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REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AGENCIES: C
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International Report 1988 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International Report 1989 CONSCIENCE AND COERCION: … maltreatment of Ahmadis at the hands of mullah-inspired mobs in collusion with government officials, for no other reason than professing and practicing their personal faith as Muslims, was worse than I had imagined. (p13) It is of course possible that my Ahmadi informants have misled me; however, anyone who knows Ahmadis knows this construction would be so out of character as to strain credulity. (p21) The cases of persecution to which I refer in the narrative that follows, by no means exhaust the record. They should be regarded as specimens of a widespread campaign against Ahmadis. (p23)
What is unusual about the present status of Ahmadis in Pakistan is that not only are they excoriated as non-Muslims but they are not permitted to practice what they are…When they do so, however, they are accused of posing as Muslims - a crime punishable by up to three years' imprisonment under military Ordinance XX which has now been integrated into the Pakistan Penal Code. (p28) The concept of posing as a Muslim presupposes the competency of government functionaries to ascertain inward motives and intentions, for the notion of posing implies doing something hypocritically,…But this scrutiny of the heart is patently impossible…. (p28)
Ahmadis, of course, deny they are feigning an identity by performing x or y Islamic acts. Through these acts they are expressing their essential selfhood. Moreover, in the absence of a confession, feigning or impersonating is nearly impossible to prove. Therefore the charge is, if not nearly illogical, one which could never be proven: short of the confession that, I was pretending to be a Muslim when I called my faith Islam but, in truth, I am not. (p31) … how does the state justify the suppression of a group's or an individuals right to self-definition when no overt anti-social act which might be defined as a criminal offense has been committed? (p32) … a Sunni Muslim gives the azan, the call to prayer, and so does the Ahmadi Muslim. In the first case, the azan is judged to be legally appropriate and socially correct; in the second case, the azan is judged to be inauthentic, condemning the perpetrator to the charge of posing. (p33)
Prosecuting such a charge is, in effect, to claim that one has access to the minds of others by means of some kind of ideological electronic brain electrodes. (p33) This amounts, in effect, to enforced apostasy, to the denial of their self-identity… (p34) The Ahmadis cannot deny their Muslim identity because they live under God's revelation in the the Qu'ran which explicitly calls the name of their revealed religion, Islam. To repudiate their self-designation as Muslims is denying, in effect, their loyalty to the divine author of the Qur'an. This they are not prepared to do on pain of suffering and death. (p34) "CONSCIENCE AND COERCION: HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN LAHORE PRESS RELEASE THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN HAS NOTED WITH CONCERN THE STATEMENT MADE BY A SPOKESMAN OF THE GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB DENYING THE REPORT OF HRCP ON THE ANTI-AHMADI RIOTS AT NANKANA SAHIB. THE STATEMENT PUBLISHED ON 6.6.89 NOT ONLY DENIED ALLEGATIONS MADE BY HRCP REGARDING ADMINISTRATIVE INACTION BUT ALSO JUSTIFIED THE RIOT ON THE GROUNDS THAT THE AHMADIA COMMUNITY DESERVED SUCH VIOLENCE AS THEY REFUSED TO ACCEPT A MINORITY STATUS. HRCP BELIEVES THAT REGARDLESS OF THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, RELIGIOUS, OR POLITICAL STATUS OF CITIZENS, THE STATE IS BOUND TO PROTECT ITS CITIZENS. THE CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN GUARANTEES EQUAL TREATMENT IN LAW, PROTECTION OF LIFE, PROPERTY AND LIBERTY OF EACH CITIZEN. THE STATE CANNOT BE PERMITTED TO DISCRIMINATE AMONGST CITIZENS ON THE BASIS OF BELIEF. GOVERNMENTS ARE DUTY BOUND TO PROTECT EVERY CITIZEN PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO ARE VICTIMIZED BECAUSE OF THEIR BELIEF, SEX OR CREED. THE COMMISSION HAS DEMANDED THAT THE GOVERNMENT SET UP A JUDICIAL ENQUIRY INTO THE HAPPENINGS AT NANKANA SAHIB. ALL MEASURES SHOULD BE TAKEN TO DISCOURAGE CRIMINAL ACTION RATHER THAN ENCOURAGE IT AND JUSTIFY IT. (ASMA JAHANGIR)
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