(New York, May 6, 2007) — The Pakistani government should stop pandering
to Islamist extremist groups that foment harassment and violence against
the minority Ahmadiyya religious community, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch called on the government of
President General Pervez Musharraf to repeal laws
that discriminate against religious minorities
such as the Ahmadis, including the penal statute
that makes capital punishment mandatory for
“blasphemy.”

In the most recent incident, police in Lahore on
April 22 supervised the illegal demolition of the
boundary wall of an Ahmadi-owned graveyard. Two
extremist Islamist groups, Sunni Tehrik and
Tehrik-e-Tahafaz-e-Naomoos-e-Risalat, had put
pressure on the provincial authorities over the
building of the wall on the grounds that Ahmadis
might try to establish a center of “apostasy”
within the enclosed walls. Leaders of the two
groups had also threatened to kill Ahmadis if the
police did not intervene on their behalf.

"Musharraf should stop giving in to Islamist
extremist groups that foment harassment and
violence against the minority Ahmadi community,"
said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights
Watch. "As religious persecution by Islamist
groups intensifies, pandering to extremists sets
a dangerous precedent."

Founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the
Ahmadiyya community is a religious group that
identifies itself as Muslim. Estimates suggest at
least 2 million Ahmadis live in Pakistan. Ahmadis
differ with other Muslims over the exact
definition of Prophet Mohammad being the “final”
monotheist prophet. Many Muslims consider the
Ahmadiyya to be non-Muslims.

The persecution of the Ahmadiyya community is
wholly legalized, even encouraged, by the
Pakistani government. Pakistan’s penal code
explicitly discriminates against religious
minorities and targets Ahmadis in particular by
prohibiting them from "indirectly or directly
posing as a Muslim." Ahmadis are prohibited from
declaring or propagating their faith publicly,
building mosques, or making the call for Muslim
prayer.

Pakistan’s “Blasphemy Law,” as Section 295-C of
the Penal Code is known, makes the death penalty
mandatory for blasphemy. Under this law, the
Ahmadi belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad is considered blasphemous insofar as it
“defiles the name of Prophet Muhammad.” In 2006,
at least 25 Ahmadis were charged under various
provisions of the blasphemy law across Pakistan.
Many of these individuals remain in prison.

Though violence against the Ahmadiyya community
has decreased from historically high levels in
the 1980s, when the military government of
General Zia-ul-Haq unleashed a wave of
persecution against them, Ahmadis continue to be
injured and killed and see their homes and
businesses burned down in anti-Ahmadi attacks.
The authorities continue to arrest, jail and
charge Ahmadis for blasphemy and other offenses
because of their religious beliefs. In several
instances, the police have been complicit in
harassment and the framing of false charges
against Ahmadis, or stood by in the face of
anti-Ahmadi violence.

"Ahmadis become easy targets in times of
religious and political insecurity,“said Adams.”The Pakistani government has emboldened the
extremists by failing to take action. It needs to
repeal the laws used to persecute Ahmadis, and it
must prosecute those responsible for anti-Ahmadi
intimidation and violence."

However, charges are seldom brought against
perpetrators of anti-Ahmadi violence and
discrimination. Research by Human Rights Watch
indicates that the police have failed to
apprehend anyone implicated in such activity in
the last two years.

On September 9, two journalists working for the
Ahmadi publication Al Fazl were charged under
various provisions of the blasphemy law and the
anti-terrorism act at the urging of Islamist
extremists from the Khatm-e-Nabuwat group, which
had called for a ban on Ahmadi newspapers and
other publications. The journalists have
subsequently been released on bail but the
editor, publisher and printer of Al Fazl continue
to face court proceedings.

On June 22 last year, a mob burned down Ahmadi
shops and homes in Jhando Sahi village near the
town of Daska in Punjab province, forcing more
than 100 Ahmadis to flee their homes. The police,
though present at the scene, failed to intervene
or arrest any of the culprits. On the hand, the
authorities charged seven Ahmadis under the
blasphemy law. The Ahmadis have now returned to
their homes, but the situation remains tense.

On October 7, 2005, masked gunmen attacked Ahmadi
worshippers in a mosque in the near the town of
Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab province. Eight Ahmadis
were killed and 18 injured in the attack. The
perpetrators remain at large.

Since 2000, an estimated 350 Ahmadis have been
formally charged in criminal cases, including
blasphemy. Several have been convicted and face
life imprisonment or death sentences pending
appeal. The offenses charged included wearing an
Islamic slogan on a shirt, planning to build an
Ahmadi mosque in Lahore, and distributing Ahmadi
literature in a public square. As a result,
thousands of Ahmadis have fled Pakistan to seek
asylum in countries including Canada and the
United States.

The Pakistani government continues to actively
encourage legal and procedural discrimination
against Ahmadis. For example, all Pakistani
Muslim citizens applying for passports are
obliged to sign a statement explicitly stating
that they consider the founder of the Ahmadi
community an “imposter” and consider Ahmadis to
be non-Muslims.

"Under Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, virtually any
public act of worship or devotion by an Ahmadi
can be treated as a criminal offense," said
Adams. "Ahmadis could be sentenced to death for
simply professing their faith."

Human Rights Watch urged the international
community to press the Pakistani government to:

– Repeal the Blasphemy Law;
– Prosecute those responsible for harassing,
and planning and executing attacks against the
Ahmadiyya and other minorities; and,
– Take steps to encourage religious tolerance within Pakistani society.

"Pakistan’s continued use of it blasphemy law
against Ahamdis and other religious minorities is
disgraceful,“said Adams.”The government’s
failure to repeal this law contradicts its claim
of ’enlightened moderation.’"

 Background on the Ahmadiyya community

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the official name
of the community, is a contemporary messianic
movement founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
(1839-1908), who was born in the Punjabi village
of Qadian, now in India. Some derogatorily refer
to the Ahmadiyya community as the “Qadiani” (or
“Kadiyani”) community, a term derived from the
birthplace of the founder of the movement. In
1889, Ahmad declared that he had received divine
revelation authorizing him to accept the baya’ah,
or allegiance of the faithful. In 1891, he
claimed to be the expected mahdi or messiah of
the latter days, the “Awaited One” of the
monotheist community of religions, and the
messiah foretold by the Prophet Mohammed. Ahmad
described his teachings, incorporating both Sufi
and orthodox Islamic, Hindu, and Christian
elements, as an attempt to revitalize Islam in
the face of the British Raj, proselytizing
Protestant Christianity, and resurgent Hinduism.
Thus, the Ahmadiyya community believes that Ahmad
conceived the community as a revivalist movement
within Islam and not as a new religion.

Members of the Ahmadiyya community (“Ahmadis”)
profess to be Muslims. They contend that Ahmad
meant to revive the true spirit and message of
Islam that the Prophet Mohammed introduced and
preached. Virtually all mainstream Muslim sects
believe that Ahmad proclaimed himself as a
prophet, thereby rejecting a fundamental tenet of
Islam: Khatme Nabuwat (literally, the belief in
the “finality of prophethood” - that the Prophet
Mohammed was the last of the line of prophets
leading back through Jesus, Moses, and Abraham).
Ahmadis respond that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a
non-law-bearing prophet subordinate in status to
Prophet Mohammed; he came to illuminate and
reform Islam, as predicted by Prophet Mohammed.
For Ahmad and his followers, the Arabic Khatme
Nabuwat does not refer to the finality of
prophethood in a literal sense - that is, to
prophethood’s chronological cessation - but
rather to its culmination and exemplification in
the Prophet Mohammed. Ahmadis believe that
“finality” in a chronological sense is a worldly
concept, whereas “finality” in a metaphoric sense
carries much more spiritual significance.

The exact size of the Ahmadiyya community
worldwide is unclear, but estimates suggest they
number under 10 million, mostly concentrated in
India and Pakistan but also present in
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ghana, Burkina Faso,
Gambia and Europe.

 Background on persecution of the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan

The Ahmadiyya community has long been persecuted
in Pakistan. Since 1953, when the first
post-independence anti-Ahmadiyya riots broke out,
the relatively small Ahmadi community in Pakistan
has endured persecution. Between 1953 and 1973,
this persecution was sporadic but, in 1974, a new
wave of anti-Ahmadi disturbances spread across
Pakistan. In response, Pakistan’s parliament
introduced amendments to the constitution which
defined the term “Muslim” in the Pakistani
context and listed groups that were deemed to be
non-Muslim under Pakistani law. Put into effect
on September 6, 1974, the amendment explicitly
deprived Ahmadis of their identity as Muslims.

In 1984, Pakistan’s penal code was amended yet
again. As a result of these amendments, five
ordinances that explicitly targeted religious
minorities acquired legal status: a law against
blasphemy; a law punishing the defiling of the
Quran; a prohibition against insulting the wives,
family, or companions of the Prophet of Islam;
and two laws specifically restricting the
activities of Ahmadis. On April 26, 1984, General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq issued these last two laws as
part of Martial Law Ordinance XX, which amended
Pakistan’s Penal Code, Sections 298-B and 298-C.

Ordinance XX undercut the activities of religious
minorities generally, but struck at Ahmadis in
particular by prohibiting them from "indirectly
or directly posing as a Muslim." Ahmadis thus
could no longer profess their faith, either
orally or in writing. Pakistani police destroyed
Ahmadi translations of and commentaries on the
Quran and banned Ahmadi publications, the use of
any Islamic terminology on Ahmadi wedding
invitations, the offering of Ahmadi funeral
prayers, and the displaying of the Kalima (the
statement that "there is no god but Allah,
Mohammed is Allah’s prophet," the principal creed
of Muslims) on Ahmadi gravestones. In addition,
Ordinance XX prohibited Ahmadis from declaring
their faith publicly, propagating their faith,
building mosques, or making the call for Muslim
prayer. In short, virtually any public act of
worship or devotion by an Ahmadi could be treated
as a criminal offense.

With the passage of the Criminal Law Act of 1986,
parliament added Section 295-C to the Pakistan
Penal Code. The “Blasphemy Law,” as it came to be
known, made the death penalty mandatory for
blasphemy. General Zia-ul-Haq and his military
government institutionalized the persecution of
Ahmadis as well as other minorities in Pakistan
with Section 295-C. The Ahmadi belief in the
prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was now
considered blasphemous insofar as it "defiled the
name of Prophet Muhammad." Therefore,
theoretically, Ahmadis could be sentenced to
death for simply professing their faith.