July 2008 Al Islam eGazette - Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

12 Pages·2008·0.79 MB·English

by  Salman Sajid

In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
The Al Islam eGazette
Friday, July 11th, 2008 www.alislam.org
LITMUS TEST FOR FINDING MODERATE MUSLIMS
Freedom of Religion and Conscience
Since September 11, 2001 both the non-Muslims and the Muslims themselves
In this Issue...
are struggling to distinguish moderate from militant Muslims. The Muslims do
not want to be associated in the West with militant groups lest they fall prey to • Litmus Test for Finding Moderate Muslims
their illegal activities. So, this is not only an important
• RAND Corporation: Is It About Hijab
external issue but also an internal issue, within Islam.
• Cairo Declaration of Human Rights
The task is made difficult as all the Muslim groups in
• Ahmadiyya Perspective on Human Rights
the West now are paying lip service to how they love
• Congressman Brian Higgins Speaks to
peace and are moderate. There is, however, a simple Interfaith Conference Arranged By Ahmadi
criterion to find those who have a violent streak. We Muslims
propose a simple litmus test! An uncomplicated test • An NWFP Town in Pakistan in 1974
which will pick up the earliest streak of violence in its • The Same NWFP Town in Pakistan in 2005
adherents and there is no faking the test. The test is • Indonesia Ordinance
black and white; it is a simple historical question. • Jakarta’s Slippery Slope (WSJ)
Have they promoted traditionally any • His Holiness Mirza Tahir Ahmad’s Response
to Religious Persecution
punishment for apostasy from Islam or have
• Allah’s Promise with Those who Migrate in
they considered it as a part of the freedom of
His Way
religion? Many of the so-called conservative groups
• Blatant and serious violation of Ahmadi
have proposed death sentence for apostates that is a
Muslims’ human and fundamental rights
remnant of medieval times and had nothing to do
• Photos and Links to related resources
with Islam at its inception.
If the claimants to moderation have not preached tolerance to the apostates in Love for All, Hatred for None
the past then they need to do it now. They need to condemn any violence in the ںيہن ےس یسک ترفن ، ےئل ےک بس تبحم
name of religion and offer complete religious freedom to all minorities and other
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 2
Islamic law and morality. They are willing to use innovation
religions. They have to do that clearly and repeatedly enough
and modern technology to achieve that goal.
that there is no going back. Until they clearly and repeatedly
denounce violence against apostasy they should be considered a ♦ Traditionalists want a conservative society. They are
potentially violent group, who can fall prey to the subtle violent suspicious of modernity, innovation, and change.
tendencies, arising out of these irrational teachings! So a very ♦ Modernists want the Islamic world to become part of
revealing paradigm is to see if the group proposes pen or sword global modernity. They want to modernize and reform Islam
for the real or perceived apostates, whom they find weaker than to bring it into line with the age.
themselves. This is a test of greater discriminatory value than
♦ Secularists want the Islamic world to accept a division of
any other mentioned in 88-page report Civil Democratic Islam
church and state in the manner of Western industrial
by RAND.
democracies, with religion relegated to the private sphere.
The RAND report or its summary can be reviewed at the
This division or classification that they suggest, serves some
following link: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1716/
useful function. For example the following recommendations
RAND CORPORATION: IS IT ABOUT HIJAB are made regarding the fundamentalists, in the summary:
RAND is a think tank. RAND's research is commissioned by a “Confront and oppose the fundamentalists:
wide range of sources. Federal, state, and local government
Challenge their interpretation of Islam and expose inaccuracies.
agencies provide the largest share of the funding; however,
Reveal their linkages to illegal groups and activities.
RAND also conducts projects for foundations, foreign
Publicize the consequences of their violent acts.
governments, and private-sector firms. Contributions from
individuals, charitable foundations, and private firms, as well as Demonstrate their inability to rule, to achieve positive
earnings from RAND’s endowment, offer a steadily growing pool development of their countries and communities.
of funds that allow RAND to address problems not yet on the Address these messages especially to young people, to pious
policy agenda. RAND's revenue in FY07 was $223.01 million. In traditionalist populations, to Muslim minorities in the West,
one of their research projects they have come up with the and to women.
following categorization of the Muslim society:
Avoid showing respect or admiration for the violent feats of
♦ Fundamentalists reject democratic values and fundamentalist extremists and terrorists. Cast them as
contemporary Western culture. They want an authoritarian, disturbed and cowardly, not as evil heroes.
puritanical state that will implement their extreme view of
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 3
Encourage journalists to investigate issues of corruption, complete freedom of religion and conscience for all or not. Those
hypocrisy, and immorality in fundamentalist and terrorist who deep down believe and practice freedom of conscience are
circles. truly International and Global citizens, who are the real partners
Encourage divisions among fundamentalists.” in International Brotherhood and global peace. Those with myopic
vision, who advocate violence against certain groups, can only be
Many of these recommendations are well founded, but then the
short term political allies and of no lasting value, like Mujahideen
document loses its focus on violence and mixes other issues with
of the Afghan war with USSR transformed into al-Qaeda of today.
violence. RAND in a provocative language calls hijab a
“minefield.” Here is a quote from Appendix B regarding hijab: CAIRO DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
“Showing active approval of the wearing of hijab by Muslim The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) is a
women in the United States can be intended, on the part of U.S. declaration of the member states of the Organization of the Islamic
opinion leaders, to convey the message that Muslims are Conference, which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective
completely free to practice their faith in the United States; that on human rights, and affirms Islamic Shari'ah as its sole source.
members of other religions can dress differently from the CDHRI declares its purpose to be “general guidance for Member
mainstream yet still be accepted; that the United States is a States in the Field of human rights.” This declaration is usually
society tolerant of diversity. However, a Muslim woman’s head seen in many Islamic countries as a response to the post-World
covering is not analogous to the Sikh turban or the Jewish man’s War II United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
yarmulke or even to a sari or other kind of ethnic dress. Unlike (UDHR) of 1948. The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, however,
hijab, these garments are not the subject of bitterly contentious fully condones the UDHR. For details see a book by Sir Zafrulla
debates within their communities, and people are nowhere Khan, Human Rights.
being forced to wear them on pain of beatings, mutilation by
Predominantly Muslim countries, like Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, and
acid, or even death. One can cast “hijab” as an issue of freedom
Saudi Arabia, frequently criticized the Universal Declaration of
of expression and of pluralism, but that ignores the larger
Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the
context. And the larger context is that “hijab” is neither a neutral
cultural and religious context of non-Western countries. In 1981,
lifestyle issue nor a religious requirement. It has become a
the post-revolutionary Iranian representative to the United
political statement.”
Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, articulated the position of his
What the think tank fails to fully appreciate is that hijab may be country regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by
shared by peaceful and the violent groups. A much better and saying that the UDHR was “a secular understanding of the Judeo-
pure way of understanding the Muslim society will be to
examine their belief systems in totality to find if they believe in
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 4
Christian tradition”, which could not be implemented by Muslims without trespassing
Blatant and serious violation of
the Islamic law. Ahmadi Muslims’ human and
fundamental rights in
The CDHRI was adopted on August 5, 1990 by 45 foreign ministers of the Organization
of the Islamic Conference to serve as guidance for the member states in the matters of Pakistan and Indonesia
human rights.
As the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community celebrates the
The Declaration starts by forbidding "any discrimination on the basis of race, color, 100 years of Divine Leadership (Khilafat), the foes of
Islam and Ahmadiyyat have increased the persecution
language, belief, sex, religion, political affiliation, social status or other considerations."
of the community. You can find News Report of May
It continues on to proclaim the sanctity of life, and declares the “preservation of human 2008 at www.thepersecution.org with details on how
mullahs created hurdles and propaganda in the
life” as “a duty prescribed by the Shariah.” In addition the CDHRI guarantees “non-
Pakistani State of “enlightened moderation” in
belligerents such as old men, women and children,” “wounded and the sick” and peacefully celebrating the centenary of Spiritual
Leadership in Islam Ahmadiyyat.
“prisoners of war,” the right to be fed, sheltered and access to safety and medical
You can also find the detailed report on what actually
treatment in times of war.
happened in Punjab Medical College. How the
According to Wikipedia, “Article 10 states, ‘Islam is the religion of unspoiled nature. It extremists and terrorists organized the campaign
against the Ahmadi Muslim students which resulted
is prohibited to exercise any form of compulsion on man or to exploit his poverty or
in their immoral, illegal, unsupportable - pure
ignorance in order to convert him to another religion or to atheism.’ So the Declaration tyrannical expulsion from the college. They still await
justice!
prohibits to force anybody ‘to change his religion to another religion or to atheism,’ but
You can also find news reports and photos from
it gives the individual no freedom to change his religion or belief from Islam to another
Indonesia on the continued persecution after the
religion.” government has failed to protect the rights of Ahmadi
Muslim and given a free hand to terrorists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Declaration_on_Human_Rights_in_Islam
www.thepersecution.org
In contrast, to the myopic vision of the attendees of the conference, in regards to
apostasy, Islam has a universal approach to freedom of thought and human rights as
Al Islam eGazette
the reader will presently find.

AHMADIYYA PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS Patrons: . . . . . . Dr. Ahsanullah Zafar
Dr. Nasim Rehmatullah
Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan was the first foreign minister of Pakistan in 1947. He
Editor: . . . . . . . Zia H Shah
became the president of the 17th Session of the UN General Assembly and later served Technical Editor: Masood Nasir
as Judge of the International Court of Justice at Hague, and eventually also became the Published by Al Islam Team:
Mureed Nazir Peer Habibur Rehman
president of this court. He is author of numerous books and articles on politics, law and
Mansoor Malik Salman Sajid
religion.
Naveedul Islam Anwar Ahmad
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 5
On the occasion of the 16th Congress of International Association
dedicated by their parents to become missionaries to convert
for Religious Freedom held in Chicago, Illinois (USA), on the
Russia, China and South America.
10th August 1958, Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Vice President
The man who leads Jihad, this holy war of words and pen to
of the International Court of Justice at Hague, was invited to
convert the world to Islam, is TAHIR, the fourth Successor.
speak on the Islamic solutions to World Problems. The speech of
More than 10 Millions have taken the covenant of allegiance to him
Sir Muhammad Khan, which deals with various aspects of
- among them a Nobel Laureate, a director of World Bank, A
Islamic teachings, is of great informative value. Its contents are
president of General Assembly of the United Nations and
just as relevant today as they were 49 years ago when the speech
government ministers in many countries. This is story of his life.”
was made. It can be reviewed at the following URL:
He was a man who stood steadfast to the principles of justice and
http://www.alislam.org/library/ContributionofIslam.html
religious tolerance when his own life and well being of his family
To review the fact that the humanitarian ideals mentioned in the
was threatened for years on end. He wrote about the principles of
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 are
religious tolerance in Islam long before September 11, 2001, in his
exactly in keeping with the Islamic teachings and early Muslim
books Murder in the name of Allah and Islam’s response to the
tradition, please review books by Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan
Contemporary issues.
Islam and Human Rights and Punishment of Apostasy in Islam.
CONGRESSMAN BRIAN HIGGINS SPEAKS TO
"Swords can win territories, but not hearts; INTERFAITH CONFERENCE ARRANGED BY AHMADI
force can bend heads, but not minds." His
MUSLIMS
Holiness Mirza Tahir Ahmad
As Americans across the nation celebrated Memorial Day,
Iain Adamson introducing His Holiness Mirza Tahir Ahmad on
Congressman Brian Higgins, of Buffalo New York, on the invitation
the back cover of the biography titled, A man of God, writes:
of Dr. Nasir Khan, took an hour out memorial day Sunday to visit
“He is the fourth successor of Ahmad, who proclaimed that he with members of the Buffalo Chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim
was the Messiah promised in all the great religions of the world. Community at the Millennium Hotel in Cheektowaga for a seminar
Today followers of Ahmad have become most dynamic on tolerance and understanding.
missionary force of Islam. They have translated Holy Quran or
Mr. Ken Hamilton, a freelance writer and radio talk show host,
selected verses in more than 117 languages and established
reported on http://www.politicsny.net, “Dr. Nasir Khan, who is the
missions, hospitals, and schools in more than 120 countries and
president of the Buffalo chapter, says that the Ahmadiyya
directed doctors, teachers, and engineers to work along side their
community is a Muslim group that is neither Shiite or Sunni, but a
missionaries. Thousands and thousands of children are already
group that believes that its messiah has come in the person of the
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 6
Congressman Brian Higgins speaks at the conference. Left of Podium is Dr. Nasir Other speakers at the conference from the right Dr Naseer Tahir, Missionary In charge
Tahir and right of podium is Dr Nasir Khan. USA Imam Daud Hanif, Congressman Brian Higgins and Dr. Zia H Shah.
founder of their community, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad believers of Islam to have allegiance first to God, then to the
(1835-1908), who established it in 1889 in a small village in prophets, and then to the country that he inhabits, said that when
India. Today, there are tens of millions of Muslims in the he entered the US in 1986, a naturalization officer told him that he
community representing nearly 190 countries. The Buffalo had a series of questions to ask him with the first one being, “If
Chapter holds seminars, where they invite the public and have America is attacked, what will you do,” to which Kauser replied,
speakers of both Muslim and non-Muslim beliefs explaining “I’ll be the first in line; you may be in the last.”
various beliefs. Kauser then reported that the officer laughed and said, “No more
Khan believes the community is the embodiment of Islam’s questions.”
message of peace, brotherhood, and submission to the will of Ken Hamilton further wrote, “Higgins opened his speech by talking
God.” about his south-Buffalo, Irish-Catholic roots, and how he was
When Higgins arrived at the conference, Imam Inamul Haq taught that Catholicism was about love, tolerance, understanding
Kauser had begun his speech on that very peace, starting off by and charity; and that his teaching was in the Judeo-Christian
condemning those who participated in the attacks on America on tradition. ‘But, upon further examination,’ Higgins said, ‘it is not
September 11, 2001. Kauser, stressing the importance for true
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 7
only Judeo-Christian tradition; it is Judeo-Christian-Islamic Noah said, “I am only a plain Warner.” The
tradition.’ disbelievers warned, 'If thou desist not, O
Higgins praised Khan, and others, by saying that the seminars Noah, thou shalt surely be stoned to
are being done with great leadership, sensitivity and courage to
death.' (Al Quran 26:116-117)
help the United States better understand a part of the world with
Moses added, “Allah is the Lord of the East
which most Americans were unfamiliar, and that, as a
and of the West, and of all that is between the
representative of some of the people in the room, and that after
two, if you did but understand. Pharaoh said
travelling to many Muslim nations, that there is a great challenge
for everyone to have a better understanding of the sensitivities of in a rage, If thou dost adopt a God other than
each other, because, in the end, we are all a part of a human me, I will certainly put thee in prison.” (Al
community. We have different faiths, but in our nation we
Quran 26:29-30)
cherish the freedom of others to practice their faith in a peaceful,
progressive way.”
1974 when the opponents of Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam
Higgins also said that as he examines the Islamic faith he is
instigated a national conspiracy, against Ahmadis to get political
finding more similarities with his own Christian faith. Again,
advantage, in the whole of Pakistan. This triggered a wave of
praising the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community leaders, for
atrocities against the Ahmadi Muslims through out the country.
stepping up as moderate voices within the Muslim community
Some of the Ahmadis had left Balakot and gone to Rabwah, a
and telling the truth about the real aims of the Islamic
stronghold of the Ahmadis, in anticipation of such violence, but
community.
there were still many residing in Balakot. A violent procession
Unlike this story of religious tolerance and understanding is a started from the Jamiah mosque of Balakot and the mob attacked
story of extreme intolerance from Pakistan, as described below. the Ahmadi homes. They martyred Mohammad Zaman khan and
AN NWFP TOWN IN PAKISTAN IN 1974 one of his sons and maltreated many others.
These extreme events of religious intolerance and cruelty seemed
In 1930s an Ahmadi missionary visited Balakot in NWFP in
to have been forgotten until October of 2005.
Pakistan. Some of the local population manhandled the
missionary. Drawing enthusiasm from the arguments of the THE SAME NWFP TOWN IN PAKISTAN IN 2005
missionary and ill treatment afforded by the opponents two
Balakot was once the most beautiful place of Pakistan but now it is
brothers became Ahmadi Muslims. Their names were
a dead city. The residents of the area told Dawn reporter that over
Mohammad Zaman Khan and Musa Khan. Life went on until
60 per cent people in Balakot had lost their life, many of them were
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 8
schoolchildren. About 700 students were buried alive in three Another son of Musa Khan, Rasheed Ahmad Lughmani was in
different schools. Degree of destruction in Balakot according to Balakot. He was not an Ahmadi but socially was always close to
reliable assessment was 95 percent, in which 7-12,000 people them. He was miraculously saved, with whole of his family of 16.
lost their lives and approximately 4,500 houses were destroyed. One of his one year old grandsons was pulled out of the ruble
However, by the grace of Allah, there was not even a single unscathed. Rasheed himself was lying on a cot in a Verandah that
Ahmadi casualty. The multi-storied Jamiah mosque, the site of had a concrete roof on top of it. He says that as he felt the first
initiation of the violent mob, in 1974, with all its floors slid down wave of the quake he got up. No sooner had he gotten up, that he
from the top of the hillock into the river, completely destroyed. felt that some one kicked him in the back and he fell way out in the
open courtyard. A moment later, the cot that he was lying on was
buried under a mountain of rubble. He had been saved by a
Powerful hand of the Almighty with minimal injury.
A day after the quake the grandchildren of Mohammad Zaman
Khan and Musa Khan, the pioneer Ahmadis in Balakot, sprung into
an elaborate rescue and rebuilding effort, disregarding what the
local population had done to their grandfather and an uncle in
1974.
What had been a prospering town of 30,000, now lay waste and
the locals did not have much to offer. The will of Allah so ordained
that the major rescue effort that came to the town came from the
families of the two pioneer Ahmadis of Balakot. Dr Naeem Ahmad
The river that received the rubble of violent mosque
Lughmani, an Ahmadi from USA played a pivotal role in the
Among the stories of destruction and dismay there were stories humanitarian work by Humanity First in Balakot.
of miraculous survival as well. Mr. Nazir Ahmad Lughmani, a Humanity First (HF) sprung into immediate action and assembled
devout Ahmadi, son of Musa Khan always spent his Saturdays in teams of doctors and other staff volunteers to travel to the affected
Balakot. Conventionally he would have been in Balakot at the area. They set up shelters and distributed food in the affected area.
time of the earthquake but by the grace of God he was delayed in Humanity First (HF) provided similar services both in China and
Abottabad that day and rather than being a casualty became a Myanmar more recently. HF has provided these critical
helper for the suffering in Balakot. humanitarian services many times in the recent past (the Asian
tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Pakistan earthquake, Guyanese
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 9
THE TRUE ISLAMIC JIHAD
Address Delivered By His Holiness Khalifatul Masih V,
at Khilafat Centenary Celebration Reception, June
23rd 2008, At Tysons’ Hilton, McLean, Virginia USA:
http://www.alislam.org/topics/jihad/KCCii.pdf
INDONESIA ORDINANCE
The human condition is, as Plato would make Socrates say in the
Republic (7.514a ff.), comparable to that of prisoners of an
underground cave, whose unfortunate fate is to confuse reality with
passing shadows created by a fire inside their miserable abode and
kept in motion by clever manipulators, who in the name of politics,
religion, science, and tradition control the human herd.
Humanity First team: Dr Naeem Ahmad Lughmani and Rizwan Tahir got
This is what the Mullahs and politicians have done for the last fifty
help from Pakistan Army.
year, in controlling the thoughts of the innocent and the gullible
floods, the Peru earthquake, and Bangladesh cyclone to name a
masses.
few) and is ready to help victims through immediate disaster
While Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country, its
relief operations, as well as the subsequent rebuilding phases in
constitution protects freedom of religion and it has sizeable
affected communities.
Christian, Hindu and Buddhist communities. Lately religious

intolerance is starting a shop in the country. Indonesian women
FRIDAY SERMON ABOUT THE PAKISTAN and children who follow Ahmadiyya, an Islamic sect that has come
EARTHQUAKE under attack from hard-line Muslims, have faced discrimination
and human rights abuses for many years, a Jakarta-based
Friday Sermon delivered on January 27, 2006, by Khalifatul-
watchdog said. The National Commission on Violence against
Masih V, His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad covers in part the
Women urged the government to revoke a ministerial decree
earthquake in Pakistan in October, 2005, and can be reviewed or
issued on Monday, under which the Ahmadis are forbidden from
listened to at the following link: http://www.alislam.org/archives/
preaching or converting others, saying this would only encourage

more abuses. “There is no government effort to prevent
discrimination against Ahmadis’ children,” Kamala Candrakirana,
Friday, July 11th, 2008 The Al Islam eGazette 10
who heads the commission, told a press conference. She said from fundamental Islamic tenets. Members of Islamic sect Jamaah
Ahmadi children tend to be stigmatized at school, where some Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) are banned from propagating their
teachers highlight their faith in their school report cards. The religious teachings, but are allowed to maintain their faith and
commission, which compiled material from 2000, from perform their daily religious duties, the Indonesian government
Sukabumi district in West Java and from Lombok island, also said on 6/13/2008. This in clear violation of the Universal
found that several Ahmadi women had given birth prematurely Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, of which Indonesia is a
after their houses had been attacked by militant groups. signatory. For further details please see:
www.thepersecution.org
JAKARTA’S SLIPPERY SLOPE (WSJ)
“With the World Peace Forum under way in Jakarta today,
Indonesia is happy to boast of its commitment to interfaith
dialogue. The 200,000 members of the Ahmadiyah sect would
disagree.
On Thursday, Islamic radicals sealed off more than 10 Ahmadiyah
mosques in Indonesia. This was the predictable outcome of a June
9 government ruling barring the Ahmadiyah from “dissemination
activities,” whatever that means. Their crime? Peacefully
worshipping a liberal form of Islam.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sold the ruling as a way to
forbid a “deviant” Islamic group from propagating their ideas but
not banning them outright. But it was really a cave-in to radicals
such as the Islamic Defenders Front, who advocate strict
interpretations of Islam and have made their views known by
Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Reuters this week the beating up people in the streets.
government would not ban Ahmadiyya, ending months of
Now, a coalition of Islamic fanatics, the Forum Umat Islam, has
speculation over the fate of the sect. A government team tasked
taken the ruling as a pretext to shut down Ahmadiyah mosques. In
with monitoring religious groups had previously recommended
response, Mr. Yudhoyono has ignored the Indonesian
that Ahmadiyya should be banned as the sect’s teachings deviate
constitution’s freedom of religion clause and done nothing.