By Kalsoom Lakhani

I feel sick to my stomach.

Today more than 70 people were killed and 108 were injured when gunmen launched simultaneous attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore. The attacks – involving blasts as well as gunfire – took place during Friday prayers, when “over 1,000 worshipers were present in the mosque.”

Originally published by Changing Up Pakistan

The NY Times cited the city coordinating officer who said that more than three hours after the attacks began, “the police took control of the mosques, where they found bodies strewn across the main floors and verandas.”

In a statement, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK noted, “The attacks are the culmination of years of unpoliced persecution of the [Ahmadis]… Today’s attack is the most cruel and barbaric.”

Although Pakistan’s political leaders condemned the attacks today, saying it “would generate greater resolve to combat extremism,” those statements failed to acknowledge what led to such killings in the first place. The Ahmadiyya community view themselves as a Muslim sect. However, because they claim their leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet (though, noted the BBC, “The Ahmadis insist that he was not a “law-giving” prophet and his job was only to propagate the laws enunciated by Islam’s Prophet Mohammad“), “they were declared non-Muslim in Pakistan in 1973, and in 1984 they were legally barred from proselytizing or identifying themselves as Muslims.” According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Ahmadiyya community, said to number between three million and four million in Pakistan, endure “the most severe legal restrictions and officially sanctioned discrimination.”

Why were the Ahmadis targeted in such a senseless, horrific and violent way today? Because we have a society that not only turns a blind eye to persecution but also legitimizes the mistreatment of all minorities in Pakistan. According to the LA Times, an Ahmadi elder from the Model Town mosque said the mosque had been getting threatening phone calls for some time, but, he noted, “when we asked the government and police several times to enhance our security… we didn’t get anything.”

Tell me – is this a country that we can proud of? Pakistan was supposedly established as a homeland for Muslims, to free them of discrimination. This same country now allows persecution to continue not just unabated but often by the writ of the state. Intolerance and ignorance have a foothold in the fabric of this society, and today’s tragedy further highlights this horrific state of affairs. I am ashamed and disgusted.

This is a screenshot of the Pakistani Passport Application. Please note section c. This to me emphasizes the problem.



Published on Saturday 29th May 2010