On September 7, 2024, leading Suni Muslim scholar Maulvi Manzoor Mengal repeatedly incited the audience to kill Ahmadis at the Khatnam-e-Nububat conference organized by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam at Minar-e-Pakistan Lahore. Maulvi Manzoor Mengal declared Ahmadi Muslims to be “apostates,” saying that “the apostate must be killed…. it is the responsibility of the government to kill him.”
The video1 and video2 of the speech in two parts shows the extremist cleric exhorting the audience, proclaiming:
1 Link to a translated & subtitled video (Part I): https://x.com/i/status/1833543560370802911
2 Link to a translated & subtitled video (Part II): https://x.com/i/status/1833543594151415875
“If the government does not kill him, then every Pathan, every Punjabi and every Sindhi will kill him.”
Thousands were gathered at the mass anti-Ahmadiyya rally openly calling for the murder of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, including religious clerics who regularly visit European countries on speaking tours. The leaders of all Muslim sects were gathered; all condoned these hate-filled and dangerous remarks against Ahmadis, even clapping and raising slogans.
The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) denounces the speech providing a “moral license to kill” Ahmadi citizens and declaring that the murder of fellow citizens based upon their faith was a religious obligation.
“The ever-escalating verbal and physical violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan is an existential threat to millions of peaceful Pakistanis, who are loyal and law-abiding citizens,” the IHRC said.
Extremist clerics in Pakistan are tarnishing the name of the country internationally by brandishing extreme blasphemy laws to persecute the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
While incitement to violence is illegal under Pakistani and international law, political and legal authorities have neglected their duties in the face of threatening hate speech against Ahmadi Muslims that has intensified among extremist clerics.
The IHRC urgently requests the international community to condemn such violent rhetoric by religious extremists in Pakistan otherwise such hate-speech will spill over to other countries. Such processions have already started in Germany and the UK.
“Silence in the face of such illegal incitement suggests that violence against Ahmadis is acceptable, morally and legally,” the IHRC said.
This incitement to violence and murder is inconsistent with international norms and values concerning freedom of religion and belief, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), on the freedom of religion, and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which was ratified by Pakistan in 2008. Three other UN human rights treaties, as well as numerous General Assembly Resolutions and Human Rights Committee comments, prohibit religious discrimination. These speeches make it to viral social media posts and videos also violate Pakistan’s own National Action Plan as well as the recently enacted cybercrime laws because it fuels hatred, discrimination and persecution against members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan.
Nonetheless, the Pakistani government authorities, who continue to bring frivolous cases against Ahmadi Muslims under anti-Ahmadiyya, blasphemy, and cybercrime laws, turn a blind eye towards systematic and country-wide efforts by Islamic extremists to fan hatred and ignite violence against Ahmadi Muslims. Instead of prosecuting the makers of these social media posts and videos under cybercrime laws and the National Action Plan, the governmental authorities continue to protect and support extremists and target innocent Ahmadis.
In July 2024, a group of top UN Human Rights experts including UN Special Rapporteurs urged an “immediate end to discrimination and violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan, citing documented evidence of “extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, attacks on places of worship and curtailment of free expression, peaceful assembly and association.” Apparently, their pleas fell on deaf ears.
We call upon the Pakistani authorities to honor their international human rights commitments to protect religious freedom and promote religious tolerance towards the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
We respectfully request all members of the international community to urge the government of Pakistan to take urgent steps to bring its laws and practices in conformity with international standards as ordained by UDHR and ICCPR.
