A history of distortions
and misrepresentations
Our opponents'
old habits die hard
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Just as the spokesmen of the anti-Ahmadiyya organisations are now misrepresenting
the outcome of the Jassiem vs. Nazim and the MJC case, similarly
at the conclusion of the previous, entirely separate 1982-85 case, misleading
statements were issued to the press by the Pakistani religious and legal
advisors to the MJC. We quote below a news-report of the time from the
well-known Urdu daily Jang:
'The former head of the Pakistan Constitution Commission and the
leader of the Pakistani delegation which went to South Africa last
year in pursuance of the court case between Qadianis and the Muslim
Judicial Council there, Maulana Zafar Ahmad Ansari, has said that
no non-Muslim court has the right to give a judgment as to whether
a person is Muslim or not. He was commenting on the South African
Supreme Court judgment according to which Justice Williamson declared
Qadianis to be Muslims. Maulana Ansari said that this judge is a Jew,
and it was because of his being a Jew that the Muslim Judicial Council
boycotted the court proceedings, and had said that no non-Muslim court
had the right to decide on religious affairs of the Muslims. He said
that, by the unilateral verdict of this Jewish judge, the Qadianis
and the Ahmadis would not become Muslims. . . . He said that, in view
of the special relations of the Qadianis with Israel and the Jews,
what else could be expected from this Jewish judge except that he
would declare Qadianis to be Muslims."
(Daily Jang, London edition, 2 December 1985, front page)
At least three points of fact in the above statement
are absolutely false. (1) The party to the case against
the MJC were not "Qadianis" but Lahore Ahmadis. (2) Judge
Williamson was not a Jew; in fact, he was a Catholic. (3) The
MJC never mentioned, at the time of withdrawing from the case,
that their objection was that the judge was a Jew.
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