This is a report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It has not been produced by a Select Committee or any other Committee appointed by the House. This report was published in July 2020. Suffocation of the Faithful The persecution OF AHMADI MUSLIMS in Pakistan and the rise of international extremism Report of the APPG Inquiry into the Persecution of Ahmadi Muslims and other Religious Communities in Pakistan Acknowledgements Contributors: Evidence and commentary for this report was submitted by the following individuals and organisations: Amnesty International; APPG for Pakistan Minorities ; Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS); British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA); Dr. Irfan Malik; Eric Fripp (Barrister practicing law on freedom of religion); Human Rights Without Frontiers; Mirza Usman Ahmad (Senior Official of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan); Advocate Mujeeb- ur-Rahman (Lawyer representing the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community during the enactment of Anti-Ahmadi laws, historian and expert on blasphemy laws); Sir Iftikhar Ayaz, (Chairman of the International Human Rights Committee); Prof. Javaid Rahman (Professor of Law at Brunel University); Dr. Nazila Ghanea (Associate Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford); Marisa Rawlings (Christian Solidarity Worldwide); Shahbaz Taseer (Son of the former Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer and freedom of religion campaigner); Rubab Mehdi Rizvi (International Imam Hussain Council); Sir Mark Lyall Grant (Former National Security Advisor and UK's Ambassador to Pakistan); Fiyaz Mughal (CEO of Faith Matters); Yasser Hamdani (Pakistani Human Rights Lawyer); Ummad Farooq (Victim); John Pontifex (Aid to the Church in Need); Tony Close (Director of Content Standards, Licensing and Enforcement, OFCOM); Hena Parvaiz (Victim); Rafiq Hayat (National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK) © APPG for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK i About the APPG for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community The APPG brings together parliamentarians from all parties who are keen to support the work of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The group seeks to make all parliamentarians aware of the extensive positive work carried out by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and to speak up on issues of persecution and extremism that Ahmadi Muslims face both abroad and in the UK. It also advocates for human rights more widely, particularly on freedom of religion, to engender greater societal peace. APPG-AhmadiyyaMuslim.org.uk Chair: Siobhain McDonagh MP Vice Chairs: Members: Imran-Ahmad Khan MP Fleur Anderson MP The Lord Alton of Liverpool Jonathan Lord MP Elliot Colburn MP Sir Peter Bottomley MP Seema Malhotra MP Rt Hon Sir Edward Davey MP Ruth Cadbury MP Steve McCabe MP Tan Dhesi MP Douglas Chapman MP Rt Hon John McDonnell MP Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP Marsha de Cordova MP Ian Murray MP Sarah Jones MP Janet Daby MP Angela Richardson MP Jason McCartney MP Philip Davies MP Henry Smith MP Christina Rees MP The Rt Hon the Lord Dholakia OBE DL Rt Hon John Spellar MP Alison Thewliss MP Margaret Ferrier MP Chris Stephens MP The Lord Tope CBE Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP Graham Stringer MP Matt Western MP Kate Green MP James Sunderland MP Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP Nadia Whittome MP Secretary: Stephen Hammond MP Treasurer: Virendra Sharma MP With thanks to current and former MPs who served as APPG officers 2017-2019: Tom Brake MP Mike Gapes MP The Rt Hon the Lord Goldsmith Paul Scully MP iI Introduction by the chair As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, I am pleased to launch the report ‘Suffocation of the Faithful, The Persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan and the Rise of International Extremism.’ This report, the first of its kind, was commissioned against the backdrop of a shocking pattern of sustained persecution against Ahmadi Muslims including killings, assaults, attacks on places of worship, hate campaigns, deprivation of jobs and denial of education. This is severest in Pakistan and what is unique about the persecution of this peace-loving community is that the persecution is state-sponsored, with laws passed explicitly targeting Ahmadi Muslims. I cannot think of any parallel in the modern world for such persecution where a religious community has been denied – by law – the right to self-identify as Muslims. Not only that, the law then prescribes that should an Ahmadi call himself a Muslim or practice Islam then that is a criminal act punishable by imprisonment (and even death under the blasphemy laws). These are the draconian anti-Ahmadi laws that Pakistan has had on its statute books for nearly half a century. Such is the extent of persecution that it is no exaggeration to describe the life of an Ahmadi Muslim in Pakistan as one that faces persecution from the cradle to the grave. At every step of their lives they remain ever at risk of arrest, attack or harassment. Ahmadis have been denied their fundamental right to vote, they cannot possess their religious texts and even after death their graves are targeted and bodies exhumed. 2020 was no exception and saw a further increase in hatred and violence against the community. Notably, Pakistan’s State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Ali Muhammad Khan supported an anti-Ahmadiyya twitter campaign by calling for Ahmadis to be punished by death. This resulted in a tirade of abuse and hate speech against Ahmadi Muslims. Such proclamations feed a climate of hate and the most recent targets of this was Ramzan Bibi, a 55-year-old Ahmadi Muslim woman and Rohan Ahmed, an Imam of the community in Pakistan, both of whom have been arrested on false allegations of blasphemy. Over the past few years Ahmadi mosques have been demolished, homes and businesses set on fire, leaflets and hate speech has been rampant declaring Ahmadis ‘liable to be killed’ and Ahmadis have been subject to brutal target killings. We cannot simply let the years roll on and allow such issues to be pushed back to be dealt with at another time. This must be of pressing concern to countries like the UK that have extensive links with Pakistan, and as a friend of Pakistan surely one cannot simply ignore such brazen violation of human rights? It is time to say that enough is enough and that is why this report calls on the UK Government, and the wider international community to take immediate action to give Ahmadi Muslims, one of the most charitable and peaceful communities I know, their basic human rights. This needs concerted, consistent effort and one must only stop when the laws that deny Ahmadi Muslims their rights are expunged from the statute books. iII The report also notes how the denial of freedom of religion for Ahmadi Muslims has also led to the denial of freedom of religion of other communities such as Shia Muslims, Christians and Hindus, all of whom continue to suffer from horrific attacks and persecution by extremists. The report notes the refugee crisis with thousands of Ahmadi Muslims stranded in camps in Thailand and Malaysia for more than seven years despite being accepted by the UNHCR as refugees in need of resettlement as they have no hope to return to Pakistan. The UK must now lead by example and play their part in resettling these refugees as part of their commitment to freedom of religion. It was also worrying to see how anti-Ahmadi persecution has spread internationally in countries like Indonesia, Algeria, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and even in Bulgaria. Perhaps most worrying for the UK Government is that the report identified the ‘overspill’ of hatred against Ahmadi Muslims to the UK. From vile attacks on social media to bullying at schools to the deprivation of employment opportunities, hatred against Ahmadi Muslims has reached the streets of Britain. This culminated in the senseless murder of Asad Shah in Glasgow in 2016 by a man enthused by what he saw in Pakistan. The recommendations in this report make it unequivocally clear, that as an All-Party Parliamentary Group, we demand the ban of such hate preachers from the entering the UK and for hatred online and on social media to have no hiding place. Let me thank the victims and experts who attended our five evidence sessions in Parliament. The evidence given was truly harrowing and took great courage and strength. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, will remain committed to speaking up for the equal rights of Ahmadi Muslims to have freedom of religion, to have equal opportunities and to have their religious and civil rights protected especially in Pakistan but also wherever such intolerance and brutality raises its head, including in the UK. These are issues that must be urgently addressed by Her Majesty’s Government and we pledge to continue to do all we can to ensure they are. Your message of lasting peace: “Love for All, Hatred for None" has never been more important. Siobhain McDonagh MP Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community iv Executive Summary The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (“the Community”) is a peace-loving religious community, that has faced persecution since its inception in 1889. Its founder, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was unique in the Muslim World by virtue of his claim to be the Messiah and ‘Imam Mahdi’ who is prophesied in Islam and who held the status of a subordinate prophet to the Holy Prophet of Islam. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad stated that his mission was to revive the peaceful teachings of Islam rather than bring any new law or scripture. As a result he and his community have suffered hostility and violence and the first Ahmadi Muslim was martyred in 1901.