A dangerous turn toward hatred

Pakistan Today

Bigotry is coursing through Pakistani politics, said Umair Jamal. Last week, Muhammad Safdar— the son-in-law of recently ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif—took to the floor of the National Assembly to rail against the Ahmadis. This religious minority, which follows 19th-century cleric Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, calls itself a sect of Islam, although the Pakistani government ruled in the 1970s that Ahmadis were not true Muslims. Safdar denounced them as “a threat to this country, its constitution, and ideology” and called for them to be deported or at least barred from military service. Safdar is part of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, but his words were echoed

by members of the main opposition party. Such religious hatred is standard practice in Pakistan, where “using Islam for political interests has been a most trusted and cherished weapon.” The main parties are all “trying to win Islamists’ votes and support” by demonizing minorities such as the Ahmadis. It wasn’t always that way. Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, included ethnic and religious minorities in his cabinet; in fact, his first foreign minister was an Ahmadi. But Jinnah’s agenda of an inclusive Pakistan is no more. We are becoming “an isolated and closed society, where segregation, violence, and bigotry are the law of the land.”