Human Rights Abuse

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Bismillah al-Rehman al-Raheem



HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE/MINORITY PERSECUTION
MYTH & REALITY
by
GULZAR ANWAR

While fording the Qadiani website in Athens, one comes across a page listing the abuse of Human Rights and persecution of minorities in Pakistan involving Qadianis. There are, at least, 4 other similar websites on which this anti-state propaganda is continuing but, on checking, these sites were found not operational for the time being. This is an excellent way of presenting oneself as the most oppressed people in the world in order to enlist the sympathies of influential quarters in Europe and elsewhere. I will accordingly proceed to spell out the Myth and Reality of the case.

The Case Study: Abuse of Human Rights and Persecution of Minorities in Pakistan vis-a-vis Qadianis.

Myth: Qadianis are persecuted, in Pakistan, and disallowed to practise their religion the way they conceptualise it and forbidden to spread their gospel to the people since they consider they are on a mission from God. Black ordinance and religious intolerance. U.S. State Department enumerates human rights violations.

Reality: I returned from the Middle East in 1982 after a short stint of doing a job there and since then I have not seen a single case of violence in this country involving any Qadiani. There may have been an isolated case but it is not in my notice and I, seriously, doubt if there was any. However, the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide has been widening ever since I returned and see no improvement in the immediate future. When anti-Qadiani movement was started, decades ago, the Shia-Sunni were jointly operating from the same platform as they were united in their denunciation of the new epiphany of God which had turned some of the Muslim beliefs/dogmas upside down. Even the main anti-Qadiani party - Ahrar - had in its ranks some prominent Shia leaders like Mazhar Ali Azhar, Muzaffar Ali Shamsi and others. Any deter...