Wajeeha A. Choudhary, Department of Communication, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

MINORITY RIGHTS AND SHARIA INTERPRETATION IN PAKISTAN

For more information, please contact: wac39@drexel.edu.

METHODS & FINDINGS

INTRODUCTION This project explores the interpretation of Sharia in Pakistan in relation to the treatment of religious minorities. Specifically, this project investigates the status of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a revivalist Islamic community deemed kafir, or heretical and non-Muslim, by the constitution of Pakistan. To investigate this issue, I conduct a discourse analysis of Pakistan’s second constitutional amendment declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslim and Ordinance XX of 1984, with special emphasis on the denial of self-identification for Ahmadis as Muslims. This discourse analysis is supplemented with and supported by ethnographic accounts of first and second generation American Ahmadi Muslims of Pakistani origin. The primary purpose of the ethnographic accounts is to demonstrate some of the far-reaching and residual effects of Sharia production in Pakistan as it continues to impact those outside of the borders of Pakistan. Therefore, this project also calls upon issues of transnational-immigrant perspectives.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

HISTORY & KEY DOCUMENTS Supreme Court case

Zaheeruddin v. The State upholds Ordinance XX

Ordinance XX Penal Code, curbing Ahmadi

religious practice

Second Constitutional Amendment is passed

declaring Ahmadis kafir

Publication of The Munir Report investigating the Disturbances and the

‘Ahmadi Question’

The Punjab Disturbances

Pakistan-India Partition

Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam demand Ahmadis be declared kafir (India)

Founding of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (India) 18

89

1934

1947

1953

1954

1974

1984

1993

BELIEFS & BACKGROUND OF AHMADIYYA MUSLIM COMMUNITY

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

who claimed to be the metaphorical second-coming of Jesus of Nazareth. His advent also fulfilled a prophecy of the Prophet Muhammad who foretold of a Mahdi or divine guide who would lead Islam out of its declined state and into revival.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed and his followers believe him to be a subordinate prophet to the Prophet Muhammad.. While Prophet Muhammad is considered a law-bearing prophet (i.e., revelation of the Qur’an), Mirza Ghulam Ahmad did not claim to bring a new law but rather a continuation of the same law. Thus, followers of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community do not consider themselves as adherents of a new Islam, but rather followers of the purest and quintessential form of Islam. Today under the guidance of the Caliphate established by Ahmad, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has tens of millions of followers around the world.

Amendment of Article 260 of the Constitution. In the Constitution, in Article 260, after clause (2) the following new clause shall be added, namely-- (3) 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.

298B. Misuse of epithets, descriptions and titles, etc., reserved for certain holy personages or places. (1) Any person of the Qadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves ‘Ahmadis’ or by any other name) who by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation;

(a) refers to, or addresses, any person, other than a Caliph or companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him),as ‘Ameerul Mumineen’, ‘Khalifa-tul-Mumineen’, ‘Khalifa-tul-Muslimeen’, ‘Sahaabi’ or ‘Razi Allah Anho’ (b) refers to, or addresses, any person, other than a wife of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as ‘Ummul-Mumineen’ (c) refers to, or addresses, any person, other than a member of the family (Ahle-bait) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), as ‘Ahle-bait’; or (d) refers to, or names, or calls, his place of worship as ‘Masjid’; shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

(2) Any person of the Qadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves 'Ahmadis' or by any other name), who directly or indirectly, poses himself as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or in any manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

SECOND AMENDMENT OF PAKISTAN CONSTITUTION ORDINANCE XX OF PAKISTAN PENAL CODE

METHODS: This research utilizes discourse analysis to examine the 1974 Second Constitutional Amendment and the 1984 Ordinance XX of the Penal Code through the lens of performatives and speech acts (Butler, 1997; Wedeen, 2008; Bottomley, 2015). The discourse analysis is followed by ethnographic accounts of first and second generation American Ahmadi Muslims of Pakistani origin. Five semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. Participants were recruited via snowball sampling.

• Constitutional Amendment: Exclusionary and confounding definition of finality of prophethood (Khatam). Conflates multiple statuses of prophethood. Insistence on reductionist reading of Khatam establishes caveat to Kalima Shahadda (Islamic declaration of faith).

• Ordinance XX: distinguishes between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ practice through discrimination of belief. Islamic identity constructed as action excluding Ahmadis. prohibit indirect (Muslim appearance) and direct (preaching) influence of Ahmadi belief and practice from the public sphere.

• For Ahmadis in Pakistan, an irreconcilable difference between the public self and private self: what is ‘right’ for the private self is ‘wrong’ for the public self . Together, the constitutional amendment and Ordinance XX perform as a speech act: writing to life and dictating right practice of the Muslim self. The right of self-determination and self-identification are denied.

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ETHNOGRAPHY • Themes across data: narratives of otherness,

reflections on gender, persecution in education and employment, progress, safety, and cross-national comparisons

• Sarah was ostracized by her upper-class Wahabi family after converting to Ahmadiyyat:

“I think my parents – I think they didn’t go out of their comfort zone to do anything, to do something for me. They just said no, Ahmadiyyat, no. Anything else, a poor person, a pauper, she’s good. But Ahmadiyyat, no. So they didn’t even get into a discussion”

• Qamar, a doctor in the U.S. who grew up and went to medical school in Pakistan, describes the psychological trauma endured by Pakistani Ahmadis and their transition to the States:

“When I came here, I think I was still in the same mentality, that it’s kind of normal that I don’t call myself Muslim openly, it’s kind of normal that I don’t say Salaam openly, that’s okay, that’s how it is, that’s life. But then when I got used to freedom again, here in the U.S., I realized that it’s really – there’s a lot oppression back home, a lot of persecution back home, you don’t realize it. It doesn’t have to be physical, it’s psychological oppression and persecution, and people have adapted to this new normal but they don’t know what they’re missing which is complete freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of religion, which we enjoy here in the United States. So when I got back to my senses and I realized that was not normal, this is normal.”

In some respects, the condition of Ahmadis in Pakistan can be likened to that of Muslims in certain European countries, particularly if examined through the lens of the secular vs. religious. Claims for secularization can be just as dogmatic, and religious societies can also foster creativity and criticism. France, for instance, purportedly enacted the hijab and niqab bans for secular reasons while Pakistan persecutes Ahmadis for religious purposes. Each of these countries curb religious practice using seemingly oppositional ideologies, yet the impact is the same: to ostracize the Other. The enactment of the second constitutional amendment and Ordinance XX placed Ahmadis in a paradoxical position, rendering it impossible for them to be full citizens of a country where the legal interpretation of Sharia on right and wrong practice places them outside of the identity they claim. Furthermore, Ahmadis act as a foil for the Pakistani Muslim, whereby through speech acts, non-Ahmadi Muslims can determine their ‘Muslimness’ by foiling Ahmadis. The rigidity of Pakistan’s legislation is further compromised by the longstanding tradition of discursive dialogue and religious pluralism in Sharia interpretation since the founding of Islam. However, in the case of the Ahmadiyya, modern Sunni orthodox scholars misappropriate Sharia concepts to fit their hegemonic agendas.

YOU ARE NOT A MUSLIM: