Qasim Rashid is an attorney and the national spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. He is a Truman National Security Fellow.
On July 25, Pakistan went to the polls and handed the most seats in parliament to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of athlete-turned-politician Imran Khan. While hailed as a victory by many, the reality is that the Khan regime foreshadows immense hardship and violence for Pakistan’s religious minorities — particularly that of the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Election Day violence and
claims of voter fraud notwithstanding, there’s an additional sinister reality that few in Pakistan are willing to discuss. For decades, Pakistan’s Ahmadi Muslims have suffered complete voter disenfranchisement on account of our faith — and this Election Day was no different. This election, Khan stood silent as Ahmadi Muslims were again disenfranchised.
Pakistan’s
version of Jim Crow lawsmandate two draconian options for the nation’s some
500,000 Ahmadi Muslims. To vote, Ahmadis must either declare themselves non-Muslim or declare
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Messiah and Mahdi and founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, as a false prophet and liar. Ahmadi Muslims reject both positions, and are thus forced into disenfranchisement.
Instead,
Khan is on the record stating, “I say with full conviction that … [Ahmadis] cannot call themselves Muslim … and we will stand by and fully protect Pakistan’s 295-C.” Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code enforces a mandatory death sentence for the act of “blasphemy,” which Ahmadi Muslims are apparently de facto committing due to our belief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Messiah. Khan moreover frequents “
Finality of Prophethood” conferences, which are run by religious extremists with a history of
targetingAhmadi Muslims.
Peculiar but significant is that every Pakistani prime minister or president, from Benazir Bhutto to Nawaz Sharif, persecuted Ahmadi Muslims — and each ultimately succumbed to the extremism or corruption they enabled.
If Khan intends to buck history, he must stop acquiescing to extremism. Notwithstanding the blood on his hands for supporting the Taliban as they
killed thousands of Pakistanis — including scores of Ahmadi Muslims — you will never hear Khan affirm his support of Ahmadi Muslims. When asked whether he supports Ahmadi rights, he has
responded that he“supports all rights.” Khan is the Pakistani version of “all lives matter.” Meanwhile, Ahmadi Muslims continue to suffer religious, social and political apartheid.
On July 25, while my fellow Ahmadi Muslims were again denied the foundational right to vote in Pakistan, I
presented our case for justice before Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador for religious freedom, in Washington at the State Department’s first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. With representatives of more than 80 governments present, our case was received with a round of applause.
If Khan were present, would he have clapped for justice for Ahmadi Muslims? As the incoming prime minister who ran on slogans for justice, he should prove it with his actions
