Faith Under Siege

Pakistan’s relentless persecution of the Ahmadiyya is a stark illustration of the state’s wanton submission to extremist groups.

Pakistan’s leaders routinely decry Islamophobia abroad, demanding protection for Muslim minorities in the West. Our neighbour’s hypocrisy is breathtaking, given that within its own borders, Pakistan presides over the relentless targeting of one of its own Islamic sects – the Ahmadiyya.

The latest chapter in this painful saga of persecution is the destruction of a 120-year-old Ahmadiyya place of worship carried out by the police, under pressure from the radical Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Five Ahmadis were detained for protesting the demolition. The authorities, when questioned, cited complaints that the building’s minarets resembled those of a traditional mosque - an offence under Pakistan’s draconian religious laws.

Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslims have long been subject to systemic repression, but recent events suggest a dangerous escalation. What was once the work of vigilantes has now been institutionalized, as law enforcement authorities have begun tearing down houses of worship with its own hands.

The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in British India in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be a divinely appointed reformer and messiah. His teachings, which diverged from mainstream Sunni and Shia interpretations of Islam, led to immediate backlash. However, under colonial rule, the British largely protected the community from violent repression. That fragile security collapsed after Partition.

In 1974, Pakistan’s Parliament, under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, officially declared Ahmadis ‘non-Muslims,’ a decision driven by a mix of political expediency and religious orthodoxy. A decade later, under the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, laws were enacted making it a criminal offense for Ahmadis to ‘pose’ as Muslims. Their crime? Using Islamic greetings, calling their places of worship ‘mosques,’ or reciting verses from the Quran in public.

The religious apartheid embedded in Pakistan’s legal framework laid the groundwork for what has followed: mob violence, targeted assassinations, desecration of graves and the demolition of Ahmadiyya religious sites carried out with impunity.

Enter Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a hardline Barelvi Islamist movement that has weaponized street power and religious extremism. Founded in 2015, TLP burst onto the scene demanding the execution of blasphemy accused and leveraging mass protests to paralyze the government. Time and again, Pakistani authorities have capitulated to its demands.

The group’s primary ideological fuel is the defence of Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws, under which minorities - Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus - live in perpetual fear of being accused, arrested or lynched. But TLP’s vendetta against Ahmadis is particularly intense. The movement’s narrative frames the Ahmadiyya faith as an existential threat to Islam, and its leaders have repeatedly called for their complete exclusion from society.

A wave of Ahmadiyya mosque demolitions last month shows how far this ideology has seeped into state institutions. In Lubbay, Sialkot district, the police detained a local Ahmadi leader and then destroyed his community’s mosque. In Pasrur, law enforcement officers stood by as a TLP-led mob razed an Ahmadi place of worship. And in Rahim Yar Khan, the authorities assured Ahmadis of their protection, only to personally demolish their mosque a day before TLP’s deadline.

The targeting of Ahmadiyyas isn’t limited to places of worship. Their graves are vandalized, their businesses boycotted, and their jobs stripped away. Just this year, 91 Ahmadiyya graves were desecrated across Pakistan. Teachers, doctors and engineers have been harassed out of their professions. In public discourse, the word “Ahmadi” is often hurled as an insult.

In the country’s electoral system, Ahmadiyyas are effectively disenfranchised. Unlike other religious minorities who vote under a joint electorate, Ahmadiyyas must register separately, declaring themselves non-Muslims in the process. Many refuse, leaving them politically invisible.

International human rights organizations have long condemned the country’s Ahmadiyya policies but Western governments, preoccupied with security cooperation, have often looked the other way. Pakistan’s refusal to protect its minorities is a major crisis of governance. The more the state succumbs to extremist demands, the more it undermines its own authority.