Daily Times

The religious right was out in full force this week. And much fun did they have as they demolished an Ahmadi place of worship along with its residential compound. This was no random attack. For there was nothing ordinary about the 100-year-old structure in Sialkot. The founder of the Ahmadiyya faith is said to have briefly lived and prayed there.

The mob reportedly comprised largely of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters. That is, the same group that thrust the issue of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat centre stage last year, in a concerted series of moves that essentially translated into incitement of religious hatred against the Ahmadi community. Yet no action has been taken against party chief Khadim Rizvi; despite an anti-terrorism court declaring him a proclaimed offender. Indeed, the TLP is all set to go ballot-boxing come July.

By the same token, mainstream media and social media reports placed PTI member Hafiz Hamid Raza at the centre of this hate crime. Yet instead of the party pleading ignorance about his identity — Imran Khan should have seized the opportunity to take ownership of the Naya Pakistan that he has so long talked of and immediately filed an FIR against Raza before unceremoniously booting him out. Something that the incumbent PMLN failed to do with Captain (rtd) Safdar when he last year took to the floor of the National Assembly to incite religious hatred against this same minority group.

Pakistan will certianly reap the disadvantages of doing nothing when strict action needs to be taken; with the Ahmadis continuing to pay the highest price of all. The very real risk is that now with elections so close the incitement card will be played to the very cheapest seats. Meaning that we can expect the political leadership across the great divide to glance not-so-coyly at the mirror on the wall, before asking: who is the most Muslim of us all?

The bitter truth is that the state apparatus has succeeded in making Pakistan no country for minorities. A point of notice that was raised by British Parliament this week with particular reference to the plight of the Ahmadi community here. Bluntly put, our politicians have no business condemning the suffering of Muslims elsewhere unless and until they first put their own house in order. From Indian violence in Kashmir. To Israeli brutality in Gaza. To Myanmar’s rampage against the Rohingya. The Pakistani state would do well to introspect before protesting. For it is complicit in the same against its own citizenry.

This is state-sponsored terrorism by every conceivable name. And it must stop. *

Published in Daily Times, May 26^th 2018.