Daily Times

As Captain Muhammad Safdar, son in law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday engaged himself in a series of spiteful rants against the persecuted Ahmadis community while speaking at the National Assembly of Pakistan.

Journalists, activists, politicians and many of Pakistan’s brave citizens ranted their frustration on Twitter to express their utter disappointment in leaders who use religion as a tool to divide and spew hate in the society.

Captain Safdar’s ‘Hate Speech’

Captain Safdar went on to accuse Ahmadis, an already persecuted minority group of acting against Pakistan’s self-interest and called for stern against to be taken out against its members.

In a hate speech against Ahmadis, the PML leader said, “These people [Ahmadis] are a threat to this country, its Constitution, and ideology. This situation is heading towards a dangerous point.”

“Pakistan was created with an ideology to protect the finality of Prophethood [Khatm-i-Naboowat] so Islam is practiced here”, Captain Safdar said.

Safdar, was particularly critical of renaming Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) physics centre after the well-known scientist and Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate, Professor Dr. Abdus Salam simply because Dr. Abdus was an Ahmadi by faith.

Despite contributing so much to the field of theoretical physics and having the honor of being the first Pakistani to win a Nobel Peace Prize, the nuclear physicist Dr. Salam is still frowned upon just because of his minority faith, which was declared non-Muslim through a constitutional amendment in 1974.

According to Safdar, the QAU’s physics center must not be named after Dr. Salam who he referred to as “a controversial figure that has been termed an infidel in light of the Constitution” going to say “we will not like any such institution associated with him.”

Safdar, who happens to be a retired army officer with a Captain’s rank, called for ‘action’ to be taken against the community particularly calling to bring a resolution in the National Assembly for a “ban on recruitment of Qadianis [Ahmadis] in the armed forces”.

In an uninterrupted defamatory speech that remained uncensored at the National Assembly, Safdar went on to say “We have faith in Khatm-i-Naboowat. This is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a country of 220 million people…I call Zulfikar Ali Bhutto a shaheed because he protected the idea of finality of prophethood and was hanged for doing so.”

Safdar was particularly against the hiring and promotion of any military officer who belonged to the Ahmadi faith for whom he said “could not be trusted” with the very important responsibility of safeguarding this nation.

He even urged government servants to sign a declaration that swears by the idea of Khatm-i-Naboowat or finality of Prophet.

Who are Ahmadis?

Ahmadis who are also referred in a derogatory fashion as Qadianis are a minority religious group in Pakistan, with around 4 million followers in Pakistan and globally an estimated population of 10 to 20 million Ahmadis are based in some 209 countries primarily in South Asia, East Africa and North America.

But Pakistan has always remained critical of this minority group, which was first declared as non-Muslim through a constitutional amendment in 1974 by the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, which was further made into a punishable offense for the ‘Ahmadis’ to even refer themselves as ‘Muslims’ by Gen Zia ul Haq.

Ahmadis are banned to openly practice their religion in Pakistan, they are constitutionally barred from referring or even posing themselves as ‘Muslims’. Even preaching is banned, so does publishing of any material that propagates their faith.

Members of this most persecuted minority in Pakistan are often victims of terrorist attacks and organized pogroms that has so far claimed thousands of innocent lives.

Twitter Reacts

Twitterati reacted on Twitter to what they saw as ‘hate speech’ by Capt Safdar against a community which is already so much persecuted in Pakistan.

With many like award-winning journalist Umer Ali (@IamUmer1) declared the “sheer intensity of hate” as completely unheard of in other civilized societies.

Policy Analyst Abid Qaiyum Suleri (@Abidsuleri) called for an end to hate speech which is clearly not acceptable in Islam.

Journalists and activist Abdullah Khan Akkas @avdullahkhan, tweeted for an urgent need of a revolution in Pakistani society due to the rise in hate speech that is, unfortunately emerging as a very part of Pakistan’s political discourse.

Senior Journalist and Anchorperson Hamid Mir @HamidMirPAK called for the need to stop dividing our own people on the basis of religion.

Dr Mahar Liaquat Ali @maharali, pointed to out how can Captain Safdar seek just in the NAB cases against him (in context to the corruption charges Captain Safdar and Sharif family faces) when he himself is being unjust towards others.

Despite being declared as non-Muslims under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s tenure PPP’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari @BBhuttoZardari went on to criticize PML-N’s mainstreaming of extremism at the National Assembly.

Civil activist Jibran Nasir @MJibranNasir, called for a collective awakening of Pakistani conscience which has always been in denial of the contributions Ahmadi scientists Dr. Abdus Salam have made or the sacrifices Ahmadi soldiers did for Pakistan.