He gave his sweat and tears to this land of pure – and what did he get? Some religious bigot wrote “Kaafir” (English: Infidel) on his coffin. We are not short of these religious bigots whose favorite pass time is to judge and discriminate on Pakistanis on basis of their faith – but this sad incident, which killed 152 human beings was an opportunity for these religious fanatics to show their true face. The poor guy, who was born in a Hindu family and spent his life trying to work for the people of his country was given the title of “Kaafir” by someone amongst us. This particular segment of our society pounces on every opportunity to exhibit their religious fanaticism from the very beginning, when Quaid e Azam (the founder of Pakistan) was labelled as “Kaafir-e-Azam”.

Bear in mind, Pakistan was made because people of Indo-Pak subcontinent felt they were discriminated upon on the basis of their faith – The same we are doing with our minorities. -- Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi

The beginning of 2010 saw much violence directed towards Indonesia's religious minorities. On 3 January, a group called the People Communication Forum burnt down the Philadelfia Church, a house of worship for the Protestant Batak Christians in Bekasi, West Java. In a separate instance, extremist groups, such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Taliban Brigade, forcefully shut down an Ahmadiyyah mosque and community centre. – Luther Kembaren

On several occasions these last months, tens of thousands of enraged people called for her head and burned her effigies. Your country protected her against death, but no longer wishes to protect her against intimidation. Her Indian visa will expire on the 17th of August, and the highest authorities have let it be known that it will not be renewed. ... We implore you not to cede to their blackmail and to violence. Do not punish Taslima on account of their intolerance. ...

Signed: Catherine Clément, writer;

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, European deputy;

Jeanne Favret-Saada, anthropologist;

Jean-François Julliard, general secretary of Reporters Without Borders;

Bertrand Delanoë, mayor of Paris.

In UK:

Fariborz Pooya (Iranian Secular Society),

Maryam Namazie, (One Law for All),

Asad Abbas, (Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain),

Mahin Alipour, (Equal Rights Now – Organisation against Women’s Discrimination in Iran),

Mina Ahadi, (International Committee against Stoning and Execution).

The Ahmadiyas’ beliefs have brought them much suffering, especially in Pakistan, where most of them migrated after Partition. In 1974, Pakistans first prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, declared Ahmadiyat as non-Muslim. A decade later, as part of the frenzied Islamisation process, dictator Zia-ul-Haq brought out an ordinance which prevented the sect from using Islamic descriptions and titles. Thus, the Islamic greeting, the azaan or call to prayer by the Ahmadiyas became punishable and their mosques were reduced to just ibadatgahs (places of worship).

Another feature of the Ahmadiyas, unique to them, is the institution of the Khilafat or Caliphate in the contemporary world. Its pure, theological form was abolished after the assassination of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph. In modern times, Mustafa Kemal Pasha formally ended the Abbasid Caliphate, monarchical in nature, in Turkey in the 1920s. But the Ahmadiyas consider it part of the faith and fanatically root for it. Their fifth Caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmed, lives in London and commands unchallenged respect. -- Mohammad Wajihuddin

On May 20, my rickshaw puttered alongside a large rally organized by the religious party Jamaat-e-Islami. Hundreds of young male protesters moved in knots behind an overstuffed bus adorned with a banner reading: "To protect our Prophet against blasphemy, we will even sacrifice our lives!" In other times, these young men might have protested the countrywide ban on Facebook, which lasted from May 19 to 31, but last week they were marching resolutely in support of blocking the site. For them, Facebook had insulted their religion and community; for the country's leaders, the ban was political currency. Even as five bomb blasts shook Lahore and U.S. drones attacked the Federally Administered Tribal Areas last week, Pakistan's Islamist organizations pressed ahead with demonstrations against Facebook. -- Madiha R. Tahir

HELLO, and a very good morning to you. I wish I could begin by saying “may peace be on you” in Arabic but unfortunately, I’d risk being thrown into jail besides having to pay a very heavy fine. So we’ll drop that idea for now...

I won’t go into the details of what happened because you already know them by now. I’m going to tell you what you may not know. 
One, threats of violence have been being hurled at us for a very long time. Just recently Amnesty International released a report on minority issues in Pakistan and urged the government to take strict corrective action. Two, the government, whatever it may say, did not provide adequate security even though it was aware of the seriousness of the situation. Three, we — Ahmadis — are not agents of the CIA, Blackwater, Israel, RAW, Mossad or any other organisation or network. We are a religious community without any political affiliations, with no history of violence and are engaged in charity work throughout the world. Our official motto is ‘love for all, hatred for none’. -- Ahmad Mustafa

Certain Muslim countries who swear by Qur’an as their constitution also flagrantly violate Qur’anic provisions. Qur’an … says diversity is Allah’s creation and must be respected and celebrated. And this diversity includes linguistic, racial and religious and human beings, whatever religion, race or linguistic group they belong to, must be accorded equal dignity and which means all of them should enjoy equal rights.

 However, you will not find any Muslim country swearing by Qur’an as book of Allah implementing these ideals. You find discrimination on the basis of religion, even sects, language and ethnicity. You very much find discrimination for example in Saudi Arabia, against non-Arabs, against non-Wahabi Muslims and against other ethnic and racial groups. One finds discrimination in Iran against Sunni Muslims, against Arabs, against Bahais and against non-Persians.

 In Pakistan one finds discrimination against certain linguistic groups like Baluchis and Sindhis. It is dominated by the Punjabi majority. Not only that there is sectarian violence between Shi’ahs and Sunnis besides Christians and Hindus. It is Punjabi majority which rules the roast. One has yet to see any Muslim country which does not violate injunctions of the Qur’an while swearing in by it as one has yet to see any western democracy not violating injunctions of their own constitutions enshrining ideals and values of modern democracy. -- Asghar Ali Engineer

“Oh Allah, defeat the Kafirs [Christians & Jews]”

 “We have to establish Islam [in Canada]. I wanna see Islam in every single corner of the city; I would like to see niqabis, and hijabis [women wearing face masks and head covering] everywhere in the city. I want to see ‘brothers’ [Muslim men] in beards everywhere in the city. Because when they see more of us, they will have more respect for us. They will say, ‘look they are everywhere...we cannot go against them’.”

A Toronto-area imam is under fire for using derogatory language against Jews and Christians, calling for Allah to “destroy” the enemies of Islam from within and calling on God to “damn” the “infidels.” -- Charles Lewis

A person greatly admires Hazrat Maulana Rashid Gangohi, the outstanding scholar who was one of the founders of the Deoband madrasa. The gentleman to whom I refer is a kindly soul, who can be depended upon for help by others. However, when in the course of conversation I chanced to remark that the most basic virtue lay in kindness towards others, he contradicted me. Kindness, he contended, was reserved for “pious, practicing Muslims”. As for others, they should be given a chance to mend their ways, after which “they would be Wajibul Qatal”. Another person I chanced to meet — a finance man, no less — feels that people who do not attend Friday prayers “should simply be killed. Slit their throats!”

A breakaway Islamic sect's struggle to survive has become a major test of tolerance for Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country. Conservative, hardline Muslims are confronting moderates over the existence of Ahmadiyya, a 100-year-old minority sect that does not accept Mohammad as the last prophet of Islam. The Ahmadis, who have worshipped in their own mosques and communities here since 1924, believe that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, is the messiah and last true prophet of Islam. The claim has energized and enraged Indonesia's disparate Muslim hardliners, who in recent years have united in a campaign to ban Ahmadiyya, labelling its followers "heretics" and "deviants". Indonesia's mild-mannered and religiously moderate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his government are caught in the middle. In a campaign season, where conservative religious groups have electoral clout, his administration has so far managed to please neither side. A Jakarta-based freelance journalist Tom McCawley comments on the tolerance test that this is for Indonesia in an article written for Asia Times Online.