Ahmadis Declared Non-Muslims
Under pressure from religious parties, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's parliament amends the constitution to declare the Ahmadiyya community non-Muslim.
- The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan — Ali Usman Qasmi, Anthem Press (2014)
- Pakistan: A New History — Ian Talbot, Hurst (2012)
- State of Human Rights in 2023 — Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2024)
The Ahmadiyya movement, founded in Punjab in the 1880s by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, sees itself as Muslim, but most Muslims reject its beliefs about his prophetic status. After anti-Ahmadi riots in Lahore in 1953 and again in 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government, needing religious allies, passed the Second Amendment declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims. In 1984 General Zia’s Ordinance XX made it a crime for them to “pose” as Muslims. Ahmadis have since faced repeated violence, including attacks on two of their places of worship in Lahore in May 2010 that killed more than 80 people.
- The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan — Ali Usman Qasmi, Anthem Press (2014)
- Pakistan: A New History — Ian Talbot, Hurst (2012)
- State of Human Rights in 2023 — Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (2024)
Why it matters today
The amendment made the state the judge of who counts as a Muslim. Ahmadis today cannot call themselves Muslims or their places of worship mosques without risking prosecution, and the case of Abdus Salam, Pakistan's first Nobel laureate, whose gravestone had the word "Muslim" erased, has become a symbol of the cost.