10/12/05, Letter to the Editor, printed in the USA Today

 

Dear Editor:

As an American Ahmadi Muslim who was born in Pakistan, I was saddened to read in your  newspaper about the October 7 murders of eight innocent Ahmadi Muslims in the Pakistani  village of Mong, as they sat praying in a mosque during the beginning of the Islamic holy month  of Ramadan ("8 killed, 19 wounded in Pakistan mosque shooting", 7 Oct).

It is both strange and fitting that this tragedy occurred, to the day, 47 years after the day when Pakistan's "democratic" government first lost its democratic ideals and collapsed under martial law (Oct 7, 1958).  Since that time, the Pakistani government and its policies have had a turbulent and unstable history, and religious intolerance and extremism have grown increasingly more acceptable. Now, with the recent devastating earthquakes underscoring that the land of Pakistan is itself turbulent and unstable, I hope and pray this natural disaster can at least galvanize the country into putting aside their sectarian violence in the name of the higher causes of humanity, tolerance and freedom.

Sincerely,

Dr. Arshad M. Khan