“In Pakistan, most say Ahmadis are not Muslim”
Please see this link to the Pew Research Center, which has a report of the above title.
The report states: "Two-in-three Pakistani Muslims say Ahmadis are not Muslims, according to a Pew Research poll conducted in November 2011. Just 7% accept Ahmadis as fellow Muslims, while 26% do not offer a response or say they don’t know."
The 7% and 26% of Muslims (=33%) mentioned here gave this response to this poll. But this same 33% must have declared Ahmadis as non-Muslim when they filled in their ID card forms or passport application forms, because for any person to be recognised as a Muslim in Pakistani law he or she has necessarily to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslim. So in fact, by the very definition of a Muslim in Pakistani law, 100% of Muslims there regard Ahmadis as non-Muslim.
Considering the massive scale of the anti-Ahmadiyya propaganda in Pakistan, which is officially backed, and the ban on Ahmadis to counter it, it is actually quite heartening to know that no more than 66% of Muslims there consider Ahmadis as non-Muslim. One would expect this figure to be more than 90%.
Following the link from that page to the full poll, we find that with regard to the statement "there is only one interpretation of Islam", the majority of Muslims in many countries agree with it, and in Pakistan 72% of Muslims agree with it. This is deplorable ignorance. Even the companions of the Holy Prophet differed on various points of interpretation. The four Sunni schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali) give different rulings on, for example, punishments for various offences.
From ikram:
PEW survey is simultaneously bringing to fore the drought in a nation of moral principles to stand up against bigotry. Can a bigoted mind even recognize it’s own bigotry? To declare another person as non-Muslim is not an act of courage, but a sign of moral dearth. I wonder if any reader of Quran and follower of its true spirit will ever claim Islam solely for oneself, while calling a fellow reciter of Kalima as Kafir? The conclusions of this survey bring to mind a verse of Quran and its footnote by Maulana Muhammad Ali (ed. Dr. Zahid Aziz):
49:14. The dwellers of the desert say: “We believe”. Say: You do not believe, but say, “We submit”; and faith has not yet entered into your hearts. And if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not diminish anything of your deeds. Surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
[Footnote] Here Muslims are enjoined to deal kindly and leniently, even with those who, being novices, were not yet really grounded in the faith, though they were members of the Muslim brotherhood. Faith had not yet entered into their hearts, but they were to be regarded as Muslims. The solidarity of Islam is being shattered today by narrow-minded Mullas (clerics) who, on one pretext or another, issue fatwas of kufr against this or that party of Muslims.
I wish that after data collection from survey participants they were shown the following video and then resurveyed with a questionnaire as to whether there was any change in their original opinion about Ahmadis. The “Muslims” of Pakistan have a lot to learn the basic sense of fairness from common “Non-Muslims” of the West which can be sampled from the ABC’s program – “What Would You Do?”
http://www.upworthy.com/a-boy-makes-anti-muslim-comments-in-front-of-an-american-soldier-the-soldiers-reply-priceless?g=3
From Farah:
Well said Ikram, Jazak Allah.