Atif Mian
On Thursday, June 5th, the principal of Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, expelled every student who belonged to the Ahmadi community from the college.
A total of twenty three students, fifteen female and eight male, across the five years of medical school have been expelled as a result. Further details regarding the incident can also be found in reports from the BBC and from the Daily Times.
The Ahmadi students were “accused” of preaching their religious beliefs. The principal was pressured into expelling the entire Ahmadi student body by a mob of protesters belonging to Islami Jamiat e Talaba. The mob circled the Principal’s office and demanded the expulsions. The same day, a mob of about 300 college students also barged into Ahmadi students’ rooms, beat them and threw their luggage out of their rooms.
What makes this incident especially troubling is the fact that the decision to expel Ahmadi students was taken by a government-run medical school, under full knowledge of the relevant Punjab ministries.
As an academic, and a Pakistani, I am totally appalled by this latest incidence of religious fanaticism. One hopes that the present Punjab government turns a page, and instead of supporting the forces of extremism, comes to the protection of its ordinary citizens.
Atif Mian is Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.
The Indonesian government has announced tough restrictions on followers of the minority Ahmadiyah sect.
In the decree, the Ahmadiyah are warned they risk five years in jail if they do not stop spreading unorthodox beliefs and return to mainstream Islam.
The Indonesian constitution guarantees freedom of religion.
This latest move is widely seen as bowing to Islamic hardliners, who have stepped up a sometimes violent campaign against the nation’s 200,000 Ahmadiyah.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7443 915.stm
Not a good week for Ahmadis…. :)
Woe to those who twist the word of God to support their own political agenda! Woe to them!! Down with these extremists!!
I will request people not to make this about religion.
What was wrong in what the IJT and the Principal did was to turn an educational decision into a religious one. Let us not repeat the same mistake.
This is about students being denied the right to education. That is a crime. Lets focus on that.
And those who worry about “falsehood” being taught in universities should worry more about the bad teaching of technical subjects than these religious things. Maybe we will all be better off if we produced more and better doctors than some many neem-hakim religious fanatics.
We, the oversea living Pakistani (without anyother indentity) are worried about our country
Its sad that a country whose founder fought for the rights of minorities all his life treats its own minorities in this way!!