions, not realizing that lives could be lost and people could be injured. And their supporters follow them blindly, because most of them neither know the first thing about politics nor can they see the pit their politicians might be throwing them into. Yesterday, when people (Tahir-ul-Qadri’s supporters or Imran Khan’s, we still don’t know) marched into the PTV station and allegedly vandalized it, after calling them back and scolding them for doing so, both TuQ and Imran Khan gave statements that these people did not belong to their party. But how can they not? Both leaders have been giving speeches, in which they have been instigating their supporters against the government. Didn’t they realise the people would get violent? These people are, after all, here for their freedom, and the leaders have told them that no freedom comes without struggles and fights. 

I worry. Not for the politicians. Because whatever the outcome may be, they’ll still end up in their mansions with their money and their luxuries. I worry for the common man. I worry for the lives lost. I worry for the injured. I worry that when they return to their homes, and circumstances don’t change, there will be more bloodshed. I worry that when they return to their respective cities, more violence will be incited. I worry that they will realize that they have been used in this power game. I worry that when they realize that, the politicians might have to run for their lives.

This protest should be for the common man and for him only. Egos need to be put aside. Money and power needs to be put aside. And the politics need to start thinking more about the country and its citizens and less about themselves.