• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / From the World / News Global

Pakistan: Punjab’s Ruling Party Wants to Ban Ahmadis from a Whole District

08/18/2022Massimo Introvigne |

Rather than protecting them against mob violence, the Vice President of Punjab’s Pakistan Muslim League-Q wants to expel them from Khushab District. 

by Massimo Introvigne

Malik Ilyas Awan (left) with Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. From Twitter.
Malik Ilyas Awan (left) with Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. From Twitter.

The solution was simple, and one wonders why nobody suggested it before. To stop the violence against the persecuted Ahmadi minority in the District of Khushab, one of the most conservative in Punjab, Pakistan, a leading politician has proposed to expel all the Ahmadis from the district.

It would be hardly believable if the proposal would come from a minor radical, but Malik Ilyas Awan, who put it in writing in a letter to the District Commissioner dated July 30, is the Vice President of Punjab’s Muslim League-Q, the ruling party in Punjab. The new Chief Minister of Punjab, Pervaiz Elahi, who assumed office on July 27, is also a member of the Muslim League-Q.

Awan took exception to the fact that public security should be deployed to protect Ahmadis from violence by radical Sunni Muslims in the District of Khushab. 

He wrote to the District Commissioner that the Ahmadis “cannot offer prayers openly in the Islamic state of Pakistan… Pakistan is an Islamic state that has been established in the name of Allah and His Beloved.” Ahmadis, Awan wrote, “propagate their teachings that is totally against the laws of an Islamic State and the constitution. What will our youngsters who are appointed on their security think? Are they protecting the deniers of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat or expressing devotion to the Holy Prophet (PBUH)? Secondly, it also leaves a bad impression on our children.

It is requested to remove their security immediately and initiate an inquiry. Those who do not believe in Khatm-e-Nabuwwat must be banished from the District.”

Awan’s letter to the District Commissioner. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.
Awan’s letter to the District Commissioner. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.

Khatm-e-Nabuwwat (Finality of Prophethood) is the doctrine that Muhammad is the last in a series of prophets that started with Adam, and that there can be no prophets after Muhammad. The Ahmadiyya Movement was founded within Islam by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908). Conservative Muslims accuse Ahmad of having considered himself a “prophet” who came after Muhammad, thus denying the Finality of Prophethood, although the Ahmadis regard their founder as “both a prophet and a follower of the Prophet [Muhammad].”

Now a prominent politician suggests that those who do not share his theology should be expelled from a whole district—or worse, since “removing the security” of the Ahmadis, as Awan requests, means leaving them undefended against a mob violence that has already killed several of them.

Tagged With: Ahmadis, Pakistan, Religious Liberty

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

Related articles

  • Crimes Sending You to Jail in Xinjiang: “We Don’t Trust You,” “You Didn’t Play Piano at Your Wedding”

    Crimes Sending You to Jail in Xinjiang: “We Don’t Trust You,” “You Didn’t Play Piano at Your Wedding”

  • Is Netflix a Threat to Religious Liberty?

    Is Netflix a Threat to Religious Liberty?

  • Blasphemy Is Allowed in Pakistan—If You Are Chinese

    Blasphemy Is Allowed in Pakistan—If You Are Chinese

  • Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot

    Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot

Keep Reading

  • 「宗教に関係する児童虐待」: 日本における信教の自由に対する新たな攻撃 2.“心理的虐待”
    「宗教に関係する児童虐待」: 日本における信教の自由に対する新たな攻撃 2.“心理的虐待”

    厚生労働省が作成したガイドラインで“宗教に関係する心理的虐待”とされていることの多くは,信教の自由の行使に過ぎない。

  • Human Rights Watchdogs Urge EU to Review Its Relations with Pakistan
    Human Rights Watchdogs Urge EU to Review Its Relations with Pakistan

    A conference in Brussels called the attention on the intolerable situation of human rights and freedom of religion or belief in the Asian country.

  • Liquidating the SOVA Center: The Official End of Religious Freedom in Russia
    Liquidating the SOVA Center: The Official End of Religious Freedom in Russia

    By destroying the leading organization monitoring religious liberty violations, the Putin regime can no longer pretend that relics of freedom of religion remain in Russia. 

  • “Deadly Fasting” in Kenya: What We Know So Far
    “Deadly Fasting” in Kenya: What We Know So Far

    Pastor Paul Makenzie Nthenge of Good News International Church is accused of having persuaded several dozen members to fast until death. 

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • There Are Christian Uyghurs, Too: New Organization Launched in London by Ruth Ingram
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • Xi Jinping: Beijing’ National Art Museum Is Not Socialist Enough by Hu Zimo
  • Occupied Ukraine: Anti-Cult “Experts” Target Moscow Patriarchate Dissident Priest by Massimo Introvigne
  • Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot by Massimo Introvigne
  • Russia: Lunatic Theory that Yellowstone Volcano Caused the War in Ukraine Gains Momentum by Massimo Introvigne
  • Vandalism Against Catholic Churches on the Rise in Bavaria by PierLuigi Zoccatelli

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY