A Federal Minister and Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Mian Javed Latif has launched a fresh hate-filled campaign against the persecuted Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan, using religion to score political points, a press release by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights read.
On Wednesday September 15, Latif appeared on Pakistani State TV Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) to utter falsehoods and propaganda against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which is already under immense threat and subjected to cruelties and state persecution.
Pakistan’s media regulatory body – the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has been criticised for not sanctioning television channels from airing such hate-filled rhetoric.
The use of religion is not new in Pakistani politics but the airing of such rhetoric on mainstream state media is a serious and shocking use of state television and risks furthering an already vile hate campaign against Pakistan’s most persecuted community.
The Ahmadi Muslim Community is being used as a scapegoat to score political points and malign political opponents, without any regard for the risk of life and the hatred it spreads.
At the cost of further endangering the lives of Ahmadis in Pakistan, this level of hate speech in mainstream media and social media is shocking and inexcusable and likely to radicalise people further against innocent Ahmadis. As a result of such hate campaigns, an Ahmadi, Mr Naseer Ahmed was killed last month on August 12 by an extremist radicalised by hate-filled religious clerics, the press release read.
Another Pakistani politician, Federal Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique similarly stoked the fire of enmity against the Ahmadis Muslims. He tweeted the anti-Ahmadi trope and baseless allegation that Ahmadis were a conspiracy against Islam and a seditious group.
This format of hate speech and incitement which falsely blame the country’s ongoing instability on Ahmadi Muslims has a history of triggering violent attacks against innocent Ahmadis.
On July 13, 2021, UN human rights experts expressed their deep concern over the lack of attention to the serious human rights violations perpetrated against the Ahmadiyya community around the world and called on the international community to step up efforts to bring an end to the ongoing persecution of Ahmadis.
It urged the international community to impress upon the Government of Pakistan to honour its responsibility to provide effective protection and freedom of religious practice to Ahmadis and that perpetrators of such vicious actions should be brought to justice, to bring its laws and practices in conformity with international standards.