{"id":3683,"date":"2013-07-17T09:54:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3683"},"modified":"2013-07-17T09:54:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:54:46","slug":"pakistan-discriminating-against-the-ahmadis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3683","title":{"rendered":"PAKISTAN: Discriminating against the Ahmadis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.assistnews.net\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">ASSIST News<\/a>, July 12, 2013<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whom did you cast your vote for?&#8221; I asked my tailor, a hardworking man in his early forties who works in his shop in a peaceful locality in Lahore where I have been living for the last 23 years. He stared at me and replied [with anguish], &#8220;No one. Our leader told us not to, because we have no rights in the country and we are treated like animals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He caught my confusion and added, &#8220;I&#8217;m an Ahmadi. You might have heard about us?&#8221; The hurt on his face left me speechless. It was the first time he revealed his identity, confiding in me knowing well I am a Christian [and therefore also] a minority in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan is the home to the largest population of Ahmadis in the world and in 1974 became the first and only state to declare Ahmadis &#8220;non-Muslims.&#8221; In 1984 the Pakistan military dictator further issued an ordinance of imprisoning those Ahmadis calling themselves Muslims, using public prayer rooms, or using traditional Islamic greetings in public.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"http:\/\/www.assistnews.net\/Stories\/2013\/s13070067.htm\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb See also: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rferl.org\/content\/pakistan-ahmadis-persecution-violence\/24992861.html\" target=\"_blank\" shape=\"rect\">Pakistan&#8217;s Ahmadis Face Rising Persecution, Violence<\/a> (Radio Free Europe \/ Radio Liberty).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: ASSIST News, July 12, 2013 &#8220;Whom did you cast your vote for?&#8221; I asked my tailor, a hardworking man in his early forties who works in his shop in a peaceful locality in Lahore where I have been living for the last 23 years. He stared at me and replied [with anguish], &#8220;No one. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=3683\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">PAKISTAN: Discriminating against the Ahmadis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3684,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions\/3684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}