A statement severely criticizing Pakistan has been published on November 6 by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). Its commissioners are appointed by the President and by Congressional leaders of both political parties.
Pakistan is criticized by USCIRF both for the repatriation of religious minority refugees from Afghanistan to a country where they will be persecuted and for its continued persecution of Ahmadi Muslims.
“Over the last several weeks, the statement notes, Pakistani officials have called for the repatriation of ‘illegal migrants,’ including 1.7 million Afghan refugees who lack documentation. Authorities have reportedly conducted raids and established deportation centers to hold individuals who do not voluntarily return to their country of origin. We are particularly concerned that the Pakistani government may forcibly return to Afghanistan religious minorities who fled persecution.”
USCIRF notes that, “Under Taliban rule, Christians, Shi’a Muslims, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and Sikhs cannot freely practice their religious beliefs in Afghanistan.” Many of the refugees Afghanistan threatens to deport belong to the Hazara Shi’a minority, which is also discriminated in Pakistan and against which the Afghan regime is perpetrating a genocide.
In Pakistan, Ahmadi Muslims are accused of being infidels and heretics and of rejecting the Islamic doctrine that Muhammad was “the Seal of the Prophets,” meaning that no genuine prophet could appear after him. Ahmadis regard their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as “both a prophet and a follower of the Holy Prophet [Muhammad],” which is not good enough for conservative Muslims, who would not tolerate the use of the word “prophet” applied to any post-Muhammad spiritual master.
