The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has suffered long-standing persecution in Pakistan, where the very identity of an Ahmadi Muslim, existential by definition, has been denied. The community is persecuted and discriminated by law and by religious ideology. The fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief as well as other human rights of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community have been seriously violated.
Ahmadi muslims in Germany who’ve fled state persecution are being deported back to Pakistan and it’s putting their lives at risk
recommended to repeal all anti-blasphemy laws, and ensure that the State’s domestic laws, policies and practices comply with the international human rights covenants, in particular articles 2, 18, 19 and 26 of the ICCPR. It also addressed the multiple and intersecting forms of violence and discrimination suffered by the Ahmadi community, including those faced by Ahmadi women, children and refugees.
In a speech1 by Syed Muhammad Sibtain Shah Naqvi (Patron Makazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees, Punjab; Founder and Principal of Markaz Imam Bukhari Sargodha), he went to the inhumane extent of saying, “if an Ahmadi’s house is on fire, you should pour petrol on it, not water”. This egregious and toxic statement risks influencing impressionable youth in an environment already extremely hostile to Ahmadi Muslims who have every basic human right stripped away from them in the country. Their voice is being suffocated as Ahmadi representatives are being de- platformed at events and educational institutions.
Ironically, the event itself was on ‘Tolerance in Pakistan: Life of Minorities in Pakistan’. Amnesty International LUMS chapter had earlier announced the event to be held on 6 December with this panellist on the poster. Eventually, the event went ahead without him. It is heart-breaking to note that such is the height of discrimination and dogma in Pakistan that the administration of even an internationally recognised institution of higher education like LUMS has fallen prey to this grave trend of discrimination against an extremely marginalized community; and a chapter of an organisation like Amnesty International have had to accede to such a discriminatory instruction.
