Ahmadi Muslim Doctor Murdered For Being An Apostate

It's not just religious minorities that are considered infidels in Muslim-majority countries, members of Muslim sects like the Ahmadiyya are also considered apostates and subject to persecution and even death.

Qasim Rashid, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community, has written an opinion piece in The Daily Caller about a Pakistani-born Ahmadi Muslim who became a doctor, moved to the U.S., gained citizenship, and was recently murdered while on a humanitarian visit to his homeland. All because he was the wrong kind of Muslim.

​Some 50 years before terrorists brutally murdered him because they believed him an infidel, Mehdi Ali Qamar was born a Muslim. But by the age of 10 Pakistan’s government declared him an infidel, an apostate, and in the opinion of many extremist clerics — worthy of death. But that didn’t deter him. By the age of 20 Pakistan’s government declared Qamar a criminal, liable to fine and imprisonment — only because he yet insisted on calling himself a Muslim. But that didn’t deter him. And even when Pakistan’s government added a death for blasphemy provision to the law just a few years later — giving state sanction to the previous ‘worthy of death’ opinion — Mehdi Ali Qamar fearlessly marched forward, undeterred.

And despite that state sanctioned persecution only for his faith, by the age of 30 Mehdi Ali Qamar became Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar at one of Pakistan’s top medical institutions.

He started a family and brought his expertise in cardiology to the United States by the age of 40 — where he and his wife began raising their three beautiful boys. He arrived to a new country with a new language, new culture, and new demographic. Once again it may have seemed that he was an outsider — but that didn’t deter him. Dr. Qamar embraced American culture and showed by example that he saw no conflict between his faith as a Muslim and identity as an American — ultimately attaining his U.S. citizenship.

Always the servant of humanity, Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar participated in numerous humanitarian medical missions to provide free cardiac care to the poor and indigent. And though Pakistan treated him so horribly, he held a soft spot for all his fellow Pakistanis, and returned to provide them the healthcare their government couldn’t or wouldn’t. And on one such humanitarian mission on May 26, 2014, to the world leading Tahir Heart Institute in Rabwah, Pakistan, Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar breathed his last.

At the age of 50, as Dr. Medhi Ali Qamar fearlessly marched forward, militant extremists shot him in the chest and stomach 11 times while his wife and two-year-old son watched in horror.

The rest here.

Ahmadi Muslims In Pakistan Face Persecution and Violence

Interesting article on the persecution of Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan. The Ahmadis are the only Muslims who have rejected "armed jihad" and have therefore been shunned by mainstream Muslims. In fact, they are not considered Muslims at all, hence the persecution and marginalization. They have also become major targets of sectarian violence not only in Pakistan but elsewhere.

One of the many religious minorities whose plight is documented in the latest U.S. State Department report on religious freedom is the Ahmadiyya community, or the Ahmadis.

The Ahmadis consider themselves Muslim, but that is a view rejected by mainstream Islamic sects. And in Pakistan, as RFE/RL correspondents Daud Khattak and Frud Bezhan report, Ahmadis have come under assault not only from extremist religious groups but also from the government.

Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi sect has become the target of rising sectarian violence, with its burial grounds, mosques, and homes coming under assault.

Authorities have done little to stem the attacks, with the government still refusing to grant the community equal status.

Their story on RFE/RL.

Escalating Violence Against Religious Minorities In Indonesia

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), violence against religious minorities in so-called 'moderate' Indonesia is escalating, and it's not just focused on Christians. Shia and Ahmadiyah Muslims are equally targeted by an increasingly militant cadre of  Sunni Muslim thugs.

HRW blames an impotent government- headed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono- that does nothing to protect its religious minority population. This inaction only serves to embolden the militants.

Brad Adams, the Asia director of HRW, said:

“The Indonesian government’s failure to take decisive action to protect religious minorities from threats and violence is undermining its claims to being a rights-respecting democracy." “National leadership is essential. Yudhoyono needs to insist that national laws be enforced, announce that every violent attack will be prosecuted, and map out a comprehensive strategy to combat rising religious intolerance.”

Apparently the victims are often blamed, and those responsible for the violence, more often than not, get off scott-free. The police rarely defend the victims, and in some cases join in.  Even members of the government have been complicit in inciting violence against religious minorities, with no censure from Yudhoyono.

Yudhoyono has failed to use powers at his disposal to defend religious minority communities and has not effectively disciplined cabinet members when they have encouraged abuses, Human Rights Watch said. Ali [the minister of religion, Suryadharma Ali] made discriminatory remarks about the Ahmadiyah and Shia in a March 2011 speech at a political convention, claiming: “We have to ban the Ahmadiyah. It is obvious that Ahmadiyah is against Islam.”In September 2012, he proposed that Shia convert to Sunni Islam. Ali was not sanctioned for either comment.

“The government has shown a deadly indifference to the growing plight of Indonesia’s religious minorities, who reasonably expect their government’s protection,” Adams said.

Read the rest of HRW's article on the rising persecution and violence against religious minorities.

Ahmadi Muslims Charged With Blasphemy In Pakistan

Four Ahmadis are being charged with blasphemy for publishing books about their Ahmadiyah faith, because even though they are Muslims, they're not the right kind of Muslims. Ahmadis are as persecuted as Christians and Hindus in Pakistan (and elsewhere) because some of their beliefs diverge from mainstream Islam.

Moeed Ayaz, Asmatullah, Razaullah and Ghulamullah, employees of Black Arrow Printing Press, were arrested on January 7 as they loaded a small truck with thousands of books and CDs. The four accused are Ahmadis. Arrest warrants have been issued for the printing press’s owner, who is at large.

The lawyer for the accused, in their post-arrest bail pleas, said that local police had acted illegally against his clients as they had arrested them on the basis of a call made to 15 before an FIR had been registered, as was evident from the statement of the complainant.

He said that even if the complaint were true, his clients should have been charged under Sections 6 (literal distortion of ayah text), 7 (translation or interpretation of Holy Quran contrary to belief of Muslims) and 9 (penalty) of the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Act of 2011 – which carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison – rather than Sections 295B (defiling the Holy Quran) and 298C (an Ahmadi calling himself a Muslim or preaching his faith) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

At their remand hearing before a magistrate, Advocate Chaudhry Ghulam Mustafa, the lawyer for the complainant, contended that the accused were planning to distribute the “blasphemous literature” in various markets. The magistrate remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Muhammad Tayyab. Islampura police confiscated the material and truck and registered a case against the men on January 7 under Sections 295B and 298C of the PPC, as well as Section 24A of the Press and Publications Ordinance, though the ordinance was repealed in 2002.

Advocate Mustafa, the lawyer for the complainant, told The Express Tribune that his client, who lived in the same area as the printing press, had heard about the material being published and called the police when he saw books being loaded into a truck there on January 7.

He said that he had filed an application with the magistrate seeking the inclusion of Section 295C (making derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (pbuh)) of the PPC – which is punishable by death in the charges against the accused. On his application, the magistrate had ordered the investigation officer to proceed in accordance with the law.

Unbelievable in this day and age.

Pakistani Extremists Call For Boycott Of Ahmadi Owned Juice Company

Shezan is a very popular brand in Pakistan.  The company manufactures everything from soft drinks and juice to ketchup, chutneys, pickles, and jams. Unfortunately, the founders are Ahmadiya  Muslims and Ahmadis are not well loved in Pakistan, or in any other Muslim-majority country for that matter.  Even though they are Muslims (or at least consider themselves to be) they are persecuted and marginalized because they are not the right kind of Muslim.  In fact, in several countries (including Pakistan) they are considered non-Muslims, and as a result they're often victims of violence. In June 2010 the Shezan factory in Lahore was bombed, and Ahmadiya mosques have been targets of suicide bombings in the past.  Now, Shezan is being hit by calls for a boycott of their products by two different groups: a student union at the University of Punjab, and the Lahore Bar Association.

Shezan has been around since 1964 and employs over 1,000 people. Ironically, most of the employees are not even Ahmadi, but that hasn't stopped other boycott efforts of both the company and companies that do business with Shezan.

The latest boycott at the university campus is thought to have been instigated by student members of Islami Jamiat Tulba, which is part of the extremist Jamaat-e-Islami organization.

As for those lawyers,

Media outlets in Pakistan cited Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, the president of the LBA that around 100 members had unanimously supported the boycott, to be applied to all canteens and food outlets in the court complexes under the LBA’s jurisdiction. However, Zulfiqar Ali was quoted in other media reports several days later as saying the boycott would not be enacted until a vote was put to all members. He claims the association is made up of various factional movements, one of whom moved for a resolution on the ban in the last meeting. The group behind the motion goes by the name Khatm-i-Nabuwwat Lawyers’ Forum (KNLF).

The legal profession in Pakistan has become deeply politicized in recent years. The Lahore Bar Association in particular has been in the spotlight, as some of its’ member publicly celebrated Mumtaz Qadri, the body guard who assassinated Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in January last year.

The more enlightened Pakistanis, however, have balked at the boycotts and have started their own support Shezan campaigns. They've also been highly critical of the lawyers and their bigotry. 

If these extremists can't even get along with fellow believers in Mohammad, how can they ever be expected to get along with the rest of us.