Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Articles

A Movement Declared Non-Muslim by Statute

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Learn More
A Movement Declared Non-Muslim by Statute

The rejection of Ahmadi claims by other Muslims is a theological position held almost universally, and in one country it has been written into law.

Agitation in Pakistan in 1953 led to serious violence in Lahore and to a judicial inquiry whose report is a well known document of the country's constitutional history. In 1974 the National Assembly passed the Second Amendment to the constitution, which defines a Muslim for legal purposes and states that a person who does not believe in the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad is not a Muslim for the purposes of the constitution and the law. Ahmadis are named.

Ordinance XX of 1984 went further, making it a criminal offence for members of the community to refer to their faith as Islam, to call their places of worship mosques, to use the Islamic call to prayer, or otherwise to pose as Muslims. The Supreme Court upheld the ordinance in 1993. Ahmadis are also placed on a separate electoral roll, with the practical effect that participation requires accepting the designation.

The community itself is large and organised, present in more than two hundred countries, led by a caliph since 1908, and known for translations of the Quran into many languages, a satellite channel and a relief organisation.

The atlas records the legal position as a matter of enacted law and the theological rejection as a matter of near consensus, without adjudicating either. Both are facts about how a religious claim made in a Punjabi town in 1891 is being handled in the present, and the founder cannot be described honestly without them.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Article On

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.