Pakistan, the birthplace of radical Islamic terrorism

The events of the past few days in Pakistan have generated an enormous amount of commentary, most of it deeply critical of General Musharraf's decision to impose what amounts to martial law. Not enough attention has been brought, however, to what is surely the most significant underlying problem, the influence of an extremist brand of Islam on the country's legal, political and social order. In particular, Pakistan's current woes can be traced to a long tradition of repressing minority rights. I happen to belong to one of the groups whose rights have been trampled upon in the name of Islam, and therefore probably enjoy a fairly unique perspective on the situation.

In 1974, the Jamat-e-Islami, which is now a prominent opposition group and has figured in the protests against Musharraf since March, began a systematic campaign of violence against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Because Ahmadis (as the adherents of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community are called) believed in the coming of a latter-day Messiah, the Jamat-e-Islami felt that they had violated a basic tenet of Islamic theology, the doctrine of the "finality of prophethood," under which no prophets can come after the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Without entering into an extensive theological discussion, the Jamat-e-Islami's ultimate conclusion can be summarized as holding that because Ahmadis believed in a prophet after the Holy Prophet, they should not call themselves Muslims. Having formed this belief, they began what was perhaps the first successful campaign of violent political Islam, precisely the phenomenon that culminated in the attacks on September 11th. The basic idea was precisely the same- if an "Islamic belief" cannot be implemented using peaceful means, then political violence will be undertaken until the objective is achieved. In this particular instance, the Jamat-e-Islami's intimidation and murder of Ahmadi Muslims led to a debate in the legislature on the issue, and ended in the most remarkable and bizarre constitutional reform the world may ever have seen.

Thus, the Second Amendment to the Pakistani Constitution of 1973 states, in pertinent part: "A person who does not believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of The Prophethood of MUHAMMAD (Peace be upon him), the last of the Prophets or claims to be a Prophet, in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever, after MUHAMMAD (Peace be upon him), or recognizes such a claimant as a Prophet or religious reformer, is not a Muslim for the purposes of the Constitution or law." This use of the Constitution to prescribe who is and who is not legally considered a member of the Muslim community not only defies notions of religious freedom widely accepted by the international community and codified in various international law documents to which Pakistan is a signatory, but is also simply logically absurd and extremely dangerous.

It is noteworthy that Pakistan had not been this way from the beginning. Indeed, the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, referred to as "Quaid-e-Azam" (the Great Leader), told the Pakistani legislative body that ""You are free, free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State." (Aug. 11, 1948). That one day Pakistan would use the constitutional apparatus to specifically prohibit a group of people from belonging to the religion of their choice would have been preposterous to Jinnah. In any event, Pakistan's downward spiral continued in 1977, when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was prime minister in 1974 at the time of the declaration of Ahmadis as non-Muslims, was deposed by Zia-ul-Haq, an army general. Having hung Bhutto, Zia ruled for 11 repressive years, his tenure ending only after a fatal airplane crash. During Zia's regime, the noose was further tightened on the Ahmadis by means of Ordinance XX, passed in 1984. Under this ordinance, any Ahmadi who used Islamic terminology in a mannner deemed inappropriate by law could face three years in prison - this included calling Ahmadi houses of worship by the name "masjid" (mosque in Urdu) and referring to the call of prayer as the Azan. Furthermore, the ordinance provided that " [u]se of derogatory remarks, etc. in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." Notice that this blasphemy provision, later the subject of much criticism in the Western media after Christians were prosecuted under it, was inserted as part of the Anti-Ahmadiyya Ordinance.

Now, one may wonder what the attitude of the United States and its western allies was towards the Zia regime. As it turns out, we were supplying him with both aid and arms, allowing him to build up a cadre of fighters in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion of that country. Those fighters became known as the Mujahideen, and later on formed the breeding ground out of which both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were formed. Thus, the very same forces that had a decade earlier begun the transformation of Pakistan from a country where all creeds could co-exist without rancor into a sectarian republic, were now fomenting the seeds of the great terrorist force that ultimate reshaped the world in a definitive sense.

Why does this matter today, one might wonder? To begin with, for all the hoopla about democracy and human rights, you will never hear any of the potential electable political leaders in Pakistan talk about repealing the Second Amendment to the Constitution, nor Ordinance XX, even both are clearly inconsistent with any notion of a Pakistan that respect human rights. Truth be told, these political leaders consider it to be political suicide to take that position, because the Mullahs have successfully convinced the vast majority of the population (which, by the way, is also illiterate) that Ahmadis constitute a grave danger to other Muslims. Thus, this giant travesty continues, and will likely do so regardless of which set of political leaders rule Pakistan.

If Pakistan is to truly extricate itself from the precipitous decline in moral integrity it has suffered in the past few decades, it must begin by affirming a strong commitment to respecting human rights. To do so, it must repeal both the Second Amendment to the Constitution and Ordinance XX, and restore Ahmadis to full and equal citizenship rights with all other Pakistanis. If Pakistan refuses to do this, no secure foundation can be laid for a free society.

Finally, if Americans and other Westerners really want to understand where all this insanity comes from, where its origins lie, I would suggest taking a very close look at the way that political Islam has successfully been mobilized against the Ahmadi community over the past three decades in Pakistan. These people, the Jamat-e-Islami and its cohorts, are the ones who first began the project that ultimately led to the Twin Towers tragedy, and if we don't stop them today, they will carry on toward ever greater michief and evil.