Originally published in the Express Tribune Religious clerics in Pakistan celebrate September 7th as a day of victory for Islam and Pakistan. Officially dubbed the “Khatme Nubuwwat Day” or “Finality of Prophethood Day,” many mosques come alive with celebrations this day, sweets are distributed and intense speeches are made in large religious gatherings. Forty years ago this day, Pakistan passed...
Originally published in The Cap Times Progress is marvelous, especially when it is in regard to extending basic human rights such as religious freedom and tolerance for all. On Feb. 28 the Ahmadiyya Muslim Caucus was launched with the purpose of fighting religious persecution of not only Ahmadi Muslims, but people around the world. The bipartisan leadership of Virginia Republican Frank Wolf and...
Originally published in Liberty Magazine Religious blasphemy laws can be a touchy subject, especially in Pakistan, where just bringing up the subject of the blasphemy laws and whether they are right or wrong is considered, well …blasphemous. This wasn’t always the case. The sentiment behind most blasphemy laws is easy to understand. No person or group should insult another religion’s beliefs or...
Originally Published in The Richmond Times-Dispatch Being the exception is a good thing, right? Maybe not, if you’re Pakistan. Christians have endured persecution for so long in Pakistan that it may rightly be considered commonplace. Therefore, I had little hope for a pending case against Rimsha Masih — a 14-year-old Christian girl, who is also mentally ill, charged with allegedly burning the...
Though I was born in Pakistan, I was still a baby when my dad had to move to The Gambia in West Africa. The Gambia is a small peaceful country. Here, I remember my mother teaching me the Urdu Qaida and telling me interesting stories about Pakistan. I could see she missed Pakistan a great deal. She would sometimes break down in tears, relating stories of the persecution she had witnessed growing...
Purchase the book here: Why Write This Book? May 28, 2012 was the 2-year anniversary of the Taliban’s attack on two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan. That day, the Taliban murdered 86 Ahmadi Muslims and 1 Christian. The Pakistani Police watched it happen from a safe distance, and even now have made no arrests. Why? The Wrong Kind of Muslim is the first book of its kind. It relates these untold...
Originally Published in The Express Tribune As a rejected son, how do you celebrate Mother’s Day? Who enjoys the breakfast tray? Who receives the flower bouquet? That’s my story. But it’s not my biological mother who rejected me. It’s my motherland – Pakistan. So on this Mother’s Day, let me have a heart to heart talk with you – my motherland. You don’t want to accept my love; that’s your choice...
Originally Posted on PakTeaHouse Just when it seems that the boundary of idiocy cannot be pushed any further, Punjab police has proved us wrong. There are recent reports that an Ahmadi “place of worship” in Sultanpura, Lahore was damaged by policemen to fulfill the demands of local religious clerics. The offense which the Ahmadi “place of worship” had caused was the public display of Kalima in...
The last counsel by the Holy Prophet (pbuh) right before his passing away was for Muslims to guard against violating the rights of women and the slaves. In the Islam Republic of Pakistan today, that should have automatically meant that the rights of vulnerable and weak are safeguarded zealously. Instead, a declaration of war seems to have been made against the dispossessed and the powerless –...
Originally Posted on PakTeaHouse I was born a Muslim. Until the second amendment was passed in Pakistan’s constitution in 1974, I remained a legal Muslim. I was very young when this happened, too young to remember it well. Hence, I did not have the opportunity to carry out and observe Islam’s practices before I was declared non-Muslim by State and before these practices were banned on me. I...