I came upon an article by a Bruce Walker, at The New American web site. It was titled "Lahore, Pakistan: Muslims Killing Muslims."
I regret that article is quite misleading and using flawed "logic" to give the writer a chance to bash Islam. The writer's lack of understanding Islam is also obvious and his intellectual pretense quite exposed.
As a Pakistani Muslim, as a student leader at UET Lahore nearly 30 years ago, and now as an American citizen, I consider Ahmadis as Pakistani as me, if not more. (e.g. if they do not have dual citizenship like me).
However, even as a liberal Muslim, I am sorry to say this, but Ahmadis are not practicing Islam. That, however, does not make their citizenship of Pakistan, and right to a safe life there, any less than mine or yours.
A basic tenet of Islam is that Muhammad PBUH was the last Prophet. Ahmadis follow a man as a PROPHET who came and went without being a blip on humankind's radar.
That in itself shows that they are merely a cult that, despite their religious beliefs, has done quite well in Pakistan, and in spite of being officially designated non-Muslims. They generally fare better than Christians and Hindus in Pakistan, socially and economically.
Yes, there are shameful acts of violence against them, but sadly, not more but less than attacks against all of Pakistan in general.
Far more Sunni Muslims (and Shias) have been massacred by the evil AlQaeda and murderous stone-age Taliban than Ahmadis or Hindus or Christians combined. Writers like this article's author conveniently ignore that fact in jumping on every opportunity to malign Islam.
The Ahmadis call themselves Muslims and 4 million of them thrive in Pakistan. Though I am sure they would not be openly attacked or killed, as happened in the recent Lahore incident, I wonder how well Jews or Christians, especially in places with high concentrations of fundamentalist Christians or Jews, would accept a similar group.
Would Jews and Christians welcome a new cult announcing it was practicing Judaism or Christianity but following, say, Adolf Hitler or Stalin as their Prophet and the Messiah? Would Jews and Christians not call the cult as abhorrent to their basic religions if its basic premise was completely contrary to the most fundamental tenet of their religion?
Would they call its leader a heretic or a lunatic - or would they also fall on their knees to revere him as "the providential figure believed by Christians, Jews, and Muslims to return and foretell the end of the world, as well as being a preordained figure in Hinduism, the Bahaism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism" as the article stupidly, and disingenuously, refers to the Ahmadi cult's leader as?
Probably not!
So, remember, a terror attack that killed Ahmadis in this case, followed by an attack on a hospital that killed ordinary Pakistani Muslims indiscriminately, is a continuation of random bombing murders of Muslims in Pakistan, Iraq, and other countries.
It is an act of evil by a political-power seeking gang of zealots the CIA and the USA helped the dictator General Zia create 30 years ago, not some common form of Islam.
But, it is easy for people like Bruce Walker to sit in their cozy dens, seemingly smartly but intellectually falsely, bashing Islam - by making it sound like he's speaking for the betterment of Muslims. If only he was not ignoring the simple tragic violent fact...
It's Terrorists Killing Pakistanis; Muslims, Shias, Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis — either in random or specific attacks. AlQaeda and Taliban represent Islam as much as the Nazis exterminating Jews like rodents were representing Christianity (even though the historic fact of the Christian Church's role in that is well known).
So, those looking to bash all of Islam and all of Muslims for the actions of a few evil murderers (who kill Muslims daily!), remember, it works both ways.
AlQaeda is as representative of Islam as the Nazis were of Christianity or Hitler represented Prophet Jesus, or as the murderous blood-thristy Zionist Israelis massacring Palestinians represent Prophet Moses.
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