Pakistan's long-persecuted Ahmadi minority fear becoming election scapegoat

Ahmadis are some of the most common defendants in criminal charges of blasphemy, which in Pakistan can carry the death penalty.

Anti-Ahmadiyya conference in Rabwah. Photo: REUTERS/Saad Sayeed

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Reuters News
By Saad Sayeed | November 15, 2017

RABWAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Crammed into buses and mini-vans, more than 10,000 Pakistanis traveled to a mosque on the outskirts of the small Punjabi town of Rabwah, for the sole purpose of denouncing followers of the minority sect based here as “infidels and enemies of the state”.

For members of the long persecuted Ahmadi community, who are forbidden to call themselves Muslims and face discrimination and violence over accusations their faith insults Islam, the open vitriol on display at the Oct. 20 rally was not new.

But this year, they say, anti-Ahmadi rhetoric has also re-entered mainstream Pakistani politics, as politicians seek to shore up support among religiously conservative voters after surprise gains by two new Islamist parties.

“We are an easy community to scapegoat for political opponents to target each other,” said Usman Ahmad, who moved to Pakistan from Britain to work as a community activist.
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Pakistan's long-persecuted Ahmadi minority fear becoming election scapegoat

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