Pakistan, 1947-1974: transformation of land of
the Pure to the land of Infidels:
We are
hearing now days on media about very frequent incidents of killing of shea
community and its reactions.
Most of the
shea supporters are accusing “takfiris” for this mass murder and putting
“Takfir” as a root cause of killing of innocent people.
Takfir is
urdu word meaning the act of declaring somebody infidel and “Takifri” is famous
as a nick name for those who declare others infidels.
Everybody is
asking where Pakistan went wrong as a state in this background.
There were
two important sessions of Pakistan Assembly at two different times in the
history about policy on religion and related issues.
First session
was held on 11 August 1947 and second session was held in August-September 1974
Ideology of Land of the Pure (1947)
Muhammad
Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, mentioned in his first Address to the
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in August 11, 1947:
“You
are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your
mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may
belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the
business of the State. …………..The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted
each other……………………………………………………… ….. We are starting with this fundamental
principle: that we are all citizens, and equal citizens, of one State……… ……………Today,
you might say with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist;
what exists now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great
Britain, and they are all members of the Nation.”
Land of the pure drifts to the Land
of infidels(1974)
Despite
the following clear statement of founder of Pakistan, the business of the state
of Pakistan in August 5,
1974 to September 7 1974 was religion.
“You may
belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the
business of the State.”
It
was just after 27 years of above address of Jinnah, in August-September 1974, there
were Proceedings of the
special committee of the whole house on the question of “status in Islam of
persons who do not believe in the finality of prophet hood”.
Ahmadiyya
community, like Jinnah, tried to keep it as a Land of the Pure:
Ahmadiyya
community submitted detailed Memorandum ( Mahzarnama) in answer to the above
question and precisely clarify the issue of putting religion in the business of
the state as well in following words:
“1. Is any
Assembly in the world, per se, entitled to deprive an
individual of
the basic right to exercise his free will to attribute
himself, to
the religion of his choice? Or,
2. Is any
Assembly in the world, per se, entitled to decide, by way
of
interference in the domain of faith and religion, as to what it
considers to
be the religion of any community, sect or individual?”
“We answer
both these questions in the negative. In our view,
regardless of
colour, race, and geographical and national
divisions, it
is an inalienable right of every human being to
attribute
himself to whichever religion he chooses, and no one in
the world,
nor any organization or Assembly can deprive him of
this basic
human right. The U.N. Charter of Rights, in the context
of
guaranteeing basic human rights, also accepts this right of
every human
being to attribute himself to the religion of his
choice.”
(MAHZARNAMA/
T H E M E M O R A N D U M First Edition: 1999, Ghana
Page1-2)
http://www.proceedings1974.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Mahzarnama.pdf
Decalaration
of ‘Takfir’:
It is a
surprising fact that the main question about Finality of holy prophet was not
discussed during these proceedings as it was mentioned as the main issue for
these proceedings.
Finally Armadis
were declared Not Muslim by an amendment in 1973 constitution of Pakistan,
after completion of whole house proceedings, on September 7, 1974.
Who
were Takfiri :
Majority of
Muslims sects in Pakistan, including sunni and shea, agreed on this declaration
and next morning there were headlines like following:
“72 sects of
Muslims declared Ahmadid/Qadianis Non-Muslim”
Post Takfir Era of compulsion in religion:
Ahmadis were
declared Non Muslim in 1974 but they were still allowed to practice as Muslim
until 1984.
In 1984
Pakistani Dictator Zia ul Haque issued an Ordinace XX to prohibit Ahmadis to
pose as Muslim by any way.
Ahmadis were
sent to Jail for reading Kalmia, writing verses of Quran, reading Quran,
greeting like Muslims with words like “peace be on you” and for many other
activities by which they could pose as Muslim.
Post Compulsion phase: Murder in the name of
God:
Dr Israr, a
Pakistani. Anti Ahmdiyya scholar mentioned that they could not produce a
significant damage to Ahmadiyya community by existing laws.
Dr Asrar
suggested that logical solution of Ahmadiyya issue was killing Ahmadis after
declaring them Apostate.
Anti
Ahmadiyya religious leaders encouraged public to kill Ahmadis after labeling
them Kafir” (Indfidels) or Murtad (Apostate).
Many Ahmadis
were killed in individual attacks and in gatherings and this process is still
going on.
Takfir attacks other communities:
On the same
lines as mentioned above, some Muslim religious leaders and their organizations
in Pakistan openly declared Shea, as “Kafir” ( Indfidels) and encouraged their
followers to attack shea community.
There were a
lot of incidents of shea killings in last few years and it is still going on.
These
terrorist organizations also accepted the responsibility of those killings but
nobody got the final punishment by the state.
Government of
Pakistan has not called any whole house special committee yet on “shea issue”
like they did for Ahmadiyya issue in 1974.
Some members
of shea community has labelled this group of killers as “takfiri”.
Artificial/temporary solution:
After each of these attacks of mass
murder of shea community, media shows that some shea and sunni muslim scholars
are sitting together with comments of “shea-sunni Bhai Bhai”, means shea and
sunni are brothers.
Some people make organizations with
the name like, “organization of united Muslims” and think that it would prevent
the next attack.
Government makes announcements to
prevent any of the similar incidents of terrorism in future and to capture the
culprits.
After all of the above, Terrorist
again kill the innocent people and media and Government gives same old
statements again and this process keeps going.
Real
or permanent solution:
State should tell the public that it
is a none of your business to interfere with religious believes of other people.
State should also announce:
““You may belong to any religion or
caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”
State should make and implement laws for hate
crimes and punish the people who spread hate against other communities.
State should also clean the constitution and
eradicate all laws which make religion, the business of the state.
Following and similar other laws which bring
the religion into the business of the state should be deleted or repealed:
1. Blasphemy law
2. 2nd amendment against Ahmadis/Qadianis, which declares
them Not Muslim
3. Ordinance XX against Ahmadis/Qadianis,which prohibit them to pose
as Muslim
This would be the secular state of Pakistan
where Shea, sunni, Ahamdi, Christian, Hindu and any other religious people
could live as a citizen of Pakistan and could openly mention their different opinion
to others without any fear.
