Do I have the Right to Remain Ahmadi?

By Faheem Younus March 1, 2012 In 1966, nearly 180 million people in the US received Miranda rights the right t o remain silent to avoid self-incrimination. Half a century later, a religious community in Pakistan, another country of near ly 180 million people, is facing a rather caustic version of the Miranda rights. They dont have the right, but a duty, to remain silent. The religious group is the Ahmadiyya community. Two recent events frame the issue aptly. First, on January 29, 2012, clerics org anized an anti-Ahmadiyya rally in Rawalpindi, attended by 5,000 Madrasa students , chanting threatening anti-Ahmadiyya slogans and demanding to take over a 17-ye ar-old Ahmadiyya place of worship. Then on February 11, 2012, approximately 100 la wyers, from the Lahore Bar Association, rallied to ban Shezan drinks on court pr emises. So while the clerics have the right to incite violence against Ahmadis, by publi cly calling them worthy of death and Madrasa students have the right to wall chalk phrases like, hang them all, schools have the right to expel Ahmadi students and lawyers have the right to ban Shezan - Ahmadis, on the other hand, have the righ t to remain silent! Is it not true that the right to remain silent assumes a right to free speech in the first place? Something the Ahmadis have been long deprived of? Unlike the Miranda rights, this right to silence is by definition, self-incriminat ing. Try to voice your opinion as an Ahmadi and you may land in jail under secti on 295-B/C of Pakistans penal code offers pending a three year imprisonment simpl y for exercising your right to free speech. Try voicing dissent, and you may end up in a graveyard. Even after death, the mullah menace has the right to white w ash Quranic verses like God is gracious, ever merciful from an Ahmadis tombstones. Consequently, hundreds and thousands of Pakistani Ahmadis, including myself, hav e tearfully migrated to other countries, but not without sustaining one final ja b; the passport application. It requires 97% of Pakistans Muslim population to c omplete a declaration stating that not only do they consider all Ahmadis as non-M uslims but they also declare the founder of Ahmadiyya Community to be an impostor. While I have never met a Pakistani Muslim who refused to sign this absurd declar ation, Ahmadis do scratch it out. Their passports are thus stamped with the word Ahmadi and the plight of their right to remain silent continues. For decades, the Ahmadi perspective was systematically hushed under the pretense of sensitivity. But organizations like Amnesty International are now calling it, a real test of the authorities. And 0nline newspapers and opinion pieces by courag eous Pakistanis have started challenging the suffocating status quo. For the Pakistani government, there is a way to be good again. Rein in the mulla h, stop defining who is and who is not Muslim, and subject the medieval anti-Ahm adiyya laws to a modern paper shredder. Give Ahmadis the right to free speech be fore offering them the right to remain silent. Finally, the Ahmadiyya diaspora is choosing to expose this oppression by speakin g up. The mullahs and their proxy politicians will have to deal with the bitter truth.

Maybe a glass of Shezan could have helped to sweeten the bitterness. But then I guess thats just too Ahmadi. Source: The Tribune Express, Lahore URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-sectarianism/faheem-younus/do-i-have-t he-right-to-remain-ahmadi?/d/6787

COMMENTSThe caption, The spiritual Genocide of a Godly people the case of Ahmadis in Pakistan as I gave it a final look sounded too harsh but your article reassur es me that it was most befitting. The following extracts from this article refer enced below may give you a notional consolation that there are Sunnis who are mo st disturbed at the plight and persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan: Redefining a Quranic fundamental notion to expel a sect from the pale of Islam is playing God on earth evil, abominable and satanic . tantamount to a spiritual genoc ide that only people with a satanic soul and schizophrenic mind can commit again st fellow believers. The article concludes as follows: ..to enact a law that effectively condemns each and every Ahmadi as a non-Muslim because of theological, interpretational or do ctrinal differences is no less than a grand mockery of constitutional process a spiritual carnage that is ultra-vires of law. The author may only say, that we re Allama Iqbal to come alive today, he may readily recall this poetic imagery of his epic poem, taswire dard: zamin kiya asmaan bhi teri kajbini pe rota hai - ghat hab hai satre Quran ko chalipa kar diya too nein [What to speak of this world, eve n the heavens cry at the crookedness of your vision It is a curse that you have distorted the lines of the Quran.] http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=5883 By muhammad yunus - 3/5/2012 8:56:55 PM report abuse The author says, "For the Pakistani government, there is a way to be good again. Rein in the mullah, stop defining who is and who is not Muslim, and subject the medieval anti-Ahmadiyya laws to a modern paper shredder. Give Ahmadis the right to free speech before offering them the right to remain silent." I fully agree. By Ghulam Mohiyuddin - 3/5/2012 1:15:34 PM report abuse as far as pakistan or any of the fundamental islamic country is concerned nobody other than sect can survive. Others can survive outside the country is current affairs. By satwa gunam - 3/5/2012 8:26:41 AM report abuse