Where? Pakistan!

"This never happened in this town before. We think they had some news about him coming from the U.S. There is a fatwa against the institution where he was going to help; no one should go there for treatment. They chased him down after morning prayer."
Hadi Ali Chaudhary, Maple, Ontario

Peter J. Thompson/National Post    Hadi Ali Chaudhary wipes tears from his face while being consoled by friends, at the Baitul Islam Mosque in Maple after hearing that his brother Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar had been murdered in Pakistan while visiting the graves of family members at the Ahmadi Cemetery, Monday May 26, 2014.

 

Maple, Ontario, is home to the Ahmadi-Muslim-Canadian community. It is where they find peace and security, where their Ahmadiyya sect of Islam is not derided as falsely insulting to Islam and to the Prophet Mohammed, nor are they oppressed in Canada, much less considered to be heretics whose well-being is endangered by the near presence of more orthodox streams of Islam.

But in Pakistan -- where the sect decided to settle in 1947, after India which had been their home, had agreed to partition in 1946 and when Pakistan declared itself a sovereign state -- the 1.5-million Ahmadi Muslims living in the Punjab region were officially declared 'non-Muslims' in 1974. Ahmadi Muslims may not speak of themselves as Muslims, for to do so is deemed to be a criminal act.

It is not only Pakistan where the Ahmadiyya Muslims are persecuted, but in most fundamental Islamist regimes. Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan also persecute their minority sects. More recently Indonesia, the most populous of all Muslim nations which had long prided itself on its motto "Unity in diversity", has seen a rise in fundamentalism reflective of the larger global debate within Islam where what was once a radical fringe have become mainstream.

Mehdi Ali Qamar left Pakistan and came to Canada in 1991, where he studied medicine. He later received U.S. residency and moved to the United States, holding dual American/Canadian citizenship. He had latterly, on visiting with his relatives in Markham, Ontario, informed them of his intention to move back to Canada for good. But first, he embarked with his family on a trip back to Pakistan.

Mr. Qamar perhaps had become too accustomed to being treated with respect in North America. A cardiologist, he had decided to travel to the Punjab region of Pakistan for the purpose of using his expert medical professionalism to train local doctors at a heart clinic. His brother, an imam at the Baitul Islam mosque in Maple, spoke of his brother's passion revolving around humanitarian issues.

On Monday after morning prayers he went with his wife and toddler son to pay their respects at the graves of relatives. There, two men on motorbikes approached, shot Mr. Qamar in the back. When he turned after being shot to face them, they fired an additional ten rounds into his chest. After this murder, those who killed him posted a triumphant photograph of Mr. Qamar, dead, their mission accomplished

His brother, Hadi Ali Chaudhary, weeping in mourning for his brother, stated the family had migrated from Pakistan precisely because of religious persecution. Though knowing from past experience that he was returning to an atmosphere of fear and repression, Mr. Chaudhary mentioned that his brother, before embarking on his trip wasn't overly concerned.

Chenab Nagar in the Punjab is the centre of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, considered to be a relatively safe place, where the sect is least disturbed by the barbaric fanatics who target them. But it is where Mr. Qamar met his sad destiny. Nowhere is safe, as is proved time and again, from the bloody ravages of fanatical Islamists.

Earl Rinehart | Dispatch

Abdullah Ali, 16, looks at a photograph of his father, Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar, a Pickerington cardiologist who was slain by gunmen in Pakistan.